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Ancient Board Game Found in Looted China Tomb

40 points by prismatic 11y ago

richard_mcp 11y ago
Wikipedia quotes the rules from a book written between 265 and 420 AD: Method of play: Two people sit facing each other over a board, and the board is divided into twelve paths, with two ends, and an area called the "water" in the middle. Twelve game pieces are used, which according to the ancient rules are six white and six black. There are also two "fish" pieces, which are placed in the water. The throwing of the dice is done with a jade. The two players take turns to throw the dice and move their pieces. When a piece has been moved to a certain place it is stood up on end, and called an "owl (梟or驍) ". Thereupon it can enter the water and eat a fish, which is also called "pulling a fish". Every time a player pulls a fish he gets two tokens, and if he pulls two fish in a row he gets three tokens [for the second fish]. If a player has already pulled two fish but does not win it is called double-pulling a pair of fish. When one player wins six tokens the game is won. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo
aurelianito 11y ago
I was expecting a goban (aka, go board)
IndianAstronaut 11y ago
After watching the 3 Kingdoms series, one thing that strikes me is that these board games probably had huge significance back then as compared to today. Empires were made or broken based on effective military strategies. Those who could strategize on the board would win in the field.
guai898 11y ago
There is more detail description and photo of games pieces recovered from other tombs in the Chinese Wiki: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E5%8D%9A https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E5%8D%9A
contingencies 11y ago
Should be marked (2004)
xerophyte12932 11y ago
> Twelve faces of the die are numbered 1 through 6 in a form of ancient Chinese writing known as "seal script." Each number appears twice on the die while two faces were left blank, the researchers noted. if numbers 1 through 6 each appear twice on a twelve sided die, how do they leave two faces blank?
- xerophyte12932 11y ago
  From wikipedia: > 1 eighteen-sided die with the numbers "1" through "16" and characters meaning "win" and "lose" [not listed in the inventory]
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- phaemon 11y ago
  From the article: "Archaeologists think this 14-face die was used to play a game called "bo" that hasn't been played in 1,500 years."
- rlpb 11y ago
  Nothing in the text you quoted says that it is a twelve sided die, only that twelve faces of the die are numbered. That part of the statement doesn't tell you how many faces there are in total.
holografix 11y ago
Is it Cyvasse?
JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Cool! But bugged me throughout that while only one die was found, it was called a 'dice' repeatedly.

40 points by prismatic 11y ago

Wikipedia quotes the rules from a book written between 265 and 420 AD: Method of play: Two people sit facing each other over a board, and the board is divided into twelve paths, with two ends, and an area called the "water" in the middle. Twelve game pieces are used, which according to the ancient rules are six white and six black. There are also two "fish" pieces, which are placed in the water. The throwing of the dice is done with a jade. The two players take turns to throw the dice and move their pieces. When a piece has been moved to a certain place it is stood up on end, and called an "owl (梟or驍) ". Thereupon it can enter the water and eat a fish, which is also called "pulling a fish". Every time a player pulls a fish he gets two tokens, and if he pulls two fish in a row he gets three tokens [for the second fish]. If a player has already pulled two fish but does not win it is called double-pulling a pair of fish. When one player wins six tokens the game is won. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo

aurelianito 11y ago

I was expecting a goban (aka, go board)

IndianAstronaut 11y ago

After watching the 3 Kingdoms series, one thing that strikes me is that these board games probably had huge significance back then as compared to today. Empires were made or broken based on effective military strategies. Those who could strategize on the board would win in the field.

guai898 11y ago

There is more detail description and photo of games pieces recovered from other tombs in the Chinese Wiki: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E5%8D%9A https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E5%8D%9A

contingencies 11y ago

Should be marked (2004)

xerophyte12932 11y ago

> Twelve faces of the die are numbered 1 through 6 in a form of ancient Chinese writing known as "seal script." Each number appears twice on the die while two faces were left blank, the researchers noted. if numbers 1 through 6 each appear twice on a twelve sided die, how do they leave two faces blank?

xerophyte12932 11y ago
From wikipedia: > 1 eighteen-sided die with the numbers "1" through "16" and characters meaning "win" and "lose" [not listed in the inventory]
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
phaemon 11y ago
From the article: "Archaeologists think this 14-face die was used to play a game called "bo" that hasn't been played in 1,500 years."
rlpb 11y ago
Nothing in the text you quoted says that it is a twelve sided die, only that twelve faces of the die are numbered. That part of the statement doesn't tell you how many faces there are in total.

holografix 11y ago

Is it Cyvasse?

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Cool! But bugged me throughout that while only one die was found, it was called a 'dice' repeatedly.