Why Did The Ancient Chinese Version of "Monopoly" And The "backgammon" That Had Been Popular for Thousands of Years Disappear?

A, backgammon play.

Backgammon is a board game played by two players. On the board, each player has six "beams (land)", the so-called "beams" are the positions where the pieces can stay.

Each side of the player has 15 pieces, chess language "fifteen horses", black and white to distinguish the two, in accordance with the established rules of the board (can be matched with a chess chart), the two sides began to take turns to throw dice 2 times, and according to the number of the dice in turn forward.

The direction of the black square and the white square should be thought of, one is to go clockwise and the other is to go counterclockwise, until one of the players will first all the pieces out of the chess game, or all into the "beam" of the other side can declare victory.

If you look at this rule at first glance, it is quite a bit of the ancient version of "monopoly". The two do have similarities in rule design, but backgammon is not a game of pure luck, and to win the game requires players to have certain tactical thinking and calculation trade-offs.

Each time the dice are thrown, the player can move the two outermost pieces at the same time according to the number of the two dice, or he can move only one outer piece according to the sum of the number of points.

This rule corresponds to a rule in backgammon - that is, "hit the horse".

Hong Zun wrote in "Spectrum Double" : "where a horse stands alone, the enemy horse strikes. When two horses are compared to one beam, they can neither fight nor go the same way. If you are beaten, you must wait for the vacancy in the game, and it is equivalent to the color."

For example, if there is only one black horse on a beam, and the white horse happens to walk on the beam where the black horse is, then the black horse will be "eaten" by the white horse and out according to the rules. The black horse that is out of the game can only return to the starting point in the next game to regenerate and start to move forward again, and before this black horse enters the game, the other black horses can not move.

However, in the actual game, the black horse that has just been eaten may not necessarily be successfully revived, such as the black horse player to revive the chess pieces, but he cast a total of 3 points of the dice, and the third beam just has more than two white horses, because it can not move, the black horse player this round is empty. By the time the black horse can move, the gap in steps has opened up too big to close.

Therefore, in backgammon, it is basic tactical thinking to eat your opponent's horse as much as possible while ensuring that you do not get eaten. After this game rule, the offensive and defensive game of backgammon is wonderful, and this interactive design, so that it can be burned all over the river and buried the fofodus, in ancient times to add a bit of color, it is more people can not stop.

Two, the origin of backgammon

The history of backgamp can be traced back to The Three Kingdoms period, and it has the elegant name of "holding a pistol" and "long line". According to later historical evidence, these two nicknames and backgammon are still different.

The grip of a pistol is a Borosse play, one is a paraphrase and the other is a transliteration. In its literal sense, to hold is to hold, and it is a spear. It is a kind of soldier trick, is a military game, "two people each hold more than 20 small jade, riding an elephant or a horse, in the course of the road to win."

Long line prevailed in the Tang Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty Hong Zun's "spectrum double" once recorded: "Each time a limit of two people, fifteen horses, fifteen white and fifteen black, with two dice." When playing chess, the white horse goes from right to left, the black horse goes from left to right, the horse who passes the door first is the winner, and can win one - chip, if the other party does not win, it can win two chips."

It can be seen that the long line of the Tang Dynasty and the backgammon of the Song Dynasty are the same, but the rules of the game are different. The backgammon board is rectangular, and the square board of Go is not the same, because there are six beams on both sides, so the name Shuanglu.

"Zhi Tongjian" also mentioned: "double land, cast Qiong to line twelve chess, each line six chess, so called double land."

Ancient instruments used for backgammon, there are called "balance" chessboard, there are called "cup" dice basin, there are called "arrows" dice, there are called "horse" chess pieces, are selected four precious materials, seige production.

The production of the double land board, the use of materials in different periods and places are not the same. "Spectrum double" said: "The use of ivory, the real Bohai nuclear wood heavy, cover not fake paint, and dirt can not be invaded. Or built with flowery stones and decorated with wooden bearing."

