Ten Rings (Weapons)

For the weapons used by the Mandarin, see: Mandarin's Rings

For the organization of the same name, see: Ten Rings (Earth-616)

Ten Rings
Name	Ten Rings
Aliases	Universe Ring (乾坤圈)
Owners
Current Owner(s)	Shang-Chi
Previous Owner(s)	Nezha, Jade Emperor, Chieftain Xin, Zaran the Weapons Master, Lady Iron Fan, Razor Fist, Darkstrider, Tak, Ghost Maker, Leiko Wu, Red Cannon, The Cat
Physical Characteristics
Type	Iron Rings, Bracelets, Weapon
Origin
Origin	Magical, Xian
Reality	Earth-616, Earth-199999, Earth-51156, Earth-TRN789
Place of Creation	Ta-Lo
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Anthony Flamini, Greg Pak, Fred van Lente, Paul Cornell, Gus Vazquez, Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham
First	Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (July, 2009) (Retroactively) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 1, 2021) (First actual appearance)
First	Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (July, 2009) (Retroactively) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 1, 2021) (First actual appearance)

The Ten Rings were a set of ten mystical iron rings originating from Ta-Lo that were acquired by Shang-Chi.

History

Nezha with the Universe Ring

Long ago, prior to recorded history in the Earth realm, the Wyrm of Desolation ventured to Ta-Lo to absorb the Taoist Gods into itself. Nezha defeated the Wyrm by using his Universe Ring to seal him in a pocket dimension. Despite his defeat, the Wyrm slowly corrupted Nezha's spirit. When Nezha brought destruction to Ta-Lo under the Wyrm's influence, the Jade Emperor had Nezha killed. After Nezha's death, the Emperor shattered the Universe Ring into twelve pieces and scattered them across several dimensions to prevent the Wyrm's release. When ten of the Rings returned to Ta-Lo, the Emperor had them kept in his armory, only using them as weapons for the direst of situations. If all twelve Rings were to be reunited, the Wyrm would be released.

The Ten Rings, along with the One Hammer, Two Swords, Nine Daggers, and Three Staffs, were part of the Five Sets of Heavenly Weapons of Ta-Lo. Forged for destruction, the Jade Emperor kept the Rings in a vault away from his throne room when not in use.

The Ten Rings wielded by the Jade Emperor

Zheng Zu coveted the Rings and the other Heavenly Weapons, whose legend inspired the structure of the Five Weapons Society. Zu conspired to steal the Rings and other Weapons to bolster the Society but abandoned his plans after marrying Jiang Li and his encounter with Chieftain Xin.

When Shang-Chi and his siblings traveled to Ta Lo, the Jade Emperor used the Ten Rings to restrain the five trespassers. While imprisoned in the Jade Palace Dungeon, Zheng Zu's spirit visited Shang-Chi and attempted to goad him into taking the Ten Rings to stop his grandfather from destroying their bloodline. A Taotie Mask-empowered Xin attacked the dungeon to destroy Zheng Zu's children, prompting Shang-Chi to allow his father to lead him to the Jade Emperor's vault containing the Rings. Shang-Chi donned the Rings to save his siblings from his grandfather. When Shang-Chi tried resisting his father's influence to kill Xin, Xin was able to take six of the Ten Rings from him, which he used to defeat Shang-Chi and his siblings. When Shang-Chi and Xin fought each other at the House of the Deadly Hand, Xin took the remaining Rings from Shang-Chi, but Shang-Chi was able to reclaim them by embracing Zu's influence, allowing him to fully use their power to defeat Xin and the Qilin Riders. Before a corrupted Shang-Chi could use the Rings to maim Xin, his family was able to talk him down, which freed him from his father's influence. Shang-Chi returned the Rings back to the Jade Emperor, but a month later the Rings appeared to him again, much to Shang-Chi's surprise.

Believing they were sent by the Jade Emperor but unable to return to Ta Lo, Shang-Chi kept the Ten Rings secured in a vault at the House of the Deadly Hand. After the the battle between Shang-Chi and Xin was televised all over the world, making the Ten Rings' existence public, several criminal organizations raided the House to take the Rings. Red Dot was killed by the Rings when he attempted to remove them from their vault, forcing Shang-Chi to don them to drive away the remaining invaders.

