The origin of playing cards

Poker has two meanings, one is playing cards, and the other is playing cards, which is called poker game. There are different opinions about the origin of poker. Some scholars in France, Belgium, Italy, Egypt, India, North Korea and other countries believe that the place of invention should belong to their own country, but there is no conclusive historical data to verify it. Scholars at home and abroad generally believe that modern poker originated from a game card called "Ye Zi Xi" in the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, as early as the end of Qin Dynasty, during the struggle between Chu and Han, General Han Xin invented a card game to relieve soldiers' homesickness. Because these cards are only the size of leaves, they are called "Ye Zi Xi". ("leaf card", two fingers size. The "leaf card" with a length of 8 cm and a width of 2.5 cm is made of silk and paper, and the pattern is printed by woodcut. It is said that this is the embryonic form of playing cards.

/kloc-in the 20th century, Kyle Poirot brought this card game to Europe, which immediately aroused great interest from westerners. At first, it was only a luxury of nobles, but it soon became popular among the people because of its low cost, diverse gameplay and easy learning.

China people understand the four colors as spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The French understand the four colors as spear, square, clove leaf and red heart;

Germans understand the four colors as leaves, bells, acorns and hearts.

Italians understand the four colors as swords, coins, crutches and wine glasses;

The Swiss understand the four colors as acorns, bells, flowers and shields;

The British understand the four colors as shovel, diamond, clover and red heart.

Why to use these four patterns as the patterns and colors of playing cards has been said a lot. There are two kinds of centralized reports:

It is said that these four colors represent the four major industries of society at that time, among which spades represent spears and symbolize soldiers; Plum blossoms represent clover flowers and symbolize agriculture; Square represents bricks used by craftsmen; The heart represents the heart and symbolizes the priest.

On the other hand, these four colors come from the patterns of ancient European divination tools, in which spades represent olive leaves and symbolize peace; Plum blossom is a four-leaf clover, which means good luck; The square is a diamond, symbolizing wealth; The heart shape symbolizes wisdom and love.

The 54 patterns of playing cards are also wonderful to explain:

The big cat represents the sun, the kitten represents the moon, and the remaining 52 cards represent 52 weeks of the year;

Heart-shaped, diamond, plum blossom and spades symbolize spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively.

There are 13 cards in each suit, which means there are 13 weeks in each season.

If J, Q and K are regarded as 1 1, 12, 13, and the big cat and kitten are half points, then the total number of points in a deck of playing cards is exactly 365 points. In leap years, Wang and Wang calculate 1 point and ***366 points respectively.

Experts generally believe that the above explanation is not a coincidence, because the design and invention of playing cards are inextricably linked with astrology, divination, astronomy and calendar.

Legend has it that Henry VIII is a model of four modes of K; The four portraits of the oldest existing English poker K all have curly beards, which are separated from each other like Henry VIII. It is also said that the models with four figures on Q are probably Queen Elizabeth of York family and Queen of henry vii. The manufacturing of French playing cards has been developing along the routes of various manufacturers. 18 13, the government issued an officially recognized design, giving each head card a name. Until now, many playing cards still use this name:

Spades, hearts and clubs

King David Charles Caesar Alexander

Judith Rachel Akini

Hogil Lacher Herlancelot stayed.

David of spades is David, the father of Solomon, and the king of Israel in the 10 century BC. He is good at playing the harp and has written many hymns in the Bible, so there are often patterns of the harp on the screen of spades.

Q Is pallas of Spades Greek Wisdom or Sivir pallas? 6? Athena, 1, is the only queen with weapons among the four queen cards.

J. Hogill of spades is an attendant of Charles I (K of hearts).

Charles I, the king of hearts, is the only one of the four kings who has no beard.

Q of hearts is Queen Judith.

Rahel the Red Heart is Charles VII's attendant.

King Julius Caesar, the king of the Roman Empire, is the only silhouette among the four trump cards.

Queen of diamonds, Raquel.

Jack Hector of diamonds is Charles I's attendant.

K of clubs is Alexander, the first Macedonian king to conquer the world. He always wears jewels with crosses on his clothes.

The word "Argine" of plum blossom Q is derived from the word "Regina" by letter shift. She holds wild roses in her hand, which indicates that the Lancaster royal family marked by red wild roses and the York royal family marked by white wild roses finally reconciled after wars of the roses, and tied the wild roses of both sides together.

J Lancelot of Plum Club is a knight in King Arthur's story.

In poker, the word refugee was originally used for J(JACK), and it was quite popular in Britain and continental Europe until the 1940s. Now it has been basically abandoned, but it is still used in some European countries, such as Sweden. One of the reasons why the word "JACK" instead of "refugee" can be quickly accepted by the public is that the first letter J of the word "JACK" can be easily used when recording or reporting card cases, or when using abbreviations, or when describing the process of playing cards. In the past, when the word "refugee" was used, KN had to be used. If only K was used, it would cause confusion.

