Ancient Liubo Set Recovered from Western Han Dynasty Tomb

From Peoples Daily (English version online)  Note: I do not believe that most western chess scholars agree that liubo was an early form of "chess," but writer David Li wrote a book several years ago, "The Genealogy of Chess", that made this argument.  From the comments made by archaeologist Fan Shuhai in the article, it appears that the theory of liubo as an ancient form of chess may be accepted as fact in China.

Ancient chess set from original version of game found in Hebei
16:13, September 08, 2010

Recently, an archaeology team from the Hebei Cultural Relics Research Institute has found a chess set for Liu Bo Chess, thought to be the original version of Chinese chess and chess, in an ancient tomb belonging to the Western Han Dynasty in Pingshan County.

Since May of this year, the archaeology team has carried out a protective excavation along a train station reconstruction site in Pingshan County. On a field to the west of the railway, archaeologists found 100 ancient tombs from a period lasting from the Warring States Period to the Qing Dynasty and unearthed some very rare and precious cultural relics from those tombs.

Fan Shuhai, the leader of the archaeology team, announced on Sept. 7 that they found a Liu Bo chess set, including chessmen and chess-prods, near one male's remains in a Western Han tomb. He said the discovery was "one of the most important discoveries," because "several chessboards of Liu Bo Chess have been found in China, but hardly ever the chessmen and chess-prods."

He said the chess game was invented before the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and it includes three major tools, the chessmen, chess-prods and a chessboard. The game symbolized a battle, and two players had to use their wisdom and strategies to attack each other and to win the game by forcing rivals into a deathtrap.

According to Fan, the form of chess was on the wane after the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the playing method and rules were gradually out of record both in people's memories and history books.

By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online

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Information on the game of liubo (including several images), from Cazeaux's comprehensive website on ancient chess and chess-like games.

For those interested:

A story well told is not necessarily true - being a critical assessment of David H. Li's "The Genealogy of Chess" by Peter Banaschak

A letter by Dr. David Li to E. Meissenberg of the Initiativ Gruppe Koenigstein, in response to an invitation to give a presentation at a symposium to be hosted by the IGK.

A 2005 interview of Dr. David Li at Chessbase that discusses, among other things, "The Genealogy of Chess."

Another interview of Dr. David Li at Sonshi (possibly from 2006).

A Checkerboard-Patterned Stud and Gold Serpents

Part of the magnificent and unprecented find called the Staffordshire Hoard.

I have found references in several articles to five "mysterious" small gold serpents that archaeologists cannot figure out - what they mean, what they may have been a part of.  See, for instance, this comment from an Art Daily article:  Gems to be displayed for the first time include a delicate filigree gold horse’s head and gold snakes that have left experts baffled as to what they could have been used for . . .

I wasn't able to locate a photograph online of any of these serpents.  I want to see the five little gold serpents!  Are they game pieces?  Pieces off a horse tackle?  Jewelry?

While searching for images of the serpents, I found this lovely little item from the Hoard, described as a millefiori stud.

Millefiori (literally "thousand flowers"), dates back to Roman times.  I wonder if the archaeologists will be able to pinpoint the date this lovely piece was created?  There is ongoing discussion about when the Hoard was put into the ground; and, of course, even if a date can be agreed upon for that event, individual items that make up the Hoard may be much older than 650-750 CE.

What a beautiful piece! And fascinating. For instance, notice the markings around the large inner border marked out in gold - not all of the lines are straight, and there is a distinct pattern in these lines, set at 90 degrees to each other, dividing the circle into four equal parts. 

The inner-most pattern of the black/gold/white millefiori checkerboard pattern consists of a 3x3 square with curved edges to fit into the circular pattern; the outside frame increases the size of the "square" to 4x4.  I was reminded of the oldest magic square known in history - from ancient China, the Lo Shu magic square that sums to 15 in all directions. 

