Look closely at the head of a ruyi scepter. The curling shape at the top could be a heart, a cloud or a sprig of longevity fungus, and it doesn't pick just one. Its name means "as you wish." That small, rounded cloud also turns up on a bride's collar and on a porcelain flask, and in 2008 lucky clouds covered the top of an Olympic torch.
What You See
Start with the scepter. A ruyi usually has a long S-shaped handle that ends in a head shaped like a heart, a cloud or a longevity fungus. In the Ming period many were carved from wood to look like the lingzhi ("fungus of longevity") itself, knobby and organic.
Now lift that head off the scepter and let it float. LACMA holds a square 17th-century Qing celadon plate whose title names its decoration: molded ruyi-shaped clouds. The cloud no longer needs the scepter. It is an ornament in its own right.
The boldest version wraps around the neck. A yunjian ("cloud collar") has a circle at the center and four identical panels, each shaped like a ruyi cloud. The V&A's late Qing collar fits the nickname exactly: every panel takes the ruyi outline. Lay the collar flat and it looks like a four-lobed cloud blooming around an opening.
Once you know the outline, it turns up in other places: on the neck of a blue-and-white vase, inside a bowl, along the back of a couch.
What is xiangyun?
Xiangyun means "auspicious clouds," a cloud motif in Chinese painting, textiles, furniture and architecture that LACMA's curators trace as far back as the Shang dynasty. One of its forms is the ruyi cloud, the lobed shape that also tops the ruyi scepter, whose name means "as you wish." It still appears today, from cloud collars worn with hanfu (traditional Han-style clothing) to the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch.
The One Thing to Know
The ruyi cloud is a wish you can see.
The term ruyi signifies "as you wish," and a ruyi was often given as a gift to convey good wishes, as the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore notes. Its head also resembles the lingzhi fungus, a symbol of longevity, and the museum calls the ruyi a symbol for granting wishes. A news report on a Palace Museum ruyi exhibition reaches back further: the scepter, it says, began as a back scratcher, then became a popular ornament of good fortune in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The cloud brings its own meaning to the shape. In Chinese culture, clouds, especially five-colored clouds, are believed to be an auspicious harbinger and are tied to Heaven, happiness and prosperity, LACMA's curators note. The same note adds a quieter reading: in Buddhism, clouds can stand for the passing nature of existence.
Put a cloud and a wish in one outline and the ornament starts to talk. On the Seattle scepter, auspicious clouds share the surface with bats, a pairing the museum describes as conferring blessings. So when you meet a ruyi cloud on a plate or a collar, the shape isn't filler. It is a good wish, drawn in a single curling line.
How It Traveled
The cloud's story runs through a series of separate stops. Each one is documented on its own; the sources here don't join them into a single chain, so read them as places where the cloud shows up, not links in a relay.
Han dynasty China, 2nd century BCE. LACMA's curators trace auspicious clouds in Chinese art as far back as the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BCE), but this is the first stop with an object in front of you. On a Western Han lacquer bowl from the 2nd century BCE at the Met, dramatic swirling lines interlace with small curls. The Met calls this yunqi ("cloud energy"), a design pervasive in the Western Han and understood to stand for a numinous realm inhabited by immortals. A black lacquer box at LACMA carries scrolling clouds alongside supernatural creatures. No source here traces these swirls turning into the later ruyi outline.
Dunhuang, 7th century. According to a Wellcome Collection essay, the earliest cloud collar can be seen in cave paintings of buddhas at Dunhuang.
Yuan China, 1271 to 1368. By the Yuan dynasty, the same essay says, cloud collars had become part of official dress for both women and men. Cloud collars appear on porcelain of the period too. A Jingdezhen flask at the V&A, made between 1300 and 1368, carries dragons and cloud collars painted in a blue derived from cobalt. (For the full blue-and-white story, see the blue-and-white porcelain story.)
Ilkhanid Iran, around 1300. After the Mongol conquest, new motifs entered the repertoire of artists in Iran, among them lotuses, peonies, dragons, phoenixes and cloud bands. Paper and textiles let those designs move readily from one medium to another. A page from the Manafi' al-hayawan, made in Iran around 1300, shows two eagles beside a little Chinese cloud band, derived from Far Eastern art. Notice what made the trip: the ribbon-like cloud band. The sources don't say the ruyi head went with it.
Safavid Iran, 16th century. By now the cloud band had settled in. Safavid bookbindings make great use of ribbon-like Chinese cloud bands, "by now thoroughly assimilated into Persian art," in the Met's words.
Ottoman Iznik, around 1510. On a dish probably made in Iznik, slender looped motifs at the center come from depictions of clouds in Chinese art, a feature typical of early 16th-century Iznik pottery. Later Ottoman tiles, from about 1550 to 1600, combine Chinese cloud bands with other motifs in a purely ornamental way.
Ming and Qing China. In China, meanwhile, the cloud kept working. A 16th-century Ming sutra cover at the Met is titled for its clouds and auspicious symbols, woven in silk and metallic thread. In the Qing dynasty, according to the Wellcome essay, the cloud collar became an important part of a bride's wedding dress, and a bride would make her own. The V&A's collar from 1875 to 1911 was likely worn for a formal occasion, possibly a wedding.
Why It's Still Alive
In 2008, clouds went up the Olympic torch. For the Beijing Games, a carved, etched pattern of lucky clouds covered the upper part of the torch, and both ends took the shape of a cloud. The Olympic record describes the torch's overall shape as recalling a parchment scroll.
The cloud collar has had a second life too. The Wellcome essay notes that it has recently become a fashionable accessory for some young people in China, and that followers of hanfu (traditional Han-style clothing) were the first to wear cloud collars in 21st-century daily life. A shape once sewn by a bride for her own wedding is now something you might see on a street, worn by choice.
That is the quiet strength of the ruyi cloud. It doesn't need a dragon or a palace to make sense. A single lobed outline is enough to say "as you wish."
Your Pattern
Next time you spot a curling, lobed cloud on a collar or a plate, or lucky clouds etched on a torch, you'll know they carry a wish.
If the blues in this story have caught your eye, Flowbam's Chinese Cloud Canvas Tote and Chinese Cloud Weekender Bag are, despite the name, a different design: rolling waves and white foam in indigo and sky blue, with no ruyi clouds. They bring that blue-and-white mood into everyday carry.
To see clouds from another angle, read the Chinese dragon story, find a sibling porcelain motif in prunus on cracked ice, or start with What Is Chinoiserie?