Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
Divining, Playing and Gambling ...Zicky: Is maybe this?
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The players' moves were determined by throwing six long, two-sided sticks known as bó 簙 onto the mat, and counting the number and/or sequence of face-up and face-down sticks. As can be seen from most of the pictures below, the game starts with the six game pieces of each player lined up neatly on the player's side of the board, and the six throwing sticks lined up neatly in the throwing area. However, in Picture 1.11 the six throwing sticks are splayed out as if they have just been thrown, and two of each player's game pieces have been moved out of line and onto the playing area of the board; and so it would seem that pieces were moved onto the board one at a time according to the throw of the sticks.
The casting of six 'sticks' in order to determine the players' moves is more than a little reminiscent of the practice of casting dried yarrow stalks in Yi Jing divination, and it may well have been that the pattern of upsides and downsides of the six sticks cast by each player would be interpretted as one of the sixty-four hexagrams (䷀䷁䷂䷃...䷼䷽䷾䷿) in order to determine (in some unknown manner) the movement of game pieces onto and/or about the board.
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One of the earliest and most interesting descriptions of the game occurs in the song Zhao Hun 招魂 "Summons of the Soul", which is found in the Chu Ci 楚辭 anthology of songs (better known in English as the Songs of the South) that were written in the region of the Chu state during the Warring States period. In describing the delights of the world of the living in order to tempt the wandering soul back to life, the poet writes that after the banquet is over :
菎蔽象棊,有六簙些。...
分曹並進,遒相迫些。
成梟而牟,呼五白些。
Then with bamboo dice and ivory pieces the game of Liu Bo is begun;
Sides are taken; they advance together; keenly they threaten each other.
Pieces are kinged and the scoring doubled. Shouts of ‘five white!’ arise.
David Hawkes, The Songs of the South (Penguin Books, 1985) page 229.
Source:
Babelstone Blog, The Lost Game of Liubo
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紅五 means: Red Five. Zicky (易棋) is a board game simulating the China–United States trade war, the competition between Blue Five (U.S) and Red Five (China). 紅五 indicates that China will win the trade war.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).