Chinese origin of playing cards
Encyclopedia
Chinese Origin of Playing Cards is an article on the origin of playing cards written by H.B.M General-Consul in China
and Korea
Sir William Henry Wilkinson
, and published in the American Anthropologist magazine by the American Anthropological Association under the auspices of the American Anthropological Society of Washington in 1895. It is still considered one of the most important contributions on the study of playing cards by some of the most authoritative researchers in the field, like David Parlett
, John McLeod and Michael Dummett
.
Ancient Chinese "money cards" have three and four "suits": coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2-9 in the first three suits and numerals 1-9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests in his article that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes that they were played for. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles
, and dominoes alike, most probably evolved from those earliest playing cards. Even today some of the packs used in China have suits of coins and strings of coins - which Mahjong
players know as circles and bamboos - for the Chinese word p'ai is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles, although references to cards under the name of p'ai are rare in the encyclopedias.
Now, in the kun p'ai game, of which "Khanhoo
" is a faithful copy, the suits are coordinate to one another; no one suit is superior to any other. There is, indeed, no reason why any suit should be superior or any card as the game is now played, for the cards do not take one another, but serve, as in poker or commerce, to form certain combinations.
exhibited at the World's Fair in 1894. Of the descriptions heretofore given of this class of cards, that by Chatto is the most accurate.
Early European packs contained emblematic cards. In the first games known, the cards were used much as in Commerce
or Poker
now - to form flushes, sequences, or triplets, so that when we turn to the kun p'ai pack we find that the leading principle of the games played with them is the same as that in the old Italian Frusso or Primero
, while at the same time, like the Tarocchi, the kun p'ai packs usually include a number of emblematic cards curiously suggestive of the naitis.
The Chinese dictionary "Ching-tsze-tung", compiled by Eul Koung and first published AD 1678, declares that the cards known as Teen tsze pae were invented in the reign of S'eun-ho in 1120, and that they began to be common in the reign of Kaou-Tsung, who ascended the throne in 1130. According to tradition, they were devised for the amusement of S'eun-ho's numerous concubines.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
Sir William Henry Wilkinson
William Henry Wilkinson
Sir William Henry Wilkinson was a British Sinologist who served as Consul-General for H.B.M in China and Korea...
, and published in the American Anthropologist magazine by the American Anthropological Association under the auspices of the American Anthropological Society of Washington in 1895. It is still considered one of the most important contributions on the study of playing cards by some of the most authoritative researchers in the field, like David Parlett
David Parlett
David Parlett is a games scholar from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. His published works include many popular books on games and the more academic volumes "Oxford Guide to Card Games" and "Oxford History of Board Games", both now out of print...
, John McLeod and Michael Dummett
Michael Dummett
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA D.Litt is a British philosopher. He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford...
.
The article
The article focuses on the proposition that once paper money was invented, the symbols and numeric values were put together to form a primitive ancestor to modern cards, and were blindly copied by travelers who understood little or absolutely nothing of the complete significance of the symbols. The principal evidence for this is that the money and sword suits resemble those of European cards.Ancient Chinese "money cards" have three and four "suits": coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2-9 in the first three suits and numerals 1-9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests in his article that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes that they were played for. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles
Mahjong tiles
Mahjong tiles are tiles of Chinese origin that are used to play many games, most notably Mahjong and Mahjong solitaire. Although they are most commonly tiles, they may also refer to playing cards with similar contents as well.- Construction :Traditionally, Mahjong tiles were made of bone, often...
, and dominoes alike, most probably evolved from those earliest playing cards. Even today some of the packs used in China have suits of coins and strings of coins - which Mahjong
Mahjong
Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...
players know as circles and bamboos - for the Chinese word p'ai is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles, although references to cards under the name of p'ai are rare in the encyclopedias.
Now, in the kun p'ai game, of which "Khanhoo
Khanhoo
Khanhoo is a non-partnership Chinese card game of draw-and-discard structure adapted to the western taste by the British Sinologist and Consul-General in China and Korea in the mid 1890's, Sir William Henry Wilkinson...
" is a faithful copy, the suits are coordinate to one another; no one suit is superior to any other. There is, indeed, no reason why any suit should be superior or any card as the game is now played, for the cards do not take one another, but serve, as in poker or commerce, to form certain combinations.
Chinese packs
Of all the Chinese varieties of playing card packs, no one is so uniformly distributed or so universally popular as that described by William Andrew Chatto under the style of Tseen-wan che-pae. Perfect specimens, obtained from Peking, Tientsin, Chungking, Kiukiang, Shansi, Honan, Wenchow, Canton, and other parts of China, appeared as Nos. 1 to 17 in a collection of Chinese cards which Stewart CulinStewart Culin
Stewart Culin was an ethnographer and author interested in games, art and dress. He believed that similarity in gaming demonstrated similarity and contact among cultures across the world.-Early life:...
exhibited at the World's Fair in 1894. Of the descriptions heretofore given of this class of cards, that by Chatto is the most accurate.
European similarities
Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the 1370s, probably in Italy or Spain and certainly as imports or possessions of merchants from the Islamic Mamlūk dynasty centred in Egypt. Like their originals, the first European cards were hand-painted, making them luxury goods for the rich. The coincidences between the first European packs and the Chinese kun p'ai are too numerous to be accidental. The earliest suit-marks in Europe, those of Italy and Spain, were spade (espadas), "swords"; coppe (copas), "cups"; denari (oros), "money"; and bastone (bastos), "clubs". Spanish packs had no 10-spot. The first court cards were the King, Cavalier, and Servant - rey, caballo, sota.Early European packs contained emblematic cards. In the first games known, the cards were used much as in Commerce
Commerce (card game)
Commerce is a 19th century gambling French card game akin to Thirty-one and perhaps ancestral to Whisk Poker and Bastard Brag. It aggregates a variety of games with the same game mechanics. Trade and Barter, the English equivalent, has the same combinations, but a different way of acquiring them...
or Poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
now - to form flushes, sequences, or triplets, so that when we turn to the kun p'ai pack we find that the leading principle of the games played with them is the same as that in the old Italian Frusso or Primero
Primero
Primero, Prime, Primus, Primiera, Primavista, often referred to as “Poker’s mother”, as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker, is a 16th century gambling card game of which the earliest reference dates back to 1526...
, while at the same time, like the Tarocchi, the kun p'ai packs usually include a number of emblematic cards curiously suggestive of the naitis.
Trivia
The earliest reference to playing cards or dominoes — in China there is no clear-cut dividing line between cards and dominoes because the same word designates both — occurs in Chinese literature of the 10th century, but with no indication of their markings or the games which they were created for.The Chinese dictionary "Ching-tsze-tung", compiled by Eul Koung and first published AD 1678, declares that the cards known as Teen tsze pae were invented in the reign of S'eun-ho in 1120, and that they began to be common in the reign of Kaou-Tsung, who ascended the throne in 1130. According to tradition, they were devised for the amusement of S'eun-ho's numerous concubines.
Literature
- The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention, Robert Temple - Prion 1998 ISBN 1853752924
- Playing cards, Roger Tilley - Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. 1973 ISBN 0706400496
- Playing cards and their story, George Beal - David & Charles PLC. 1975 ISBN 978-0715368763
- The game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City, Michael Dummett - U.S. Games Systems, Inc. 1980 ISBN 978-0715610145
External links
- Chinese Origin Of Playing Cards archived at the Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games
- Chinese Playing Cards World of Playing Cards Website