The center of the Lo Shu is the number 5, and we are reminded of that number (the number of the sacred spiral seen repeatedly in nature) by the five black rectangles that make up center of the millefiori design; the number 5, which in Chinese lore is considered "masculine," is complemented by four white rectangles, four being an even number and therefore considered "feminine" by the Chinese.  Ultimately, though, the black/white checkerboard pattern is balanced to at - 8 white and 8 black, a perfect reflection of the ancient Taoist principle of yin/yang. 

The overall design of the Staffordshire Hoard stud reminds me of an ancient Chinese boardgame - liubo.  I know it sounds crazy -but look at all of the elements of the millefiore stud and compare it to this standard liubo board configuration from Wikipedia commons.  The "V"s in the four corners, facing outward; the "L"s on the center of each of the four sides; and four "T"s centered around the perimeter of the innermost space.  This inner center space could well be the ancestor of the "palace" in the later game of xiang qi, and in some versions of the ancient liubo, was a pool where fish cavorted - a sacred pool, perhaps? It is not known what role the "fish" played in liubo, only that they were sometimes "caught."

A c. 400 BCE serpent-overlaid liubo board.  You'll notice that the "V"s and the "L"s are there in their traditional places - but it's very hard to see any "T"s  amid the inner markings, although suggested by the twisting bodies of the numerous serpents and three horizontally-laid out grid marks.  Interesting.  A variation on a theme...

Just what are those markings on the inner border around the black and white checkered millefiore stud?  Could those possibly be representations of "L"s from a liubo board?

China's 'Founding Legend' May Not Be True

(Well, when it comes right down to it, how many 'founding legends' are actually true???) (Image: a Liubo diagram -- used for the ancient Chinese board game and also divination. Which came first - the game or the divination??? Physical evidence of divination in ancient China dates back to several thousand years ago, in the form of oracle bones, but who knows what sketches may have been made and erased in the dirt for thousands of years beforehand?) Article from USA Today.com (Science Fair) China's founding legend may not be true (I believe this was posted about August 21, 2009, but I could not find a date) China's founding dynasty may just be a myth, say archaeologists. In a news report in the current Science, writer Andrew Lawler surveys a decade's worth of discoveries suggesting ancient China sprang from distinct regions, rather than possessing a single national culture some 4,300 years ago. "How China became China is no mere academic topic; it goes to the very heart of how the world’s most populous and economically vibrant nation sees itself and its role in the world," Lawler writes. Since 2004, archeologists headed by Wang Wei of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing have begun tying together a broader picture of China's origins. “Most of us accepted that the Yellow River was the origin of Chinese civilization. But as we’ve done more research, we have found other cultural areas," Wei tells Science. In particular, the Xia dynasty -- written about as the founder of the Chinese state by Confucius around 600 B.C. -- seems suspect. In 1959, Chinese archaeologist reported the discovery of the capital city of Xia, dating from 2100 B.C. to 1600 B.C., but modern excavations and more recent dating, "challenge its status," writes Lawler. "Although not even half-complete, the project to define the origins of Chinese civilization has already laid to rest the notion of an imperial China rising from the central plains of the Yellow River to bestow its gifts on backward hinterlands." By Dan Vergano Well, we shall see what develops. I do not think that "founding" myths should be discarded wholesale. I believe they often hold valuable kernels of truth that can be developed into new present knowledge. One thing we know - what we knew 100 years ago isn't necessarily true today, given scientific advances in dating techniques, for instance, and new paradigms in thinking that did not exist back then. The same holds true for 100 years from now...

Faulty Chess History - Arrggghhhh!