Instead of taking Master Ling's suggestion of keeping them on his person, Shang-Chi relocated the Ten Rings to a more secure vault in the Appalachians which was guarded by several of his father's monstrous experiments. Not trusting the Society with safeguarding the Ten Rings, MI6 dispatched Leiko Wu and Clive Reston to keep Shang-Chi preoccupied with a fake rescue mission while Black Jack Tarr and his agents extracted the Rings from their new vault. The Ten Rings were taken to MI6's headquarters in London, where Tarr brought Tink to help analyze them. Inspired by the Sword in the Stone, Tink used her magic to replicate the myth but unintentionally caused the Ten Rings to merge into a single Ring that attached to a stone basin and created a portal that summoned the Wyrm of Desolation. Despite Tarr's efforts to push the Wyrm back, a Wyrmspawn attached himself to Reston and possessed him into attacking his teammates. Shang-Chi was able to remove the Ring from the stone and split it back into ten, using them to free Reston from the Wyrmspawn and send it back through a portal from one of the Rings. After Shang-Chi admonished his former friends for betraying him, he left with the Ten Rings. Tink wryly noted that Shang-Chi did pull them from the stone, much to Tarr's annoyance. The recent activity of the Ten Rings was witnessed by Jinzha and Muzha. Confused to why the Jade Emperor would bequeath the Ten Rings to Shang-Chi, whom they deemed unworthy, the brothers decided to host a Game of Rings to decide a worthy Ring Keeper.

As Shang-Chi began wearing the Rings on his person, he and nine other candidates were summoned to the Meritorious Striving Pagoda to participate in the Game of Rings. The Ten Rings were taken from Shang-Chi and distributed to each of the ten players, with Shang-Chi given back a single Ring. Jinzha and Muzha explained the rules of the tournament, revealing that the winner will be rewarded all Ten Rings.

Shang-Chi is named Ring-Keeper

After Shang-Chi won the tournament, Jiang Li and the Jade Emperor arrived at the Pagoda to congratulate him. Jiang Li revealed that she convinced the Emperor to have Jinzha and Muzha host the Game of Rings to test Shang-Chi's worthiness after the other gods wanted to strip Shang-Chi of the Ten Rings when he struggled with the burden of wielding them. The Jade Emperor revealed to Shang-Chi of a dark prophecy that foretold of a coming threat to Earth that could only be thwarted by Ring-Bearer of that realm. The Emperor had sent the Ten Rings to Shang-Chi as he deemed him to be a worthy Ring-Keeper, which Shang-Chi proved through his actions during the tournament.

During the Gang War, Captain Feng staged a failed coup against Shang-Chi, but Feng's sorcerers were able to trap the Ten Rings in a magic seal, preventing Shang-Chi from accessing them. Master Ling worked to break the charm, but warned Shang-Chi that by the time the Ten Rings would be freed, the rival gangs and heroes will come for him while he was unarmed, which Shang-Chi was unfazed by and retorted would be more fun. As Shang-Chi continued to operate during the Gang War without the Ten Rings, Ling and his sorcerers did their best to break the seal that ensorcelled them but made little progress. Despite this, Shang-Chi could still sense that they longed to return to him. During the fight between heroes and villains at the House of the Deadly Hand, Feng took advantage of the chaos to claim the Ten Rings for himself. Shang-Chi tricked Feng into having his sorcerers free the Ten Rings, which he then reclaimed and used to defeat Feng, his sorcerers and the invading villains.

Properties

The Ten Rings grant their users with a variety of powers, including superhuman strength, durability, speed, stamina and flight. The Rings themselves are strong enough to break through hard structures such as stone and most metals, including those empowered by magic.

The Rings can be controlled telekinetically in a variety of different ways by their users, including being fired as projectiles, restraining opponents or be used for transportation. The Rings can alter their size to accommodate the user's wrists or be used to restrain opponents.

