"Long cards" 2: 川牌 Sichuan Cards

No. 888- [Sichuanese domino cards] Binwang, 105+10c
No. 888 《川牌》 宾王， 105+10副

 Now we come to the other form of "Long cards" -- Ones based on Chinese dominoes. There are several kinds of Domino cards used in China, such as the "Fifteen point" (十五湖) cards used in Hong Kong ( see Here). These cards are used in Sichuan [Szechuan] ( yes, the same place as the sauce!) and are thus called by the Chinese "Sichuanese cards" ( 川牌)

The composition of this deck differs in several ways from Chinese dominoes made of wood.
A set of domino tiles contains 21 unique tiles. Some of these tiles are doubled. The complete set contains 32 tiles.
  The structure of the Sichuanese deck is simpler. There are Four copies of each tile/subject. The deck thus contains 21 x 4 = 84 cards. However, some decks, like this one, possess 5 copies of each card. To these 105 cards are added "Jokers" . There are two kinds of joker, with five copies of each kind. The whole deck thus contains 115 cards.

The pips in the Sichuanese deck are oriented horizontally, unlike the vertical arrangement of pips in the Fifteen-point cards. 

In the middle of each card, is depicted a personage from The Water margin, a Chinese novel. The personage depicted does not influence the actual value of the card. It is merely decoration. Decks are produced that lack the central personage
The individual ranks are also given names. For example, the [6,6] is called "Heaven" . These names are the ones used in Sichuan. Some differ from the names used in Pai Gow, which may be more familiar to western readers.  

Pips	Chinese Name	English Translation	Character depicted
[6,6]	天	Heaven	Song Jiang, leader of the 108  outlaws
[1,1]	地	Earth	Gongsun Sheng
[4,4]	人	Human	Tai Ming
[1,3]	和	Harmony	Zi Jing
[5,5]	梅子	Plum Blossom	Ge Ping
[3,3]	長三	Long Three	Wu Song
[2,2]	長二	Long Two	Monk Hua

 Of the five copies of each card, one of them is marked with a green flourish (like the  [5,6]) , and the other four are plain. (like the [4,6]). I have chosen to alternately show cards that bear the flourish, and cards that do not. I must emphasize that ALL the subjects exist in Flourished and unflourished forms. 

Pips	Chinese Name	English Translation	Character depicted
[5,6]	斧頭	Axe	Zhang Qing
[4,6]	紅十	Red Ten	Yang Zhi
[1,6]	高高兒	Tall One	Suo Cao
[1,5]	貓貓兒	Kitty	Xu Ning
[4,5]	紅九	Red Nine	Lu Junyi
[3,4]	紅七	Red Seven	Huyan Zhuo
[1,4]	紅五	Red Five	Li Ying

The Last Seven cards in the deck. The central personage is printed in Red or Black, depending on the presence of red pips ( the 2s and 4s) in the card. For example, the [1,4] which has red pips, has its its personage printed in Red. The [2,3], which has no red pips, has its personage printed in Black. This is probably economizing on the printer's part. However, the presence of red pips affects the score a card is given in the games played. An observant player might exploit this feature.   

Pips	Chinese Name	English Translation	Character depicted
[3,6]	黑九	Black Nine	Wu Yong
[2,6]	平八	Level Eight	Lin Chong
[2,5]	黑七	Black Seven	Hua Rong
[2,3]	黑五	Black Five	Zhu Gong
[3,5]	黑八	Black Eight	Guan Sheng
[2,4]	二紅	Two Red	Liu Tang
[1,2]	丁丁兒	“Ding Ding”	Dai Zhong

The two "Jokers" of the deck. On the Left, printed in green is 聽用- Ting Yong- "Listen and Use". On the Right, printed in red is the 財神 Cai shen-- " God of Wealth" . 

Here are two copies of the [1,1] one with the flourish, and one without. 

Games played with the deck

The two main games played with the deck are 打亂出- Da Luan Chu, a Trick-taking game, and 鬥十四 - Dou shisi , a rummy-like game. I hope to describe the rules of the two games in subsequent posts. 

Water Margin cards 水滸牌

"High Quality plastic poker cards" ( Water Margin cards), Yunchu, 120c
“高級全塑扑克牌” （水滸牌）,雲楚 ， 120c.
Here is another deck of money-suited cards. The cards seem to be fairly well-known. An Example from the 1960s is shown here  ( called "3 suits-10). Despite being half a century younger, the decks are extremely similar. This present deck is printed on Plastic. Chinese playing-card makers seem to have taken a liking to the material.
This deck possesses 30 subjects. There are four copies of each card.

The suit of coins. Nine is on the Left. The cards are ranked, from Left-to-right, in descending order, with the Ace on the Right. The same holds for all other images. 

 Notice that the ace and Nine of coins have the coins replaced by human figures. Both are personages from the Water Margin. Names of characters from the same novel are also written on the other cards. For instance, the name Bai Sheng 白胜 is written over the two of coins, even though there is no portrait of him on the card.  

Rather helpfully, each card has its rank spelled out on top of each card. So, on the six of coins, the words expressing the rank 六并  are spelled out, above the six coins depicted.

The word used is 并, which, currently means "also" . In all probability the character is shorthand for "餅“, meaning "Cake", which fits the meaning-- a cake of silver. 

The suit of strings, or as they are called here, "Fish". This may seem an odd choice, but the Chinese counting-word for fish 条 is the same as the one for strings. The 2, 3 and 4 of fishes appear to be swimming, but their brethren on the higher ranks appear to be dead, hanging on strings. 

The ace of coins is here called the "Small fish" . The personage depicted on the card, Zhang Shun was well-known for his powers in swimming. 

Note the bold white-on-black geometric designs on the cards. These function as the indices. Each card has a unique index. Also note that the indices in the Ace and Nine in all ranks are tinged with red.

The suit of myriads. Here the personages on each card are actually depicted. On the Nine of myriads there is the leader of the 108 outlaws of the Water Margin, Song Jiang. 

Like the previous suits, only the figures on the Ace and Nine are colored. The cheery color scheme of red and yellow is austere compared compared to some other decks ( like this one),

On the top row, are the honour cards, called "Old Thousand", "White Flower" and "Red Flower" 

The manufacturers also print a luxury version of the cards, with gold ink . The cards from the luxury version are marked A, the ones from the normal version marked B. The luxury and Normal versions are known by different names. The Normal version is called 雲楚-- Yunchu and the Luxury version called 明富 Mingfu

Above are shown the boxes that contain the cards. (A) and (B) show two sides of the box. C and D are the backs of the boxes. They contain an inscription, extolling the virtues of the cards. The inscriptions are identical, save the name assigned to the cards. C is the box for Yunchu, D for Minfu. Below is a translation of the inscription.  

" Yunchu Poker cards are made of imported material, which has been refined through stamping. As a result, the cards are opaque, do not crack, and have clearly printed pictures. Of durable make, the firm's cards are of the top quality, and have a wide circulation through the country, warmly received by a great many users. 

[ Red on white text] High Class All Plastic Poker cards"

. It is interesting to see the cards being referred to as 撲克牌-- Pu ke Pai  " Poker cards"  even though it is quite impossible to play the game of Poker with the deck