CHINA.
AS has been already mentioned, the invention of Playing-cards has been claimed at many places; each writer setting forth the pretensions of his own country to this honour to the best of his ability, and each one with seemingly good authority for his statements.
It is certain that the Chinese point in triumph to the longest pedigree for their game, and they quote extensively from their own authors as proof of this fact; and until some European well versed in their language can dispute this claim, it may be as well to allow it.
Mr. Chatto says that cards appear to have been known from an early period in China. There is a Chinese dictionary, entitled “Ching-tsze-tung,” compiled by Eul-Kowng, and first published A. D. 1678; which says that the cards now known in China as Teen-tsze-pae, or “dotted cards,” were invented in the reign of Leun-ho, 1120, and that they began to be common in the reign of Kaow-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131. According to tradition, they were devised for the amusement of Leun-ho’s wives.
The general name for cards in China is Che-pae, or “paper-tickets.” At first they were called Ya-pae, or “bone-tickets,” from the material of which they were made. Several varieties of cards seem to be in use in China. One pack that is described by Mr. Chatto is said to be composed of thirty-two cards covered with small circular dots of red and black, with court cards of one man and one woman. The cards most commonly used are called Tseen-wan-che-pae (a thousand times ten thousand cards). There are thirty in a pack, divided into three suits of nine cards each, and three single cards, which are superior to all others. The name of one of the suits is Kew-ko-wan; that is, “The nine ten thousands” (or “myriads of Kwan,” which are strings of beads, shells, or money). The name of the other suit is Kew-ko-ping (nine units of cakes); and that of the third, Kew-ko-so (nine units of chains). The names of the three single cards are Tseen-wan (a thousand times ten thousand), Heeng-hwa (the red flower), and Pi-hwa (the white flower). One of their games of cards bears the same name as the Chinese game of Chess, Kew-ma-paon; and it contains pictures of chariots, horses, and guns.
The Chinese name for a card considered singly or as one of the parts of a pack is Shen, or “Fan,”—a most evident reference to the manner of holding cards spread open like a fan, which is common to all nations.
The shape and size of the Chinese card are peculiar. They are printed in black on a thin cardboard. The backs are sometimes bright crimson and sometimes black or yellow, and they are the shape and size of a finger. Some of them are little more than half an inch broad by three inches long, and others are an inch wide by three and a half long. The pips and court cards are always printed in black on a white background, and on the face of some of them are stamped Chinese characters printed in red. In some packs the cards have animals, such as horses and deer, represented upon them; while in others characters which may mean the names only of the animals are written above the pips. The cards are rounded at the top and bottom, and at the upper end a small portion is left blank, as if to hold them conveniently and allow of their being spread or “fanned” out, showing the whole of the pictured surface, the blank space being held under the thumb and fingers. Strangely enough, this blank space being at the top instead of at the bottom of the card, it would seem that they should be held by the top and spread out in exactly the reverse way customary among Europeans. The tiny cards are so narrow and so small that they might well be held concealed by the palm of the hand, which could effectually cover them and prevent the shape of the pips being seen through the thin cardboard or the number of the cards being counted by the opponent.
The Chinese have another name for their cards, and this is Wat-pi; but it seems to be the name given to different games, as they also call queer-looking tablets on which round dots are placed in regular order and which resemble our dominos, by the same name.
Mr. Singer gives an account of some Chinese cards an inch and a half long and a little more than two inches broad. Each suit consists of nine cards with black backs. They are printed with Chinese characters, and not with emblems like those in other packs.
Some authors state that cards are played by the lower orders only, and that people of distinction play at Chess; and that among the Chinese it is considered undignified to play cards, and many of them pretend they have no idea of their use or the meaning or value of the characters on them.
It is also asserted that a game analogous to the old one of Tarots has been found in China, which contains seventy-seven tablets.
There is a tradition that a Venetian carried cards from China to his native city, which was the first place in Europe where they were known. This traveller was probably Niccolo Polo, who with his brother Matteo returned from China about 1269; or it may have been the celebrated Marco Polo, son of the above Niccolo, who accompanied his father and uncle on their second voyage to that great empire.