Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 2/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
Pastimes 戲玩, Riddles, etc.
Under this heading will be found the recreations both of the old and the young. Games of chance have a great power over the Chinese mind, and the mania for gambling would seem almost as binding as the craving for opium, and its moral injury almost as certain.
A children's game of chess, called the pig's foot chess, chu t'i ch'a 猪蹏义 is played on a board like the following, which is something in shape like a pig's foot. The two rings indicate the two checkers.
Ox-horn chess, niu chüeh ch'i, 牛角棋, is played on a board somewhat after this shape. One person runs his checker up one side of the horn and the other up the other side. The motive is to avoid being cornered in the point of the horn.
A game of draughts, chang san ch'i 長三棋, played with six checkers on each side, has a board something like this.
Another game called slanting draughts, hsieh 斜 san ch'i is played with three checkers each on a board of this pattern.
Another game, something like draughts, is called wei lao ho shang 圍老和尚. The board is of this pattern.
The idea is to avoid being driven back into the horn.
The most famous game of this class is wei ch'i 圍棋, played with 360 counters.
Common games of chance are pitch and toss, pan ma ch'iao mei 扮麻雀妹, in which the Chinese and Manchu characters on a cash are the 'heads and tails'; to play cards, ta p'ai 打牌, which are of paper, ivory or wood; to play dominoes, ta ku 骨 p'ai, a very old game in China; to throw dice, chih shai-tzŭ 擲骰子, using either 3 or 5 dice; to raffle, yao pao 搖寶, by means of dice; the wheel of fortune, chuan't'ang ping 轉糖餅, where sweets are won or stakes lost according as the wheel stops; guessing fingers (morra), hua ch'üan; and many others.
Scholars have a game of the "missing word" in a line of poetry, shih pao 詩寶. There is a game with cards each bearing the name of a province; the idea is to make poetry by arranging these characters: thus, 同福寧東江, 宣薊昌, 南河林廣浙, 臺貴陝雲章.
There are many games with cash, such as throwing cash at a coin either placed on the ground or fallen there in the rebound from a wall at which it has been cast, pan ch'ien 拌錢 and chuang 撞 ch'ien.
Or the cash is aimed at a small hole in the ground, tiu wo 丟窩, or it is thrown at the central one of some 16 bean-curd moulds, tiu tou-fu hsiang 丟豆腐箱.
A hollow in the ground is lined with brass cash, and players throw walnuts, winning each cash they hit, ta hê t'ao 打核桃.
A piece of sugar-cane is balanced on a knife. The knife is removed and a cut made at the falling cane. The person gets as much as he cuts off, if he splits it down the middle he gets the whole.
The Chinese have the well-known amusement of blindfolding one eye, then walking up to a sugarcane stuck in the ground and trying to drop a ring on to it. The winner gets the cane. This is called kua kan chê 掛甘蔗.
A person is taken near a wall, then blindfolded, turned round several times, and told to walk to the wall; mo chao pi 摸照壁.
Blindman's buff, ta hsia mo 打瞎摸; hide and seek, ts‘ang mao mao 藏貓貓 (the seeker being the mao or cat); marbles, tan tan tan 彈; turning cart wheels, or turning like a kestrel ta yao-tzŭ fan shên 打鷂子翻身; a kind of hockey ta ch‘ou niu 打臭牛, ‘to hit the stinking ox’; top-spinning, ch‘ai ti ko tzŭ 扯地鴿子; swinging, ta ts‘ui 打鞦; are all familiar pastimes.
Kiteflying, fang fêng-chêng 放風箏 in the second moon is done by grayheaded men as well as by children. The kites are in the shape of eagles, bats, etc., etc., and if one should fall on a house it is unlucky and no one dare claim it.
The shuttle-cock in the game t‘i chien-tzŭ 踢毽子 is a brass cash with a few feathers attached; it is kept in the air by using the side of the foot for a battledore. Experts turn round once after each kick.
To turn to a different class of pastime: eagles are kept for catching birds and rabbits, fang ying 放鷹. The sport is so exciting that a proverb says: ‘After seeing an eagle catch a rabbit the glory of an official career sinks into insignificance.’
Game is hunted with a kind of setter, fang lieh ch‘üan 放獵犬 or fang nien shan kou 趝山狗. These dogs have long tapering noses and slight bodies.
The musk-deer is hunted, shuan chang-tzŭ 拴獐子 for the musk. A coolie carrying a small quantity of musk can easily be detected by the smell. The deer horns are sold for medicine and the skin for leather.
Jackdaws and various other birds are kept for fighting purposes fang ch‘üeh ta ts‘ai 放鵲打彩; which means gambling.
Practising with bow and arrows, ts‘ao kung chien 操弓箭 is a sport now going out of use. So is the exercise of the heavy knife, shua ta tao 耍大刀. These knives weighed 80 to 140 catties, and even more.
Many pets are kept, such as the green parrot, ying ko 鸚哥; the Liao-tung or black parrot, liao ko 遼哥; the canary pai yen 白燕; the quail, an shun 鵪鶉; monkeys hou tzŭ, 猴子 which are said to be better than dogs as a protection against thieves; rabbits t‘u tzŭ 兔子, generally in narrow-necked crocks sunk in the ground; pigeons ko-tzŭ 鴿子, some of the best carriers returning home from 1000 li or more; they are often sold, and as they always go home again good profit is made; white mice which drive little wheels in their cages; stove crickets, tsao chi-tzŭ 竈鷄子; and 'ocean insects,' yang ch‘ung 洋蟲, which are said to cure tuberculosis. I do not know what these insects really are.
The Chinese are great bird-fanciers and pet-keepers, and domesticate many birds besides those above mentioned. Lotteries, smoking, snuffing, etc., are other amusements; it is a nation of smokers. Probably the dismal homes make the people love the pipe, and the crudeness of medical science makes them take to opium.