Exceptionally Carved Chinese Zitan Wood Ruyi Scepter. Immaculate Ginormous Chinese Burled Boxwood Carved Ruyi Scepter. Wooden scepter decorated with elaborate carvings of vines, leaves, and animals hidden throughout, stunning burled details, with a detachable carved base in a different wood. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 42 x 10 1/2 x 10 in. 

#3612 . 

A ruyi (Chinese for “as [you] wish”) is a Chinese curved decorative object that serves as either a ceremonial scepter in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore. The ruyi image frequently appears as a motif in Asian art, and traditionally has a long S-shaped handle and a head fashioned like a fist, cloud, or lingzhi mushroom. Ruyi can be constructed from many materials, and the Palace Museum in Beijing has nearly 3,000 ruyi variously made of gold, silver, iron, bamboo, wood, ivory, coral, rhinoceros horn, lacquer, crystal, jade, and precious gems. In Chinese art, ruyi scepters often appear as attributes of Buddhist saints and Daoist xian. The early ruyi was common in Buddhist sculpture and painting from the late Six Dynasties (220-589) through the Tang Dynasty (618-906). It was a slender stick, varying from about 15 to 24 inches, which widened and curved slightly at one end. The modern ruyi, which first appeared in the art of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), has two forms. The first type shows minor elaborations upon the basic slender-handled structure of the early ruyi, but the slight curve at the top was exaggerated into a decorative ornament, a medallion-like form, frequently a stylized fungus. The second type of contemporary ruyi shows a radical change, in addition to the decorated end, two other smaller inlaid plaques or medallions, with one at the middle of the handle and the other at the base. Today, popular versions use natural wood and extremely detailed shapes to embellish the ruyi to an enormous amount, with one piece carved in 2010 measuring over 10 feet long and depicting important moments from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Commensurate with age.