page_title: Liubo
section_title: Equipment
hierarchical_section_title: Liubo / Equipment
caption_attribution_description: English: Set of six jadeite game pieces for use in the game of Liubo. From the tomb of King Zhao Mo of Nanyue (r.137–122 BCE).
context_page_description: Liubo is an ancient Chinese board game played by two players. For the rules, 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. 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.
context_section_description: Liubo boards and game equipment are often found as grave goods in tombs from the Han Dynasty. Various types and sizes of Liubo board have been unearthed, made from a variety of materials, including wood, lacquered wood, pottery, stone and bronze. Some of the boards are simple square slabs of stone or wood, but others are supported by knobs at the four corners, and some are built as tables with long legs. Regardless of their size or shape, the common feature of all Liubo boards is the distinctive pattern that is carved or painted on their surface:
  All excavated boards have the angular V-shaped marks at the corners and L-shaped marks at the center of the edges, as well as the central square and T-shaped protrusions, and most boards also have four marks (usually circular but sometimes a decorative pattern) between the corner mark and the central square. However, on some boards each circular mark is replaced by a straight line joining the corner mark to the corner of the inner square, and in a few cases there is no mark between the corner and the square at all.
  In many tombs only the Liubo board has survived (especially if made of stone or bronze), and it can be assumed that any associated game pieces have decayed, whereas in other cases the game pieces (which are often made of ivory) have survived but the Liubo board (which is often made of wood or lacquer) has rotted away. However, in 1973 a unique, complete set of Liubo equipment in a lacquer box was discovered in a 2nd-century BCE tomb at Mawangdui (believed to be that of the son of the Marquis of Dai). This Liubo set comprises the following items (the Chinese description of the items in the inventory of grave goods that was found in the tomb are given in brackets):
  1 lacquered wooden game box (45.0 × 45.0 × 17.0 cm.) [博一具]
  1 lacquered wooden game board (45.0 × 45.0 × 1.2 cm.) [博局一]
  12 cuboid ivory game pieces (4,2 × 2.2 × 2.3 cm.), six black and six white [象其十二]
  20 ivory game pieces (2.9 × 1.7 × 1.0 cm.) [象直食其廿]
  30 rod-shaped ivory counting chips (16.4 cm. long) [象筭三十枚]
  12 ivory throwing rods (22.7 cm. long) [象□□□□ (last four characters obliterated)]
  1 ivory knife (22.0 cm. long) [象割刀一]
  1 ivory scraper (17.2 cm. long) [象削一]
  1 eighteen-sided die with the numbers "1" through "16" and characters meaning "win" and "lose" [not listed in the inventory]
  The six black and six white game pieces are the main game pieces to be moved around the board, and similar sets of cubic or cuboid game pieces made from ivory, jadeite or rock crystal have been found in several other tombs. In at least one case the game pieces are not distinguished by colour, but by having an engraving of a tiger on the pieces of one set and an engraving of a dragon on the pieces of the other set.
  The twelve long rods are two sets of the six throwing sticks that the players use to determine their moves, and which the game is named after (Liubo="six sticks"). Most Han stone pictures of Liubo show the players throwing sticks onto a mat between themselves (with the Liubo board to the side of the mat), and ceramic model Liubo sets such as the one excavated in 1972 from Lingbao in Henan province show six sticks lined up neatly between the two players.
  Sets of thirty rod-shaped counting chips have also been found in association with Liubo sets from other tombs.
  However, the twenty ivory game pieces and the eighteen-sided die in the Mawangdui set are not typically associated with Liubo boards in other tombs, and it is possible that they were not used for playing Liubo, but were equipment for a different game. A similar eighteen-sided die with numbers "1" through "16", "win" and "take a drink" was found in association with two sets of twenty copper, coin-shaped tokens (one set inscribed "Number 1" through "Number 20", and the other set inscribed with three-character lines of poetry) in a Han tomb at Mancheng County in Hebei. No Liubo board or Liubo game pieces were found in the tomb, and because of the inscription "take a drink" (酒來) on one face of the die, the die and sets of tokens are supposed to have been used for 
caption: Six jadeite Liubo game pieces from the tomb of King Zhao Mo of Nanyue (reigned 137 BC – 122 BC)
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