Cleveland Museum of Art

Scepter in the Shape of a Ruyi Fungus

Date

1700s

Medium

carved boxwood

Culture

China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The ruyi scepter was among the decorative items collected by the Chinese literati. It was thought that lofty and refined men of ancient times—the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove of the late 200s CE—carried ruyi scepters during the so-called pure conversations of the Daoists. The name ruyi (literally, as one wishes) conveys blessings of wish fulfillment. The fungus-shaped head is an emblem of immortality. Boxwood is a small, slow-growing evergreen tree found in Southeast China and as far as Europe.

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