76 | Boxwood ruyi sceptre 18th century Length: 39.5 cm | 15 1/2 in Click image for full-size version Carved from one piece of wood, the shaft twists and undulates up to the large gnarled lingzhi head that crowns the top of the sceptre. Further lingzhis decorate the middle and bottom of the shaft, and vine-like tendrils entwine the length of the sceptre, with smaller sprouting buds. The carving is executed with great realism and attention to detail – creating a lively organic work of art, in keeping with the scholar’s taste of the time. The latter credentials are further enhanced with poems and seal marks – carved onto every available plain surface. The longest inscription is a poem: ‘Preface to a Spring Evening Gathering at the Peach and Plum Garden’ – ‘Chunye yan taoliyuan xu’, by a Tang poet, Li Bo (or Li Taibo) who is often depicted as a drunk. It was written to introduce a series of poems composed during a spring evening; Li Bo and his cousins challenged one another to write an excellent poem – but if anyone failed, they had to drink more wine! This scene is illustrated in a famous painting by Qiu Ying (1494 – 1552) in the Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, Japan. Two more poems are carved into the sceptre – along with another short inscription, and three seal marks; one of these seals, ‘Jiyang’, is translated as meaning ‘auspicious’.