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the prosperity of society and economy and people's love for Shuanglu, the production of checkerboard appeared unprecedented exquisite, in some unearthed cultural relics, for the Ming and Qing checkerboard, there are high shape and low shape.

The height of the high-shape backgammon table is basically the same as that of the eight Immortals table, while the low-shape table is similar to the Kang table. There was only one square plate with low columns around it, inlaid with motherlay of the crescent City, with six dots on each side.

As early as 1974, a backgammon set unearthed from Liao Tomb No. 7 in Yemaotai, Faku County, Liaoning Province.

The board is 52.8 cm long and 25.4 cm wide, and the left and right sides are each inlaid with bone pieces to make twelve circular "road" signs and a crescent "door" signs. The chess pieces have a flat top, a waist in the middle, 4.6 cm high, and a base diameter of 2.5 cm, a total of 30 pieces, half of which are white and half of which are painted black.

The two pieces were decayed when they were unearthed. However, the unearthed cultural relics are very consistent with the double-land data recorded in the literature.

Double Luzi points black and white two colors, each 15, like a pound clothes pestle, throwing dice to determine the number of steps. When two people play chess, the white person moves from right to left, and the black person moves from left to right, which person's pieces move from the board first even if they win, if the opponent has not left the chess game at this time, this winning method is glorious, known as "full" or "home music".

Wang Jian has written a hundred "Palace Ci", one of which says: "Each of the agarwood double land, in the bureau to fight the base, who is high." The use of priceless agarwood to make a double land chess pieces, it is elegant and exquisite. The term "fighting base" describes the situation of playing a horse and stacking pieces into bases when fighting double land.

There are many people who are addicted to the charm of backgammon, but the most famous "chess fool" is Pan Yan in the Taiping Guangji.

Pan Yan is obsessed with double land too much, every day chessboard, even if it is to eat, sleep with. One day travel, Pan Yan boat across the sea, of course, he also carried backgammon, but unfortunately, at this time the sea from the wind, the wooden ship can not withstand the fierce wind, did not adhere to the long break up.

The boat broke, the boat people fell into the water, but Pan Yan did not call for help, only the right hand to grasp a broken board, the left hand tightly holding the double land board, the mouth also contains dice. He drifted on the sea for two days and one night, and when he landed, he had no strength, but the chessboard was intact in his arms, and the dice were still in his mouth.

It's also about backgammon. Wu Zetian also favored it, and there was an interesting story recorded in Ji Yi Ji.

Nanhai County presented a gorgeous collection of Cui Qiu, Qiu robe is very exquisite, a valuable treasure, Wu Zetian was very satisfied with the Qiu robe, so he ordered Zhang Zongchang to wear the Qiu robe to accompany him to play backgammon.

Just at this time, Di Renjie was ordered to come and play, Wu Zetian let Di Renjie and Zhang Zongchang play a game, you had to obey, Wu Zetian asked two people want to bet something, Di Renjie way, if he won, it is better to take Zhang Zongchang's robe to do the number, if he lost, take his robe to Zhang Zongchang.

Wu Zetian laughed at him: "You do not know, the price of this fur is more than a thousand pieces of gold, you refer to, is not equal." This is because he thinks that the value of the bet is low, not equal. However, Di Renjie was not aware of this, and answered: "This robe is the minister's dress for the court; Changzong's clothes are favorite clothes. A minister is quick with his robe."

His meaning is obvious, with other people because of the favor of the luxury-colored fur, to bet his court clothes used in the proper, he still feel a loss. Di Renjie's argument accounted for the right reason, even Wu Zetian could not refute, so we had to follow what he said.

Zhang Zongchang was naturally ashamed and angry. Although the outcome of backgammon depends on luck, strategic planning is still very important. How can you play chess well if you have a bad heart? So Zhang Zongchang was quickly defeated.

