Now I want to take a look at the Culin-Cox-Forbes theory starting at it's roots with the arrow and divination. This section will show the versatility of arrows - how they were able to develop into modern playing cards, and also how they developed into three different forms of divination - one of which would later go on to become modern-day chess.
Stewart Culin first discussed the importance of arrows and divination and their connection to the origin of board games. Take a look:
Quote:
The study of the games of Korea reveals the fact that there were two principal systems of divinations in Eastern Asia, from which games arose, in both of which the arrow or its substitute was employed as the implement of magic.
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xix of the introduction)
How Playing Cards Developed from Arrows
Culin writes how arrows in Korea originally were marked to show ownership and who among hunters was the one who succeeded in kiling a wild animal:
Quote:
Examining the arrows used in Korea at the present day, they are found to occur in sets of five, each archer usually having three sets. The five arrows are number with Chinese characters from one to five. The arrows of each individual bear his name, also written in Chinese characters, and are further distinguished by colored rings as red, green, or black on the shaftment, by which the archer more quickly recognizes his own. At an early period in culture the arrow, marked with the designation of its owner, by which he recognized his quarry or the foe that fell before his arm, came to stand as his symbol and representative.
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xix of the introduction)
From Stewart Culins Book "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) (pg xx of the introduction):
Quote:
The Korean playing-cards again furnish the most direct evidence in Asia of the ceremonial use of the arrow in divination, which afterward became an amusement. They still bear representations of the feathers of the arrows from which they were derived.
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xxii-xxiii of the introduction)
From Catherine Perry Hargrave's Book "A History of Playing Cards" (pg 6):
Qiúqiān - A Type of Divination Derived From Arrows
Culin mentions a chinese divinatory process:
Quote:
. . . in which arrows are shaken at random from the lot tube (quiver) . . .
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xxiii of the introduction)
Culin identifies this "game" as "ts'im t'ung" (pinyin: qiāntǒng (签筒) which literally means "stick cylinder". The actual act of using the qiāntǒng is known as qiúqiān (simp.求签, trad. 求籤 or 求簽) which means to "to seek a stick". When you "seek a stick", you shake out a numbered stick from inside the "stick cylinder". In Buddhist or Daoist temples, groupings of different fortune papers can be found. You match the number on your stick with one of the groups and take the corresponding fortune paper (籤詩, qiānshī or "stick verse") to see what your fortune is. Culin states that this would later develop into a type of lottery-game.
From Stewart Culins Book "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) (pg xxiii of the introduction):
签筒 - qiāntǒng - "stick cylinder"
From Wikipedia - qiāntǒng (stick cylinder) and qiānshī (stick verses) used for qiúqiān (seeking a stick):
A fortune-ticket my girlfriend received from a Buddhist temple in Chinatown, NY:
There is another instrument used in qiúqiān known as jiào (珓). Stephen L. Field cites Richard J. Smith's book Fortune-Tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society for the following quote:
Quote:
After offering devotions to Huang Daxian, each supplicant asks for his help in solving a particular problem. The worshipper then shakes the bamboo container in a downward motion until a single stick falls away from the rest. He or she then removes it, and casts a pair of crescent-shaped bamboo or wooden blocks called jiao to see if the stick selected was the "correct" one. These jiao are rounded on one side and flat on the other. If both blocks land flat side down on the ground, the answer is no; if one flat side is up and the other down, the answer is yes; if both flat sides land facing upward, it means that the god is laughing--try again.
From "Ancient Chinese Divination" by Stephen L. Field, pg 127
Jiào - 珓 - From http://www.yuleshow.org/
Shìzhú - Another Type of Divination Derived From Arrows
Culin also writes about another method of divination that uses the Chinese book known as the Yì Jīng (I Ching) also known as The Book of Changes. This classic method of divination involves the separation and counting of sticks (often referred to in English as yarrow stalks):
Quote:
A method of divination with the entire bundle of arrows, which is quite intelligible, exists, however, at the present day in Korea, China, and Japan. In this system, called Eki (Chinese, yik (Yì-易-Change)) in Japan, the arrows are primarily employed as magical appliances to ascertain the number, place, or direction being discovered by counting. [...] As practiced at the present day in Japan, 50 slender, rounded splints of bamboo are employed. These sticks, called zeichiku (Chinese, shai chuk (筮竹-shìzhú-divinatory bamboo)), may vary in length from two to fourteen inches.
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xxvi of the introduction)
From Stewart Culins Book "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) (pg xxvii of the introduction):
筮竹 - Shìzhú - "divinatory bamboo"
He writes:
Quote:
It has been assumed without discussion that the zeichiku were originally arrows or arrow shaftments.
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xxix of the introduction)
Divination with the shìzhú is done by seperating the sticks into two groups and counting them. This will allow the diviner to see if he has a yīn or yáng outcome (more on this in the next section). He then records this outcome using a series of blocks known as Suànmù (算木).
Unknown Source
算木 - Suànmù - "Calculating Wood"
How the Game of Nyout Arose from Divination with Arrow Staves
It is commonly believed that the game of Pick Up Sticks derived from shìzhú. Culin attributes the development of the game of Nyout to a form of divination in which two faced staves are tossed and their outcome is checked with a special book that can be connected to the I Ching:
Quote:
The second method of divination which has given rise to games is one in which several two faced staves are tossed and numerical counts attributed to their various falls. Of this, the game of Nyout is a striking and typical example. In Nyout, as in many similar games of the same order, direction or place is determined by counting around a diagram which may be regarded as representing the world and its quarter. Such games are found widely distributed throughout the world. In North America they occur in one form or another in almost every tribe, both East and West, and among the Indians of the South-western United States they exist with rules identical with those of Nyout, played with four staves upon practically the same diagram. The staves employed in one of these games, the Zhon Ahl of the Kiowas, enable us, from the arrow marks upon them, to refer to the origin of the staves used in America to the arrow. . . . It would appear probable from the American games that these staves were derived from arrows . . .
From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (part xxxii-xxxiii of the introduction)
From R.C. Bell's "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations" (pg 1):
I would also like to propose an alternate theory that the sticks used in Zohn Ahl and Nyout may have been derived from suànmù or jiào as opposed to from arrows. Since many believe that shìzhú developed into Pick Up Sticks, then I see no reason as to why another game could be have come from similar divination instruments such as suànmù or jiào. The timeline of these items is anyones guess, but the main idea is that they could all be somehow linked, due to their similar nature.