From 65438 to 0840, foreign poker also entered China with foreigners after the Opium War. At that time, the imported poker mainly came from the United States and Japan, and Japanese poker sold well because of its low price. 193 1 year, a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods was launched to promote domestic products and develop industry. Shanghai native Huang Jinsheng founded Cuihua Brand Factory and trial-produced the first batch of poker in China-Red Lion Poker. [Edit this paragraph] Poker Origin Poker is a paper tool that is popular all over the world for entertainment and gambling. Because of the different ways of playing, it is commonly known as Card, Wanliu, Majiu, etc., with different titles. Its standard name is poker.

The origin of playing cards is uncertain, but it is generally believed that it originated from China Ye Zi's drama in the Southern Song Dynasty in the12nd century and13rd century. Another widely accepted saying is that it is said to have evolved from tarot cards.

The early playing cards were introduced to Europe from Egypt at the end of 14.

In the15th century, K was usually considered as the biggest card, while A was the smallest card. At present, the practice of taking A as the largest and 2 as the smallest may have started after the French Revolution at the end of18th century.

JOKER was invented by Americans and later sent back to Europe with poker.

Poker has a long history. People only know that poker originated in foreign countries and Europe. In fact, paper toys originated in China.

As early as the beginning of the week, the young man and his younger brother played a game of "cutting tung leaves into reeds" in the palace. Paper had not been invented at that time, so leaves were used as toys. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, our ancestors invented a kind of playing card, which can be used for both games and gambling, and is called "Ye Zi Xi". It is also 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. From bachelor of arts to ordinary people, they are always happy. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Ye Zi Xi" had 40 cards in each deck, which were divided into four categories. There are many patterns on the card, including people, birds, animals, flowers, birds, insects, fish and so on. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, playing cards were about 8 cm long and 2 cm wide, so people called them playing cards. Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, card gambling was still popular in Chaoshan area, and the gameplay gradually diversified from simple arrangement. Each card is printed with numbers ranging from 1 to 10, or 32 words such as "handsome, official, photograph and car" in chess, and 64 cards of bonus, green, black, white and * * * are arranged for gambling. Two or four people bet.

This card game spread to Europe in about the third century A.D./KLOC-0. After a period of time, the card evolved into a card, gradually forming a common playing card now and becoming an international card.

The earliest number of playing cards varied from place to place. 78 in Italy, 32 in Germany, 40 in Spain and 52 in France.

In the future, there will be 52 cards in each deck of international playing cards, plus two wild cards (also known as kings or children) and 54 cards. At this point, the design and color, the number of points and the patterns of K, Q and J on the playing cards are basically finalized.

Playing cards are divided into four colors, namely spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Four colors have different names. The French call it "spear, heart, square and clove leaf", the Germans call it "leaf, heart, bell and acorn" and the Italians call it "sword, coin, stick and wine glass".

Later, according to the calendar in astronomy, westerners unified the content of this card game, which was set at 54 cards and four colors. In this way, after a long period of evolution, it gradually tends to be consistent.

There are many ways to play cards, the most common ones are bridge, percentage play, red dot fishing, hundred tricks, 2 1 minute and so on. Because the number of playing cards conforms to the astronomical calendar, there is a saying that playing cards are the epitome of the calendar for the following reasons:

54 playing cards, indicating that there are 52 weeks in a year, two pairs of big cats represent the sun and kittens represent the moon; Peach, heart, square and plum represent spring, summer, autumn and winter. Hearts and diamonds represent the day, spades and clubs represent the night; Every season 13 weeks, the number of cards in each set of poker is exactly 13, and the sum of the points of 13 cards is 364, plus the number of kittens is 365, which is the same as the number of days in general years; If we increase the number of cats, it will be the number of days in leap year. There are k, q, j and other cards 12. * * *, which means there are 12 months in a year, and the sun passes through 12 constellations in a year.

Nowadays poker is not only made of paper, but also made of many other materials. Cloisonne Poker, Gold Foil Poker, Crystal Poker, Agate Poker, Ivory Poker, Elephant Bone Poker, Horn Poker, Bamboo Poker, Plexiglass Poker, FRP Poker ... These poker cards are all used for collection and are rarely used for playing. For example, agate poker, ivory elephant bone poker, and ox horn and ox bone poker are all made in the shape of mahjong, but they are still playing poker. In addition, there are many playing cards with special shapes, such as circles, Christmas trees, shoes, triangles and snowmen.

It is understood that the largest playing card in China is Kirin Poker collected by Tianjin Yang, which is 56 cm long and 36.5 cm wide. The smallest playing card is only the size of a small nail.