Ruyi Jingu Bang

**Ruyi Jingu Bang** (如意金箍棒, *Rúyì jīngū bàng*?, lit. Ruyi Gold-Banded Staff), or simply **Jingu Bang**, is the poetic name of a magical staff wielded by Sun Wukong.

## Appearance

The staff is initially described as a pillar of black iron, twenty feet in height and the width of a barrel. After shrinking to the size Wukong mainly uses when wielding, it is only a little taller than him, and as thick as a rice bowl. The weapon is banded with a gold ring at each of its ends. An inscription runs along its body, denoting its name as the "Compliant Golden-Hooped Staff" and its weight as "thirteen thousand five hundred catties", which is approximately 7,960 kg (17,550 lbs). Due to its huge size and monstrously heavy weight, few beings besides Wukong are able to even lift the staff.

## Capabilities

The inscription indicates that the staff follows the commands of its owner, shrinking or growing to his whim, and make copies of itself.

* **Size and weight manipulation** – This is the weapon’s most well-known ability, growing as big or as small as Monkey wishes.It can reach incredible lengths, as it was able to reach all the way from the moon to the earth which is 384,403 km (238,900 miles) long. On command the staff can also become lighter or heavier. Either of which is the norm for Wukong. By making it heavy by many people's standards, it was able to create cracks in the ground that reverberated up a gigantic hole up to its surface by just placing it onto the floor. Making it lighter vastly increases movement speed.
* **Multiplication**: The staff can even make multiple copies of itself along with Wukong's own copy, in the hundreds of thousands. However, the duplicate staffs is slightly weak. The weapon is shown capable of creating manifold copies of itself. For example, Monkey multiplies his staff to accommodate his monstrous, multi-armed form while fighting Nezha. Later, he rains staves down on a demonic army.
* **Durability**: The staff is incredibly durable, with few if any attacks able to break the staff and even when it is broken it can regenerate.
* **Lock-Picking**: Wukong can open any locked door just by pointing the staff at it, the locks will fall down with a loud pop and the doors immediately spring open.
* **Transformation**: He can change it into any tool. During a competition of Buddhist and Daoist prognostication, Wukong changed his staff into a sharp razor and shaved a Daoist lad’s hair. Later, Wukong turns the staff into a drill in order to escape from a pair of magic cymbals, using the tool to bore a hole in the horn of a dragon that was just able to pierce the seam.
* **Sentience**: The weapon glows in anticipation of Monkey’s arrival, responds to his touch, and follows his commands, denoting a certain level of sentience. As the staff had been glowing with a strange and lovely light days prior, the weapon is implied to be aware of its new master’s imminent arrival. The staff also has a desire for flight, which could be read as a metaphor for yearning to be released from the dragon treasury and/or a call for adventure.
* **Controlling the oceans**: The staff was the measure with which Yu the Great fixed the depths of rivers and oceans when he conquered the Flood.
* **Astral entanglement**: Monkey’s soul is able to use the staff in the Underworld even when the physical weapon is back with his body in the world of the living. His ability to use the weapon as a disembodied spirit implies that it has some power of astral projection and entanglement. However, besides this instance of usage in the Underworld, he can’t use the weapon in any other times if it is physically taken away from him.

## History

The pillar was created by Tai Shang Lao Jun (太上老君, *Tài Shàng Lǎo Jūn*?). Upon creation, this artefact was known as Tian He Ding Di Shen Zhu Tie (天河定底神珍铁 tiān hé dìng dǐ shén zhēn tiě) – which roughly translates to “precious heavenly metal to touch the bottom of the River Tian He.” Tai Shang Lao Jun used it to measure the depth of the River Tian He. Since it could change size at will, it proved a very useful measuring device.

## Synopsis

When Wukong goes to the underwater kingdom of Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, looking for a magic weapon to match his strength and skill, all of the traditional magic weapons—swords, spears, and halberds weighing thousands of pounds each fail to meet his standards. The Dragon Queen suggests to her husband that they give Wukong a useless iron pillar taking up space in their treasury. He claims that the ancient shaft had started producing heavenly light days prior and suggests that the monkey is fated to own it.

When Wukong lifts the huge pillar and suggests that a smaller size would be more manageable, the staff complies with his wishes and shrinks. When not in use, Wukong shrinks it down to the size of a needle and keeps it tucked behind his ear.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 3
2. ↑ Chapter 4
3. ↑ Chapter 50
4. ↑ Chapter 25
5. ↑ Chapter 46
6. ↑ Chapter 65
7. ↑ Chapter 75