- Liubo
Liubo or liupo (zh-cpl|c=六博|p=liù bó|l=six sticks) is an ancient Chinese
board game .History
The earliest surviving remnant of liubo dates from circa
1500 BC , theShang Dynasty inChina , carved on a slab of blue stone. For a photo of this ancient game, see [http://art.enorth.com.cn/system/2002/04/11/000310693.shtml ] . Liubo is thought to have lost its popularity by around the6th century AD.Rules
As with most other games handed down to us from antiquity, exactly how liubo was played may have varied from one time period to another and one player to another and one culture to another. For example, upon analyzing the ancient literature of [http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Austin/index.html "Greek Board Games"] Professor Austin remarks that
Plato in the 5th to 4th centuries BC originally described "petteia" as a battle game, but by the time knowledge of that game reachedEustathius Macrembolites in the12th century AD, Eustathius was calling it a race game. Professor Austin supplies other similar examples as well.Liubo is no different. Where some may refer to liubo playing pieces as "generals" and "pawns" (see [http://www.yutopian.com/chinesechess/history.html "The History of Xiangqi"] ) others refer to them as "fish," "stones" and "owls" (see [http://www.mynetcologne.de/~nc-jostenge/cazaux.htm "Cazaux, Is Chess A Hybrid Game?"] ).
Consequently, while some regard liubo as a battle game played with dice, others regard it as a game only akin to playing a game of cards where players accumulate points or "fishes." Though there are a number of surviving literary references to and artistic impressions of the game that date from antiquity, there are no known surviving records of the rules of liubo. Some scholars have attempted to reconstruct the game, most notably Lien-sheng Yang, who discusses the game as it was possibly played on
TLV mirrors .Because we do know that liubo was played by some as a "battle game" (with sticks that were similar to dice) it has gained the distinction of having perhaps spawned the creative development of
Xiàngqí (also known as Chinese Chess), another ancient Chinese battle game (played "without" dice). Furthermore, some may point out how the board design of liubo lends itself to aXiàngqí -like grid of squares.External links
* [http://history.chess.free.fr/liubo.htm Liubo] by Jean-Louis Cazaux
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20030504015707/depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/exhibit/han/ps301530.html Ceramic model of liubo players]References
* Lien-sheng Yang, "An Additional Note on the Ancient Game Liu-po". "Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies", Vol. 15, No. 1/2. (June 1952), pp. 124-139.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
