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Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards. William Andrew Chatto
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isbn 4064066249779
Автор произведения William Andrew Chatto
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
The cards most commonly used in China, are those called Tseen-wan-che-pae—"a thousand times ten thousand cards." There are thirty cards in a pack; namely, three suits of nine cards each, and three single cards which are superior to all the others. The name of one of the suits is Kew-ko-wan; that is, the nine ten-thousands, or myriads of Kwan—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 is Kew-ko-so—"nine units of chains." The names of the three single cards are, Tseen-wan, a thousand times ten thousand; Hung-hwa, the red flower; and Pih-hwa, the white flower.
No. 1.
No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
No. 5.
No. 6.
In the annexed specimens of Chinese cards, Nos. 1 and 2 are the first and third of the suit of nine myriads of Kwan; Nos. 3 and 4 are the one and the three of the suit of cakes; No. 5 is the one of the suit of chains; and No. 6 is that of the three superior cards, which is called the white flower.
Besides those above described, the Chinese have several other varieties of cards: one pack or set is called Pih-tsze-pae, the hundred boys' cards; another, Tseen-wan-jin-pae—"a thousand times ten-thousand mens' names cards," containing the names of persons famous in Chinese history; and a third has the same name as Chinese Chess, Keu-ma-paou, chariots, horses, and guns. This latter name corroborates what has been previously said about the probability of the game of cards having been suggested by that of chess.
The marks to be found on Chinese cards scarcely afford a gleam of light by which we might judge of their relation to the cards of other countries: in a pack of such as are chiefly used in Cochin China, I have observed the form of the diamond nearly the same as it appears on English cards; and in a pack of the Chinese cards called Tseen-wan-che-pae, the mark of the suit of Nine Cakes is nearly the same as that of the old Italian Danari, which Galeottus Martius—in his treatise 'De Doctrina promiscua,' written about 1488—considers to have been meant for a loaf.
The cards commonly used in China, are much narrower than ours; an idea of their size may be formed from the specimens given, making allowance for a small margin of white paper all round, but rather wider at the top and bottom than at the sides. The Chinese name for a card, considered singly, or as one of the pieces of a pack or set, appears to be Shen, a fan.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom. ii, chap. xii. Des Principes des Sciences et des Arts, disposé en forme de Jeux. Trevoux, 1704.
Ita vita est hominum quasi cum ludas Tesseris:
Si illud, quod maximè opus est jactu, non cadit,
Illud quod cecidit fortè, id arte ut corrigas.
Terent. Adelph. act. iv, sc. 7.
"Ludo Tesserarum Plato vitam comparavit, in quo et jacere utilia oportet, et jacientem uti benè iis quæ ceciderunt."—Plut. Op. Mor. Epist. ad Paccium.—Etudes historiques sur les Cartes à Jouer, par M. C. Leber, p. 63.
[3] In a paper entitled, l'Origine du Jeu de Piquet, trouvé dans l'Histoire de France sous le règne de Charles VII. Printed in the Mémoires pour l'Histoire des Sciences, &c.—Trévoux; in the vol. for May, 1720, p. 934–968.
[4] In a dissertation "Du Jeu de Tarots, où l'on traite de son origine, où l'on explique ses allégories, et où l'on fait voir qu'il est la source de nos Cartes modernes à jouer," &c. This dissertation is contained in his Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le Monde moderne.—Dissertations mêlées, tom. i, p. 365–394. Paris, 1781. It is not unlikely that he was led to make this discovery from the notices of a philosophic game of the ancient Egyptians, quoted by Meursius, in his treatise De Ludis Græecorum, p. 53. Lugduni Batavorum, 1622. A summary of Court de Gebelin's conceits on the subject of Tarots is to be found in Peignot's Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 227–237.
He shall have a bell, that's Abel;
And by it standing one whose name is Dee,
In a rug gown; there's D and Rug, that's Drug;
And right anenst him a dog snarling er;
There's Drugger, Abel Drugger. That's his sign.
And here's now Mystery and Hieroglyphic!
The Alchymist, act ii.
[6] See an image of Isis, horned, with the infant Horus on her knee; and note, that antiquaries have not settled why the Virgin Mary is sometimes represented with the crescent on her head. Isis was the protectress of seafaring people; and her image, as we learn from Petronius and other writers, was frequently placed in ships.
[7] The hand occurs frequently in Egyptian hieroglyphics: it would be superfluous to tell the learned reader what it means. The hand holding a hammer, in the hieroglyphic usually known as the Blacksmiths' Coat of Arms, is sufficiently explained by the motto,
"By Hammer and Hand,
All Arts do stand."
[8] Versuch, den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einführung des Leinenpapieres, und den Anfang der Holzschneidekunst in Europa zu erforschen. Von J. G. I. Breitkopf. 4to. Leipzig, 1784.
[9] Researches into the History of Playing Cards; with Illustrations of the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood. By Samuel Weller Singer. 4to. London, 1816.