Chinese Dice Game Rules
Unlike complicated games with lots of pieces, you only need a pair of dice to play high-low. It's a quick game and can be used for gambling. The outcome is considered high if the sum of the dice is eight, nine, 10, 11 or 12. It's considered low if the sum of the dice is one, two, three four, five or six. It's considered seven if the outcome is. While the game is neither Chinese nor Checkers, it's a fun tactical game invented in Germany but based on an American game called Halma. You can play the game with two to six players. Follow the original rules, or create some of your own to play a variation of Chinese Checkers.
This post is about a rather charming Chinese gambling game, called 状元筹 Zhuangyuan Chou. A rough translation of the name would be 'Scholar's lots',I had seen images of these tallies some years ago. I was intrigued with these strange objects, each inscribed with the name of a class in the Chinese hierarchy of scholar-bureaucrats. What curious game could be played with these things, I wondered. One day, ( around Chinese new year in 2013, I think) I went to a Mahjongg shop. After shopping for a while, I inquired about a certain 'Zhuangyuan' game. Much to my surprise, the proprietor produced this selfsame set of tallies from a shelf. It was the only set left. Despite the rather steep price of $100, I bought the tallies. This was fortunate. The shop closed down a few years later
The apparatus for this game consists of a set of 63 tallies, or jetons
and six dice. We shall first describe the tallies:The largest tally is labelled 状元, Zhuangyuan (A), and is worth 32 points ( The inscription 三十二注, sanshiliu zhu at the foot of the tally means'32 points' in Chinese）.It is yellow in color, and has an inscription in red. This is the only tally with this value. It plays a special role in the game.
The next largest tallies are labelled 旁眼, Pangyan (B) and 探花 Tanhua (C) Each is worth 16 points. The former is red, the latter a deep maroon. Like the Zhuangyuan tally, at the feet of these tallies is the inscription 十六注 Shiliu Zhu-- 16 points.
These are followed by four tallies marked 会元, Huiyuan . (D) In real life, the tallies are a fetching neon green in colour. Unfortunately this colour does not show up well in the scan. Each tally is worth 8 points.
Next in line are eight scarlet tallies, labelled 進士Jinshi(E) These tallies are worth 4 points each.
Then there are 16 blue tallies, labelled , 举人,Juren (F) and worth 2 points each.
Last in line are 32 white tallies, each labelled 秀才Xiucai (G) and worth one point each
It should be noted that for each halving in the value of the tally, there is a doubling in the number of tallies. The total value of these 63 tallies is 192.
Chinese Dice Game Rules
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It is honestly quite hard to explain the significance of the ranks to a non-Chinese audience. You must remember that this game is actually about exams. For over a millennia, the Chinese have had an extremely well-developed (and grueling) system of exams, called the Keju. To say this exam played a significant role in Chinese is somewhat of an understatement. For many, it was the only way to get a job in the civil service, and hence respectable society. The exam has even entered popular myth. Indeed, the Chinese even have a god of exams, Wenchang 文昌.
To get the rank of highest scholar in the country, 状元 ( Zhuang yuan) was an immense honor, an express ticket into the upper class. Even though the exams were abolished in 1905, till this day, Chinese newspaper reports on more mundane exams ( A-Levels, O-Levels, International baccalaureate) still refer to the top scorers as Zhuangyuan
The rules for this game are based on three sources: C.T. Dobree's The gambling games of Malaya
Chinese New Year Dice Game
and the Chinese Baidu article on the game. (http://baike.baidu.com/view/360732.html).The game is simple. Between three to eight persons may play. The only equipment required are six dice, a bowl, and the tallies. At each person's turn, the player drops the six dice into a bowl. He notes the combination of numbers the dice have generated. He then takes tallies from the pool, corresponding to the scores shown in the table below.
Dice combination. | |
One 4 | |
Two 4s | |
Three 4s | |
Four 4s | |
Five 4s | |
Any Four-of-a-kind, except four 4s | |
A pair of 4s, 5s or 6s | |
The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 | |
“How Tuck” 巧得= Qiao de * | |
Five-of-a-kind | |
Six-of-a-Kind | |
*A four-of-a-kind; with the remaining two dice adding to the same number as the one repeated. E.G [3,3,3,3,2,1], [6,6,6,6,3,3] [2,2,2,2,1,1] 'How Tuck' is the Cantonese pronunciation of 巧得. In Mandarin it is Qiao De. The term means 'Chance gain' | |
The player then takes the requisite number of tallies from the pool. There are a certain number of niceties regarding the game.
* When four 4s are scored, the player takes the 32-point tally 状元 and the pair of 16-point tallies 旁眼(B) and 探花(C) from their previous owners
* If a player throws a five-of-a-kind, (other than five 4s) he takes the 32-point tally from its previous owner (if any)
The baidu article agrees with Dobree's description, but adds a few more rules.
* There is another combination, a pair of 1s, 2, or 3s. The Baidu article tells us that this combination wins you the marker labelled 旁眼. This combination is also nicknamed 大马军-- Big cavalier.
* A pair of 4s, 5s or 6s wins you the marker labelled 探花. This combination is also nicknamed 小马军-- Little cavalier.
* If a player throws five 4s, He takes the 32-point marker from its previous owner, even if the previous owner has scored a four-of-a-kind. This is in contrast to Dobree's rules, where you win 64 points from such a combination.
Once all the tallies have been used up, the game ends. The number 192 ( the total value of all the tallies) is averaged between the number of players. Players who score below the aforementioned average pay to those who score above average. They pay to the winners the difference between their scores and the average,
The inscriptions on the tallies are shown below. The text has been transcribed, Top-to bottom, Right-to left.
On the Zhuangyuan (A) 狀元/ 四紅巧合獨德五子/五紅奪色六子全
On the Pangyan (B)旁眼/ 大小军馬/分双順淂/
On the Tanhua (C) 探花/ 大小军馬/分双順淂
The author has labored to make sense of the tallies, but could not make any sense from them. The text as engraved seems to be a set of rules for the game, specifying what dice combinations are needed to acquire the tally they are written on.
The text uses a lot of variant characters, so for example 淂 instead of 得(both meaning 'To get') and 収 instead of 收 ('To recieve'). In addition, The third character in the left-hand row of the Zhuangyuan tally is hard to make out, but based on images of similar tallies online, it is probably奪
If any reader may decypher the tallies, the author will be most delighted
How To Play Chinese Dice
Below are scans from Dobree's orginial work on the game. Of especual note is the photograph depicting the counters from Dobree's day. Clearly the overall shape of the counters has not changed much in the half century since the book was published. The only major difference is the Zhuangyuan tally, which is made of dark-coloured material