A pair of Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) ceramic tomb figurines of two gentlemen playing liubo
Chinese
六博
Literal meaning
six sticks
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
liùbó
Wade–Giles
liu4-po2
IPA
[ljôʊpwǒ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
luhkbok
Jyutping
luk6bok3
IPA
[lok̚˨.pɔːk̚˧]
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
/lɨuk̚.pwɑk̚/
Old Chinese
Baxter–Sagart (2014)
*kruk pˤak
Zhengzhang
*ruɡ.paːɡ
Liubo (Chinese: 六博; Old Chinese *kruk pˤak “six sticks”) was an ancient Chinese board game for two players. The rules have largely been lost, but it is believed that each player had six game pieces that were moved around the points of a square game board that had a distinctive, symmetrical pattern. Moves were determined by the throw of six sticks, which performed the same function as dice in other race games.
The game was invented no later than the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, and was popular during the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). However, after the Han dynasty it rapidly declined in popularity, possibly due to the rise in popularity of the game of Go, and it became totally forgotten.
Knowledge of the game has increased in recent years with archeological discoveries of Liubo game boards and game equipment in ancient tombs, as well as discoveries of Han dynasty picture stones and picture bricks depicting Liubo players.
Liubo (Chinese: 六博; Old Chinese *kruk pˤak “six sticks”) was an ancient Chinese board game for two players. The rules have largely been lost, but it is...
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chart for bloodletting based on the Luoshu square. The Luoshu, the Hetu, liubo boards, sundials, Han diviner's boards (shì 式) and luopan for fengshui,...
Art - vol 1" (PDF). SOAS: 370, 416. "BabelStone Blog : The Lost Game of Liubo Part 4 : Game Boards and Equipment". www.babelstone.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-08-05...
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but seems related to expressions of mourning; a text covering the game Liubo 六博, a topic discussed in other manuscripts from the Warring States era;...
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visit to the capital Chang'an, and they gambled together by playing the liubo board game (heavily tied to divination and predictions of the future). While...
bloodletting based on the Luo Shu Square. The Luoshu, the Yellow River Map, liubo boards, sundials, Han diviners' boards (式; shì) and luopan for feng shui...
visit to the capital during Wen's reign, he played a board game called liubo with then crown prince Liu Qi, the future Emperor Jing. During a heated...
Chinese texts, hypothesizes that general Han Xin drew on the earlier game of Liubo to develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204–203 BC. The...
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