Hola darlings! I've had a very bad day. It was raining hard this morning when I left for the office. It was difficult enough to force myself out of a cozy warm bed at 6 a.m. while the rain was pounding on the roof. The half-mile walk to the bus stop at 7:20 a.m. resulted in me getting rather wet from the waist down from the blowing rain, and my shoes sprung leaks, so I went to work with wet socks. Oh YUCK! It stopped raining shortly after I boarded the bus. Of course. It started raining again shortly before I had to get off the bus to hike the blocks to the office. Of course. There is extra walking now since the bus has been detoured by summertime street repairs. Of course course. I was not in a very good mood when I got to the office. I had a pile of work still sitting from the day before (my first day back from nearly 3 weeks vacation), my hair looked like crap and I was hungry. I did get a very fat-filled breakfast sandwich from the cafeteria, which I scarfed down at my desk while going through my emails and prioritizing the work for the day. My hair - well, I won't even go there. I am so glad to be home tonight. The rain finally stopped and the fog has blown away. I swear my grass and plants have sprung up inches since the rain started in earnest late last night. Yes, yes, as an amateur gardener I realize the importance of regular deep watering. And so I could rationalize my discomfort and mushy socks (still mushy when I got home, eeeuuuuuwww) for the greater good of my water-starved garden. So what if the rain arrived 24 hours later than first forecast, that caused me to postpone doing serious watering with the sprinkler in the back yard on Sunday, because my herbaceous friends were looking somewhat peaked. And I felt so guilty, like I was personally murdering each and every blade of grass... Arrrgggghhhh. Anyway, I get home tonight, dispose of the stinking mushy socks, dry off, and settle down for a night of blogging since there is absolutely nothing decent on network television, and I'm too cheap to subscribe to cable or satellite. But now I'm all p.o.'d again, darlings, and it is all because of THIS MAN! I am not a member of Gamasutra, and I do not wish to become a member - I mean, come on - Gamasutra? Please - give me back my Kama Sutra! And no, that's not a World War II kamikaze game involving flying planes into battle cruisers. No offense to Mr. Dinehart, and I mean that sincerely. It's not the easiest thing in the world to go back into the mists of time trying to tease out the true origins of the game we call chess. We started out as rank amateurs and ten years later we're still amateurs - although not so rank as we used to be :)) For the vast majority of people alive today, I'd say somewhere between 99.94% and 99.99% - how chess came to be is not a compelling question. But for us at Goddesschess, it is. I'd say it has become almost an obsession (eek!) Suffice to say, after 10 years of continuous work, we believe we have accumulated sufficient evidence to say with confidence that "H.J.R. Murray got it wrong, baby!" Okay - I don't hear the trumpet fanfare I want - drat! Which only goes to show you. To most people, this ain't an important issue! But to us, it is. And so I'd like to go on the record with what we think is a more correct statement of facts about the origins of chess. Without going into too much boring detail. Before I get started, I'd like to state for the record that I thought Mr. Dinehart's blog post was great. I found it entertaining, charming, humorous and informative, all about a subject I could care less about - except for the history of chess part! Well done, Mr. Dinehart. Now, as to that: So I set out to do research, and like most things in western culture, one need look east to find their roots. I started with Chess and then dug a little deeper. It lead me to Chaturaga, a game whose rules are mostly lost, but the pieces remain. This, the first serious war-game, came before Europe was even a dream. There is evidence that points to at least three ancient games having their roots in divination, and warfare was not the primary motif or even a consideration at the beginning: in ancient Egypt, the games of Mehen (the serpent game) and Senet, and in ancient China, the game of Liubo (Image: liubo board, c. 400 BCE). In later times in ancient Egypt, Mehen ceased to be played for reasons that are unknown, although some have speculated that it was because playing a game on the back of a God (actually, a Goddess, but that's another story) was insulting. Senet and the much later game of Liubo could be played "straight" - that is - as a board game of chance - or as a game of divination. Two historians of whom I am aware have pointed to Liubo as a direct predecessor of chess: David Li and Joseph Needham. Thanks