The latest discovery of dice

In March 2008, Chengdu Wenshufang officially opened. In addition to mahjong made of jade, gold, bamboo bones and mahogany, there is also a "scary" mahjong-related exhibit in the Expo Hall: human bone Xuanhe brand and human bone dice. It is said that the "human bone xuanhe card" was made of the bones of a gambler in Leshan, Sichuan Province during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. This man was found cheating and died. His descendants used his bones as cards as a warning. The legend about six human bones dice is somewhat similar. It is said that in the Qing Dynasty, a gambler also died of cheating, and his gambler made his bones into dice to vent his anger. "These two exhibits are of warning significance, telling everyone that mahjong can only be an entertainment and cannot exceed its original role."

Gyro dice

On September 28th, 20 15, an archaeologist in Deyang found a gray pottery dice with sand in a gray pit (where the ancients discarded their domestic garbage).

This dice is 3.2 cm high, with a nearly round shape of 1.8 cm in the middle. The circle actually has six faces, each with different widths, but each has 1-6 small round nests. The dice body has one more section up and down, which is more like a top as a whole.

After consulting various materials, archaeologists determined that this was the first time that China discovered pottery dice and gyro dice. Because of its unique shape, there was no written record before. Liu Zhangze said that they speculated that the dice were rotated to determine the number of points, so they were named "Gyro Dice".

Song Zhimin, a professor in the Department of Archaeology of Sichuan University, believes that the mixed sand and gray pottery was popular in the Han Dynasty, and it is speculated that the dice era was in the Han Dynasty. Liu Zhangze believes that the age of the site and the accumulation of ash pits can prove its age.

This dice is not necessarily a gambling tool. "If it is a tool for gambling and involves money, it must be fine." Luo Xinben, a professor at Southwest University for Nationalities, has been studying dice in Sichuan for a long time. He speculated that the gyro dice might be a toy of a little doll at that time.

Song Zhimin said that this dice provided important material data for studying the origin and evolution of China dice. "One, two, three, four, five, six o'clock, which is not available in China, comes from India." He said that this dice is probably the product of the cultural collision between China and India, or related to the Southern Silk Road.