Finally, Di Renjie in the face of Wu Zetian, fair and square won Zhang Zongchang's Cui Qiu, picked up and left. But he had worked hard to win it, and he didn't really like it, just looking at Zhang Zongchang, who had come to power by seducing the master, was not happy. As a result, his front foot left Shane, and his back foot gave the emerald fur to his house slave.

The disappearance of backgammon

In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Shuanglu became the heart of the writers, and the talented poets wrote excellent poems in praise of Shuanglu.

Not only the "Confucian four Jie" in the Liu Guan love it, there is "Qu sage" known as Guan Hanqing also love it. At that time, if not a two-handed land, in front of people are embarrassed to say that they are fashionable, on the contrary, if you play a good chess, you can immediately become popular in the circle.

Tang Bohu, who plays the title of "the first romantic talent in Jiangnan", naturally cannot drop this problem. He not only plays, but also re-writes the book "Score Double" written by Hong Zun. In the preface, there is a sentence: "Today an ancient game, an ancient game of playing chess, does not pass on; Playing horse, seven kingdoms, Han Guan Yi, Wu Mu and other plays, their methods are all in, and the time is not yet. Single chess and double land are popular."

At that time, some of the game's gameplay was lost and abandoned, and many were no longer popular, but Shuanglu was able to maintain its enduring popularity, popular in several dynasties, leading the way.

Backgammon is not only a game, but also Bo play, for Bo play, the prize of winning or losing is naturally indispensable. However, by the Ming Dynasty, the ban on gambling was quite strict, and once found, the crime was not small.

The "Daming Law collection and interpretation Bylaw" expressly stipulates: "All gambling property is a stick of 80, stall money and property officials, the opening of the gambling house people with the same crime, stop according to see issued as a professional officer plus a grade... If friends meet for fun gambling food, not gambling property ratio, so do not talk about."

However, the ancient people have never lacked wisdom, the mind is active, research, countermeasures soon came out.

A name for "friends together for joy" Luoguo Cheng chess table came into being, quietly but fiery popular in the folk. Its appearance is almost the same as the general eight immortals square table, but the details are hidden clever.

There is a layer below the ordinary table, where the backgammon board and pieces are hidden. And there are small drawers on all sides where you can put chips. When you need to play chess, you can remove the active desktop, and when you are satisfied, you can cover the desktop to restore the original state, convenient and hidden.

The Ming Dynasty only banned gambling, not against Shuanglu. In the early Qing Dynasty, Shuanglu showed a decline, but there were still elegant and wealthy people playing.

"A Dream of Red Mansions" also wrote in the eighty-eighth: "See Jia mother and Li Wan playing double land, Yuanyang next to watch." Li Wan was a good dice player. She threw down the dice and knocked down several of the old lady's hammer."

It can be seen that Shuanglu is also quite popular among women in boudoir, which can also be directly reflected in Zhou Fang's painting "My Wife Shuanglu Map". In the painting, two women in full dress sit and play chess together, with a smile, quiet but also with enthusiasm. It was not until the Qianlong period that the emperor banned backgammon, which had been passed on for more than a thousand years, that it withdrew from the popular circle.

The emergence and development of backgammon not only absorbed foreign factors, but also combined local resources. It not only reflects the collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures, but also reflects the exchange and integration of national cultures, as well as the development track of foreign cultures integrating into Chinese traditional culture, and reflects the diversity, openness, inclusiveness and ability to integrate different cultures of Chinese traditional culture.

It also shows that the mutual exchange of multi-ethnic culture in our country is very active in certain media. The different names of backgammon in different periods can prove that the spread of backgammon in the society at that time had a great contribution to promoting the exchange of national culture.

Ancient sports games infiltrated the political ideal, moral concept, code of conduct, educational idea and thought mode of the Chinese people, which is a cultural form with rich connotation.

After the introduction of backgammon into our country, the different forms of reflection in different ages show that people develop wisdom from the tactics and counter-tactics of backgammon. With backgammon chess and rules to train people to abide by the rules of fairness, indifferent to fame and wealth, spirit, pride, to achieve the purpose of physical and mental cultivation.