to the research of several historians and ethnographers, it is now generally accepted that the earliest board games probably had their roots in attempts to determine the future. The Sanskrit word "Chaturanga", means "four parts", or "Army", which for the ancient Indians was compromised by 4 parts. It is a game of 6th century BCE Indian origins consisting of two small armies with unique units, on an 8 x 8 board.Chaturanga predates Chess, but only in the little evidence had in artifact, not by popular record. Most likely a Persian invention, Chaturanga beats Chess in record by only a number of years. I believe most chess historians are in general agreement that chaturanga was a game invented or evolved sometime during the sixth century CE, not the 6th century BCE. Some posit an earlier date for invention or evolution of the game, but to my recollection, not as far back as the 6th century BCE (except Goddesschess). Perhaps Mr. Dinehart made a typo. The Sanskrit chaturanga literally means four ("chatur") and limbs (as in arms and legs) ("anga"). As such, it does not, per se, refer to anybody's army, Indian or otherwise. Chaturanga does, however, have a counterpart in the Pahlavi (middle Persian) word chatrang, which means the mandrake plant (it has the same meaning in modern Farsi). Sanskrit and Pahlavi, and their descendants, are all derived from an ancestral "mother tongue" - proto-Indo-European, placing the sub-continent of India firmly in the "west" linguistically. I can't locate it in my notes at the moment, but I believe the Pahlavi word for four is chatar, which is very close to the Sanskrit chatur four. Chess is an Arab invention first mentioned by the court poet Bana, in a poem he wrote between "625 and 640 CE"[3]. I haven't studied Bana's quotes, and so I'll only say this: most chess historians are in agreement that chess is NOT an invention of the Arabs, but was adopted by them as the game shatranj (from Pahlavi chatrang) after the Persians were conquered in the mid-7th century CE. Thanks to the trade routes of the ancient world Chess along with Chaturanga were both brought west to the likes of Africa, Spain, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. The game evolved into chess and hung around for until 2400 years later when things got interesting. There is a lot of evidence of trade and cultural exchanges from the far east (China) to ancient Rome and beyond, over an extended period of time during period of time well within the historical, along the Silk Road routes. There is a great deal of evidence of direct trade and cultural exchanges between ancient Persia and ancient China dating to the first ruler of the Tang Dynasty (c. 600's CE). Who knows how long such trade might have existed for which evidence no longer exists, or has yet to be discovered? For instance, there is suggestive evidence that the trade in tin between the Middle East and mines in Cornwall existed as far back as the Bronze Age. There is even evidence of some ancient Egyptian pre-dynastic maces showing up in graves in far northwestern China, dating back to approximately 3500 BCE. What historians currently state is that the Arabs spread the game of chess they called shatranj as they conquered more and more lands, including modern-day Spain and Portugal. The Arab historians are quite honest in admitting that their game shatranj was taken from the Persian game chatrang. Murray wrote about how the game shatranj was carried into parts of India that were subsequently conquered by the Arabs and somehow morphed into a four-handed game where the pieces were moved depending on the throw of dice - also called chaturanga. Thus the confusion in trying to determine just what game was talked about in some written historical accounts. In any event, the four-handed dice-game called chaturanga was a far cry from the pure strategy game played by the Persians in the 6th century CE. It is documented that "chess" was spread by the Moslems (Arabs) during their conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries CE, and it is also documented that the game was spread by Vikings and other traders, including the "Rus" during the 8th to 11th centuries CE. Well, that's it, more or less in a nut-shell. There's much more - a veritable tapestry so rich in interconnecting threads that it is nearly inpenetrable. We at Goddesschess call it "The Weave." Like any good weavers, however, rather than being overwhelmed by the completed product, we start with a single thread and follow it as best we can to its origin. Pick a thread - any thread - and follow it to where it may lead. Please pay attention to all of those intersections with other threads along the way, and to where they may lead, too. Okay, end of harangue! I'm hungry, it's well past my supper time!

