Chinese Leisure & Martial Arts
Mahjong
Arguably one of the most famous games in China, Mahjong, meaning ‘sparrow,’ is a four-player game involving strategy, skill and calculation. A certain degree of luck can also influence the game. Legend says Confucius developed the game in around 500 BC, though this is unlikely to be true.
Many believe it was based on Madiao, a Chinese card game using 40 cards and nine suits, similar to Mahjong tile numbering, though Mahjong has only three suits.
Weiqi (Go)
A two-player board game, Go was once considered to be one of the most important skills for a civilised person to learn. Known as weiqi in Chinese, igo or go in Japanese and baduk in Korean, it is distinguished from ‘go’ in English by the use of a capital G. It is best known in the West by its Japanese name of go because early Westerners learnt how to play from Japanese people. Igo comes from the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters, meaning ‘board game of surrounding.’ A popular game in East Asia for more than four and a half millennia, it is gaining global popularity. The game’s simple rules conceal the strategy and skill required to play it.
Black and white stones are placed on a grid and the object is to occupy a larger portion of the board than your opponent.
Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
Xiangqi is a two-player board game similar to western chess. Its present form originated in China and therefore, in the West, it is known as Chinese Chess. The first Chinese character can be translated as ‘image’ or ‘representational’, making Xiangqi literally translate as ‘representational chess.’ Because of the first character’s alternative meaning, this game is often referred to as ‘elephant chess.’
The earliest literary reference to Xiangqi dates from the 9th century AD, though its precise origins have yet to be confirmed. It is one of the world’s most popular board games.