What is "Yezixi"?

Ye Xixi is the originator of China Poker. "Yezixi" appeared in Han Dynasty. It is said that General Han Xin invented a card for entertainment in the army in order to alleviate the homesickness of soldiers. Because it is only the size of a leaf, it is called Yezixi.

However, the exact record is in the Tang Dynasty. There is such a description in Cheng Dinglu: "Tang Li was the secretariat of Hezhou and went to the river with Ye Maolian, a prostitute ... because he was called Ye Xixi." The original meaning of "Ye" refers to a page in the book, and the "Ye Xi" card is drawn from a piece of paper. In the early Tang Dynasty, there was a folk opera-color selection. When Tang Wenzong came of age, Li He, the secretariat of Hezhou, improved "color selection" and invented a card tool written on album pages. At that time, this kind of opera was very popular among princes and nobles. Soon, with the rise of woodblock printing in China, a new method was adopted to carve cards.

Ye Zi Opera in Tang Dynasty (Xi Evening News)

"Ye Zi Opera" was popular all over the country in the Song Dynasty. Not only scholars enjoy it, but also ordinary people are very interested. There are also some books and music scores about traditional Chinese opera, such as, songs, operas, new arrangements, songs and songs. The book "Xiye Yuan Qi" is described like this, "Cheap to swim, one also; Flexible and thoughtful, second; No chess seclusion, three also; Can accommodate four people, four people also; You can get together and talk about it, five. "

"Yezixi" has been transformed by countless artists. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Yezixi" had great changes. Each set is divided into 4 doors and 40 cards, 8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. There are many patterns on the card, including all kinds of people, flowers, birds, insects, fish, birds and animals. Many painters and literati participated in the creation of leaves and wine cards in Ming Dynasty, which made the design level of cards in Ming Dynasty reach its peak. Chen Hongshou (Lao Lian), a great painter in Ming Dynasty, spent four months creating a set of leaves of Water Margin. There are 40 Liangshan heroes on the board with different expressions, which has become a treasure of ancient Chinese painting circles. Of course, it was also from this time that cards changed from simple entertainment activities to fortune telling, gambling and other folk activities.