TLV Mirror

From the Met's archives of special exhibits (Art and Oracle, related objects): Mirror with TLV PatternChina, Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220)BronzeRogers Fund, 1917 (17.118.42)

The so-called TLV pattern, which resembles the three Roman letters, is commonly seen on the back of bronze mirrors of the Han dynasty. This sign, thought to have cosmological significance, also appears on other Han dynasty works, including diviners' plates, sundials, and the playing surfaces of the board game known as liubo, said to be a favorite of immortals.

Could this be Xi Wang Mu - Queen Mother of the West?

Xi Wang Mu (Hsi Wang Mu) is the Queen Mother of the West, the Chinese Daoist goddess of immortality. Many legends have been written about Xi Wang Mu; in some, she hands out beautiful ripe peaches to worthy mortals who, when they eat the fruit, attain the gift of everlasting life. In some legends, Xi Wang Mu started out her life as a mortal woman who achieved everlasting life by mastering a series of tests; in still older legends, Xi Wang Mu was a goddess or the instrument of the primary Chinese mother goddess who inflicted terror and vengence on men, a fearsome creature who is part woman, part tiger. Xi Wang Mu shares many characteristics with other goddesses during the ancient times, including the Egyptian goddesses Isis and Hathor, the Assyrian goddess Astarte (Ashtoroth or Ashtoreth) and the Babylonian goddess Inanna.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties in particular (220 BCE - 206 BCE and 206 BCE - 220 CE), the Goddess Xi Wang Mu became closely identified with the board game liubo (literally "six sticks"). Liubo was first mentioned in events in the Shang dynasty (1600-1028 BCE), some six to twelve centuries after the invention of Weiqi ("Go"), but it died out from popular by the 5th century CE.

Some authors have suggested that liubo was an ancestor of Xiangqi - Chinese Chess; others see no connection, and others still say the evidence is insufficient to say either way.

When I saw this photograph, I was reminded of certain depictions of Xi Wang Mu, one of her titles of whom is "Queen of the Heavens." Here is the story of the photograph:

July 3, 2007
Metaphysical China: Buddha/Mary calling?

Some odd news from the nation's favourite English paper today:

A human-shaped shadow in the middle of a rainbow halo appears on Zushan Mountain after a heavy rainfall in Qinhuangdao, North China's Heibei Province, July 1, 2007. The vision, which many tourists believed to be the Buddha, stayed for more than an hour. Meanwhile, it seems a revered shrine in Henan that has attracted 40,000 pilgrims annually on news of Marian apparitions may be torn down for "illegal religious activity". Hmm.

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There is a scientific explanation for the phenomenon called "brocken spectre." But I think I prefer my explanation - it's a manifestation of the Goddess...

Typical Research Project

Before I run to the supermarket and then cut the grass (it's overdue for a trim), I thought I'd share a bit about one of my current "research projects." I've just finished reading Cathy Forbes' 1992 book "The Polgar Sisters - Training or Genius?" (I highly recommend it - I believe she was unfairly vilified for writing this book, and I find that many of her insights into the Polgar sisters have proven to be true) and later this afternoon I'll settle down on the deck, a tall ice-filled glass of cheap vino at hand under the shade of a 7 foot umbrella (it's supposed to get up to 80 and I don't want to get sunburnt) and start reading Susan Polgar's latest book "Breaking Through," which will, presumably, cover much of the same territory that Forbes covered in her 1992 book. Of course, though, from an entirely different perspective. After that, "Chess Bitch" by IM Jennifer Shahade is on the list. The object of this burst of reading about female chessplayers is to fill in background information for two articles I'm working on for Goddesschess - one inspired by David Shenk's latest research project into whether geniuses are born or created - well, that's not an exact description of what he's working on, that's my paraphrase of how I understand his research at the present time. Shenk wrote a book last year that I'm also reading (in between all the other reading projects I'm juggling) - "The Immortal Game - A History of Chess" and I think he did an excellent job of capturing the mystique and allure of chess. Oh yes - he also provided a ton of fascinating information about the game I love - and hate. Chess is a black hole that sucks you in - whether as a player or as an historian, which, I guess, is my avocation - chess historian. But not your average historian, because for the most part I could care less about who played who with what opening when; nope, I and my cohorts in chess history apostacy are interested in the really ancient stuff, the stuff that lead to the invention of such games as senet, twenty squares (the Royal Game of Ur), mehen, backgammon, chess, liubo, xiang qi, etc. And I've gotten totally off subject, lol! Once my research is done, one article will be about sexual discrimination in chess; the second article will be an examination of Shenk's intriguing research, but only in connection with chessplayers (i.e., are they "born" or "made?") I hope to have them both written soon; I've got bits and pieces saved on the computer already, but it's always a struggle to pull everything together and try to make a cohesive, understandable whole. I enjoy writing; I consider myself rather good at it (ahem). Still, it's MUCH easier to just continue to do research - one then never has to commit anything into final form for death by a thousand pinpricks and slurs of the critics...