AN INSCRIBED BOXWOOD RUYI SCEPTERPROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERSAN INSCRIBED BOXWOOD RUYI SCEPTERThe sinuous openwork shaft modeled as branching lingzhi stems twisting around one another and sprouting small heads, the longest stems blooming into large ruyi-form heads at one end, the reverse of two stems carefully incised with a poetic inscription, the wood patinated a warm brown hue. 10 3/4in (27.3cm) long黃楊木雕如意Provenance:Leslie Hindman, Chicago The poetic inscription and its translation are as follows:靜煙臨碧樹，殘雪背晴樓。冷天侵極戍，寒月帶行舟。Still mist cast over trees,The snow melting on the pavilion under sunlight.Yet the cold air sweeps the frontier fortress,The boat moving under the cold moonlight.The author is the Tang dynasty poet, Lu Guimeng. This poem is composed in palindrome form, presenting the same aesthetic and rhythmic meaning when read forward or backward. The third character in the last line dai (帶) is a departure from the original poem; Li Guimeng's version uses the character dui (對). The poem is followed by an incised seal reading Xiaoshan（小山).