Kaleidoscope

The Shuanglu Set Unearthed in Liaoning

: A bamboo dragonfly is an age-old Chinese toy. The T-shaped toy is made up of a horizontal bar...

: The string lion dance is kept alive in Huotong Town in Ningde of Fujian Province. Also called...

: Ancient China has very rich game culture and Chinese traditional puzzles once influenced greatly...

In 1974, a Shuanglu set was unearthed from the No. 7 Liao Tomb in Yemaotai Town, Faku County, Liaoning. The chessboard is 52.8cm long and 25.4cm wide, with two edges embedded with 12 round "route" signs and a crescent "door" sign made of bone strips. The chessman is girdled with spire and flat bottom, with a height of 4.6cm and bottom diameter of 2.5cm. The total chessman number is 30, half white and half black. And the two dices had become rotten before unearthed. The set is consistent with the "Playing Shuanglu" illustration appeared in Shilin Guangji (An Extensive Guide Book for Daily Use), from which we know that the game was also popular among the Qidan people in North China during the time.

The Shuanglu Game

Shuanglu (Backgammon set) was an ancient dice game that has been lost. As a game similar to the flying chess, Shuanglu should have been a popular game in ancient China according to records in literary works and cultural relics handed down...

Rules of the Shuanglu Game

Rules of the Shuanglu Game

There is a book named Shuanglu Jinnang Chao in Japan that gives a sketch of how to play the Shuanglu game. Since the game was introduced to Japan from China during the Tang Dynasty, it was a mere...