Please have a look at what the character is holding. (about ancient times)

This thing is the signboard of a hawker or travel agency, which is often called "tiger support". Baidu Encyclopedia explained: Legend has it that Sun Simiao, the drug king, was suddenly stopped by a tiger on his way to collect medicine in the mountains. The tiger is ahead and can't escape. The medicine king carries a long pole for collecting medicine with him, but it is not easy to deal with tigers with this clumsy pole. He was at a loss and just stared at the tiger in fear. Strangely, the tiger didn't pounce on him. Instead, he squatted on the ground with his mouth open. He looked at the drug king with sad eyes and kept shaking his head gently. Stunned by what he saw, he slowly approached the monster. He saw a huge animal bone stuck deep in the tiger's throat. The kind drug king wants to help him and take out the bones for him, but he is worried that if the animal suddenly shuts up because of pain, his arm will be bitten off. Just then, he remembered a copper ring on the pole. He took it off and put it in the tiger's mouth to open his mouth, so that he didn't have to worry about his own safety. He put his hand through the center of the copper ring, reached into the mouth of the blood basin, quickly pulled out the bone and quickly applied ointment to the wound. When the drug king took the bronze ring out of the tiger's mouth, the tiger kept nodding, as if thanking the kind doctor. Since then, the copper ring has been transformed into a hand-cranked rattle, which has become a symbol of herb picking. Doctors always take them with them when they go out to collect medicines to show that they are disciples of the King of Medicine. Only the King of Medicine can treat tigers and will not be attacked by tigers. In order to show that he also has the medical skill of the famous doctor Sun Simiao, the roving doctor still holds such an iron ring in his hand as a sign of practicing medicine, and named it Tiger Support.