Shang-Chi and Chieftain Xin using the Ten Rings with their respective colors

The color of the aura projected by the Ten Rings varies with the user, with the Jade Emperor's being green, Shang-Chi's originally gold and later orange-red, and Chieftain Xin's being purple.. The Rings aura can be fired as energy blasts.

According to the Jade Emperor, ordinary mortals are unable to wield the Rings without dying, surmising that Shang-Chi's Ta Lo ancestry allows him to wield their power.

When Shang-Chi fully embraced the power of the Ten Rings, he underwent a brief transformation that gave him the appearance and personality of Zheng Zu. However, after Shang-Chi was able to overcome his father's influence, he was still able to fully control the Ten Rings and retained their unleashed power.

The Ten Rings appear to be sentient and will allow themselves to be wielded by whomever they deem powerful enough to use them, such as when they abandoned Shang-Chi for Xin when Shang-Chi resisted their power. After Shang-Chi returned the Rings to the Jade Emperor, they left their vault in Ta Lo to return back to Shang-Chi at the House of the Deadly Hand in New York City. If attempted to be worn by someone with undesirable traits, the Ten Rings will seriously injure or even kill the attempted user. However, Black Jack Tarr was able to grab the Rings without harm or succumbing to their influence although he possessed no desire to use them.

While being tampered with magic cast by Tink, the Ten Rings were discovered to have the ability to merge into a single ring or separate back into ten and create portals. It was later revealed that the Ten Rings were originally a set of twelve created from the Universe Ring, the signature weapon of the god Nezha, which had been separated by the Jade Emperor to prevent the release of the Wyrm of Desolation, which Nezha had sealed within the Universe Ring but corrupted his spirit. If all twelve pieces are to be reunited, the Wyrm will be released.

The power of the Ten Rings can also be used to empower weapons, increasing their power and destructibility. Much like the Rings themselves, weapons empowered by the Ten Rings can also be telepathically controlled by their user.

The Ten Rings also magnify striking and attack power by projecting energized manifestations of select body parts or weapons sent through the circlet openings, causing the users attacks to appear either as enlarged solid constructs or physically multiplied duplicates, imitating and replicating or augmenting whatever is sent through the Rings as they come out the other side.

The Ten Rings can teleport its user and others by surrounding themselves around their intended subjects and generating a mystical energy field, allowing their user to teleport anywhere of their choosing with the Rings.

Alternate Reality Versions

Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-199999)

At some point in the past, Xu Wenwu found the Ten Rings, which would grant their user immortality and great power; including enhanced strength, emission of concussive energy blasts, and telekinetic use of the rings as projectiles. After wearing the rings for over a thousand years, Wenwu bequeathed rings to his son, Xu Shang-Chi, to save him from the Dweller-in-Darkness at the cost of his own life.

Earth-TRN1092

At some point in the past, Xu Wenwu found the Ten Rings, which would grant their user immortality and great power; including enhanced strength, emission of concussive energy blasts, and telekinetic use of the rings as projectiles

===Unknown Reality===

Trivia

• Gene Luen Yang based the Ten Rings off the Ten Rings from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which in turn were loosely based off the Mandarin's Rings. The Ten Rings from the MCU were changed from rings worn on the fingers with elemental powers to bracelets worn on the wrists to avoid comparisons with the Infinity Gauntlet, while also taking inspiration from the iron rings from the 1978 movie The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

First appearance of Nezha & the Universe Ring in Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (July, 2009)

• Nezha's Universe Ring first appeared in Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (July 22, 2009), but was not retconned to be the Ten Rings until Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings #5 (November 16, 2022).
• In real life, iron rings are not weapons, but used to train muscles, bones, arms and fists.

See Also

• 35 appearance(s) of Ten Rings (Weapons)
• 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Ten Rings (Weapons)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Ten Rings (Weapons)
• 2 mention(s) of Ten Rings (Weapons)
• 52 image(s) of Ten Rings (Weapons)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Ten Rings (Weapons)

Links and References

• Ten Rings (Weapons) on

• Ten Rings (Weapons) on the

• Ten Rings at Comicvine.com