Chinese Traditional Games

Mahjong

Legend has it that Mahjong was invented by Confucius (孔子 - kǒng zi) around 500 BC. The three dragon tiles of Mahjong correspond with the three primary virtues of Confucius - 紅中 (Hóng Zhōng - red middle) represents benevolence, 發財 - (Fā Cái - prosperity) represents sincerity, and 白板 (Bái Ban) represents filial loyalty.
Mahjong is a game for four players. There are 144 tiles that are spread face down on a table top and shuffled by all players.
Players draw from the "wall" then discards one tile, always maintaining 13 tiles. The game is won with a hand of 14 tiles consisting of four groups called melds, and a pair of identical pieces called "eyes."
There are many variations of Mahjong depending on the region and the preferences of the players.

Go

The game of 圍棋 / 围棋 (wéiqí - Go) has been played in China since at least the Zhou Dynasty (周朝 - Zhōu Cháo - 1046–256 BC). It is a game for two players, played on board marked with a 19 X 19 grid.
Each player has a set of markers called stones, which are either black or white. The stones are placed on the grid, attempting to surround a larger area of the board than the opponent's.
Go is a highly strategic game that can quickly change in favor from one player to the other. It is popular around the world, and there are Go tournaments which are used to rank Go players from the beginner to professional levels.

Chinese Chess

Another Chinese board game is 象棋 (xiàngqí - Chinese Chess). This is also for two players, each representing an army. The object of the game is to capture the opponent's general. Pieces are marked with labeled with Chinese characters to show their rank, which have similar characteristics with Western chess.
The game is played on a board marked with a grid of 9 lines wide by 10 lines long. The center of the board nearest to each player is a 3 X 3 grid marked with a cross. This area is known as 宮 (gōng - palace). The middle of the board between the two players is a 河 (hé - river).
Just like in Western Chess, each of the pieces in Chinese Chess has rules for movement and capture.

 

Half Chess

半棋 (bànqí - Half Chess) is played using the same equipment as Chinese Chess. Only one half of the Chinese Chess board is used. The pieces are placed randomly face-down on the board. Pieces can be moved face-down, or they can be turned face-up, which constitutes one turn. If a player cannot move, he or she loses the game.

Land Battle Chess

The game of 陸戰棋 / 陆战棋 (lùzhànqí - Land Battle Chess) is another board game played by two players. It is a simpler game than Chinese Chess, and is often played by children.
Each player has 25 pieces that are placed are arranged on each side of the board so that the opponent cannot see the faces. Each piece has a different rank, and when a piece is moved to an occupied space, the higher ranking piece knocks off the lower ranking piece. Play continues until one of the flags is captured.

Pai gow

The pieces for 牌九 (pái jiǔ - Pai gow) are similar to domino pieces used in the West. Pai go is a gambling game often played in casinos. The object of the game is get a hand with a value as close to nine as possible. Hand are valued by adding the number of pips on the tiles, dropping the tens place. Each player bets on his hand and wins or loses against the dealer's hand.

Six Sticks

The ancient game of 六博 (liù bó - Six Sticks) was played during the Han Dynasty (漢朝 / 汉朝 - Hàn Cháo). Knowledge of the game comes from archaeological discoveries and references to ancient texts.
Six Sticks was a 2-player game played on a square game board. The six sticks served as dice, and determined how the pieces could be moved.
Six Sticks appears to have been favored by the royalty, as several ornate playing boards were found royal tombs of the Han Dynasty. It appears to have lost popularity by the end of the Han Dynasty.

Tangram

七巧板 (qī qiǎo bǎn - Tangram) is a puzzle rather than a competitive game. It consists of 7 wooden pieces of various shapes that are put together to form shapes. Tangram originated in Ancient China, and was introduced to Europe during the 19th century. The object of Tangram is to form silhouettes of common objects by using all 7 pieces. There are more than 6,000 possible tangram silhouettes.

Tiu-u (Fishing)

This game of Chinese dominoes may sound complicated but is in fact very simple to play. The name ‘fishing’ comes from the idea that players ‘fish’ for matching dominoes. The game was originally played with bone or wood dominoes. You can either print out our dominoes or, for a more authentic set, use popsicle sticks and draw on the dots with black and red pens.

Players: 2
Age: 4 years plus
You will need:


2 sets of our Chinese dominoes printable, or
Home-made wooden dominoes (see below)

Instructions for home-made Chinese dominoes:
If you are making wooden dominoes you will need 64 popsicle sticks and red and black permanent markers. Using our print-out as a guide draw the dots on to the sticks. Remember to make two sets.

To play:
Shuffle the dominoes and deal them into 16 piles of 4 dominoes. Lay these piles face down on the table. Take 4 piles and lay these face up in the playing area between the two players.
Each player then takes 3 piles of dominoes and looks at them. If they have a pair of 6’s they put the pair in front of them.
Player 1 then looks at the dominoes in the playing area. If they can make a pair with one of the dominoes in their hand they take that domino from the playing area, match it with the domino in their hand, and lay the two dominoes in front of them.
Player 1 then picks up a domino from one of the face-down piles. If it matches a domino in their hand, again they lay the pair in front of them. If not the domino is laid face up in the playing area between the two players.
Player 2 then has their two tries to ‘fish’ for pairs.
Play continues until all the piles of dominoes are gone.

Scoring:
The winner is the player with the most points, which are worked out as follows:
First, unpaired dominoes are put to one side. Now, each player splits the pairs they have won into ‘minnows’ (dominoes with less than 8 dots) and ‘large fish’ (dominoes with 8 or more dots).
Minnows score one point for each red dot. When you have the total minnow score this is rounded up to the next 10 (so a score of 4 becomes 10, and a score of 16 becomes 20).
Large fish score two points per dot (in either colour).

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