Editing Playing card (section)

=== China ===

[[Image:Ming Dynasty playing card, c. 1400.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|Chinese [[printing|printed]] playing card {{Circa|1400 AD}} found near [[Turpan]]]]

{{further|Chinese playing cards}}

Playing cards were most likely invented during the [[Tang dynasty]] around the 9th century, as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.<ref>{{Harvnb|Needham|1954|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_1_Introductory_Orientations#page/n177/mode/2up 131–132]}}.</ref><ref name="wilkinson">{{cite journal|last=Wilkinson | first=W.H. | title=Chinese Origin of Playing Cards | journal=[[American Anthropologist]] | volume=VIII | issue=1 | year=1895 | pages=61–78 | doi=10.1525/aa.1895.8.1.02a00070 | url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448960 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="lo 2000 390"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Needham|2004|p=[https://archive.org/stream/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics#page/n379/mode/2up/search/dominoes 328]}} "it is also now rather well-established that dominoes and playing-cards were originally Chinese developments from dice."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Needham|2004|p=[https://archive.org/stream/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics#page/n383/mode/2up 332]}} "Numbered dice, anciently widespread, were on a related line of development which gave rise to dominoes and playing-cards (+9th-century China)."</ref> The reference to a leaf game in a 9th-century text known as the ''Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang'' ({{lang-zh|s=杜阳杂编|p=Dùyáng zábiān}}), written by Tang dynasty writer Su E, is often cited in connection to the existence of playing cards. However the connection between playing cards and the leaf game is disputed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Works titled 杜陽雜編 |url=https://ctext.org/searchbooks.pl?if=en&searchu=%E6%9D%9C%E9%99%BD%E9%9B%9C%E7%B7%A8 |access-date=18 January 2023 |website=Chinese Text Project}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Theobald |first=Ulrich |date=2012-09-30 |title=Duyang zabian |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Novels/duyangzabian.html |access-date=18 January 2023 |website=ChinaKnowledge.de: An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lo |first=Andrew |date=2000 |title=The game of leaves: An inquiry into the origin of Chinese playing cards |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/game-of-leaves-an-inquiry-into-the-origin-of-chinese-playing-cards/FCDF32E1461700E7617AAD4AA1750D56 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=389–406 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00008466 |s2cid=159872810 |via=Cambridge University Press|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Parlett |first=David |title=Chinese Leaf Game: Did the Chinese really invent card games? |url=https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/leafgame.html |access-date=18 January 2023 |website=Historic Card Games}}</ref> The reference describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of [[Emperor Yizong of Tang]], playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the [[Wei Baoheng|princess's husband]].<ref name="lo 2000 390"/><ref name="zhou 1997 18">{{cite journal|author=Zhou, Songfang|title=On the Story of Late Tang Poet Li He|journal=Journal of the Graduates Sun Yat-sen University|year= 1997|volume= 18|issue= 3|pages=31–35}}</ref>{{sfn|Needham|Tsien|1985|p=131}} The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the ''Yezi Gexi'' and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties.{{sfn|Needham|2004|p=329}} The [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279) scholar [[Ouyang Xiu]] (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the [[List of Chinese inventions#Printing|development of printed sheets]] as a writing medium.<ref name="lo 2000 390">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0041977X00008466| title = The game of leaves: An inquiry into the origin of Chinese playing cards| journal = Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies| volume = 63| issue = 3| pages = 389–406| year = 2009| last1 = Lo | first1 = A. | s2cid = 159872810}}</ref>{{sfn|Needham|2004|p=329}} However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.<ref name="Parlett">[[David Parlett|Parlett, David]], "[https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/leafgame.html The Chinese "Leaf" Game]", March 2015.</ref>

Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them.<ref name="Parlett"/>

The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when the Ming Department of Punishments caught two gamblers, Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog, playing with paper cards. Wood blocks for printing the cards were impounded, together with nine of the actual cards.<ref name="Parlett"/>

[[William Henry Wilkinson]] suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for,<ref name="wilkinson" /> similar to [[trading card]] games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by [[play money]] known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is ''[[madiao]]'', a [[trick-taking game]], which dates to the [[Ming Dynasty]] (1368–1644). Fifteenth-century scholar [[Lu Rong]] described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four [[suit (cards)|suit]]s: 9 in [[Cash (Chinese coin)|coin]]s, 9 in [[string of cash coins (currency unit)|strings of coins]] (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in [[myriad]]s (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had ''[[Water Margin]]'' characters instead of pips on them{{sfn|Needham|Tsien|1985|p=132}} with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.<ref>[http://www.themahjongtileset.co.uk/money-suited-playing-cards/ Money-suited playing cards] at The Mahjong Tile Set</ref>