Chi-Yu is a fish-like Pokémon. It is composed of two pairs of curved jade beads, once believed to be sacred and commonly worn for religious rituals. Each of these pairs of beads circle a black orb coated by white around the sides; together, they make up the eyes of Chi-Yu, while the rest of its fish-shaped body is formed by a dark red and yellow flame. Its eyes and beads sometimes glow red and yellow when it attacks.
Like the other treasures of ruin, Chi-Yu's true form is the beads forming its eyes, having been given life by the envy of those who desired them enough to start wars over them — while its body is a form it has constructed using its control over fire. Chi-Yu's flames burn at over 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius), allowing it to melt rock and sand into lava that it can swim through. It is known as the "Beads of Ruin".
Chi-Yu may be modeled after members of the Cyprinidae family, specifically the goldfish. The beads around its eyes make it particularly similar to the telescope eye and celestial eye breeds. The curved beads by its eyes are based on the magatama, comma-shaped beads made of jade that served as ceremonial and religious objects. The coloration and location of the beads, together with Chi-Yu being born from envy, may invoke the idea of the "green-eyed monster", a phrase coined in William Shakespeare's Othello to refer to jealousy.
Chi-Yu and the other treasures of ruin may be based on the Four Perils of Chinese mythology. Specifically, Chi-Yu may be based on 混沌 Hùndùn, an embodiment of chaos depicted as an oval creature with only limbs and no face — akin to Chi-Yu's body without its beads — and said to be "scarlet like cinnabar fire" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It is also described as living in a permanent state of confusion, similar to the stereotypical image of a goldfish. Another inspiration may be Gun, whose name literally means "big fish" and who was compared to one of the Four Perils in the Book of Documents.
Name origin
Chi-Yu may be a combination of ��魚 / 鲫鱼 jìyú (Chinese for crucian carp, from which goldfish are domesticated) and 玉 yù (Chinese for jade). The name is formatted in Wade–Giles, a romanization system used in the Anglosphere for most of the 20th century.
Yiyui may be a combination of 魚 / 鱼 yú (Chinese for fish) and 玉 yù (Chinese for jade). Both /i/ and /ui/ are common approximates of the close front rounded vowel (represented as -ü- or yu- in pinyin, pronounced like French u or German ü) in languages where the vowel is not present.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.