Like other great cultures, the Chinese had oracles they consulted for divine assistance. For guidance with major decisions, they shuffled pieces of engraved turtle shell and animal bones upon which characters had been written. Black and white stones cast on a board to create patterns on a grid of lines were also used to predict the outcome of events.
By 2300 B.C., the Chinese had developed games of chance based on these tools, some using marked tiles and others based on the black and white stone patterns. One game called Wei-qi has been played in virtually the same form as it was originally conceived for nearly 4,000 years. Another evolved into the Japanese board game “I-Go.” Others would eventually lead to “Mahjong,” “Fan-Tan” and “Pai Gow.” And still another became the game known today as “Dominoes.”
But the biggest contribution of China to gambling was the invention of modern papermaking during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25~220 C.E.). Sturdy, lightweight paper could be used to replace heavy tiles and stones. By 1000 C.E., dominoes were being made out of stiff paper, which led to new methods of shuffling, new designs and, in turn, new games, many of which were influenced by “fighting tablet” games created in Korea in the 6th century. The use of “dotted playing cards” became widespread between 1120 and 1131. Decks contained as few as 25~30 cards.
Marco Polo may have come across such playing cards when he visited China in 1269, but he did not record seeing them in his journals, nor was he the one who brought them to Europe. Instead, decks traveled through Persia and India, where they were modified to become localised games.
According to legend, the wife of a maharajah in India devised a game called “Ganjifa,” which used an elaborately illustrated deck of circular cards with eight, ten or twelve different suits of twelve cards each. Persian variations were rectangular in shape with four suits of 13 cards each, but no pictures, only patterns. Venetian traders encountered both types, and some eight decades after the famous explorer’s China trip, they brought them to Italy.
The Italians were responsible for taking the best attributes of Chinese, Persian and Indian playing cards and combining them with their own unique contribution: court cards—the king, knight and foot soldier. The knight was later replaced by a queen, and the modern 52-card deck was born.
But playing cards were hardly the biggest contribution made by China to the world of gambling. Not by a long shot. The same papermaking that made it possible to replace heavy tiles with dotted cards also allowed bulky metal coins to be replaced by a new form of currency—paper money.
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