Crypto Casino
Torrent Gear
History of gambling houses in ancient China
Introduction: Between Ritual and Market
Excitement in Chinese tradition has never been just a "time lapse." He walked next to ritual, fortune telling, holidays and city leisure. As cities and crafts grew, games left the house and tavern into specialized spaces - gambling houses (赌场, Duchan), and the authorities alternately forbade and tolerated them, keeping a balance between morality, order and the economy.
1) Origins: dice, sticks, board games (Zhou - Han)
Play dice and lots. In the early eras (late Zhou, Han), bones and sticks were used both as a game and as a way of divination. At the junction of ritual and entertainment, a "competitive moment" arose - the bet could be symbolic or clothing.
Liubo (六博) and "yard games." Popular in Han, the liubo board game combined strategy and luck. Although there is little direct evidence of betting, the very aesthetics of competition at court and among the nobility became the prologue of the later culture of competition with prizes.
Early moral evaluations. Confucian thought was wary of "empty entertainment," putting study and service above all. But household games lived - as part of holidays and friendly meetings.
2) Tang: urbanisation, tea houses and legal bans
Cities and night markets. In Tang, urban life is accelerating, tea and wine houses (酒肆) are multiplying, where people play small bets.
Code and punishments. Tang law knew articles against professional players and organizers of brothels: the authorities feared quarrels, debts and crime.
Music, theater, games. In entertainment venues, along with musicians and storytellers, "game masters" appear - the first shadow of future "professional" venues.
3) Song: "commercial revolution" and the birth of urban "duchans"
Economic recovery. The Song era is the heyday of crafts, trade and urban culture. Entertainment quarters (your goulan, 瓦舍勾栏) provide stages for the theater, acrobats, storytellers - and places for games.
Games as a product. Specialized rooms appear: domino forerunners, card sets, bones (toushay), bets on animal competitions and riddles. Organizers take a "commission" off the table or sell drinks/snacks.
Social slice. Players are artisans, traders, military, sometimes students; the elite prefers more "noble" occupations (go, poetry), but also often plays "on interest."
Power is now "against," then "near." Bans are regularly updated, but fees and fines go to the treasury; in addition, "discharge" games reduce street tension. So a hybrid is formed: moral disapproval + pragmatic tolerance.
4) Yuan-Ming: Chinese dominoes, maps and assortment complication
Chinese dominoes and card prototypes. By the XIII-XVI centuries, sets of dominoes were fixed, early forms of card game appeared. In parallel, the household preference-like layer and "glasses" (counting options up to 21) coexist in taverns and houses.
Privacy and publicity. Most of the rates are in semi-private rooms at taverns; specialized duchans arise in port and metropolitan areas - where there is a dense money turnover.
Regulations and punishments. Minsk decrees periodically punish the organizers, especially for debts, violence and a connection with prostitution and usury.
5) Early Qing: "white dove" and enduring mythology
Baige piao (白鸽票) - "white pigeon." Local lottery practices in the southern provinces used symbols/hieroglyphs and raffles. Later they began to be associated with the "financing of the Great Wall" in antiquity - this is a historical myth: there is no systemic connection with the Han era, and the mass lottery culture is formed much later.
Underground organizers. Duchan and the "lottery" are looking for a "roof," negotiate with the quarter foremen. The authorities alternate raids with unspoken tolerance, especially during the holiday season.
6) Game menu: from dice to complex systems
Bones/picture bones. Oldest line, from a simple throw to combined betting on sequences.
Dominoes and card sets. Chinese dominoes are the basis for many rules; card sets (paper strips with signs) by the late Middle Ages give variable "families" of games.
Strategic games of interest. Guo (围棋) and xiangqi (象棋) are ritually "not gambling," but in real urban practice they also made disputes and symbolic bets.
Which was NOT in antiquity. Mahjong is a product of the late Qing/Republic (XIX-early XX centuries), does not belong to the ancient period; "Han-era keno," which funded the Great Wall, is a popular myth.
7) Space and "design" of the Duchans
Locations. Markets, port quarters, street rows near the gates, zones of the "night economy." In the afternoon - shops and tea houses, in the evening - tables, lamps, screens.
Roles. The owner of the house, "looking" at the entrance, assistants to change decks/stones, "peacemaker" to settle disputes.
Finance. Small rates with a quick turnover, "commission rent," in parallel - the sale of tea, snacks, sometimes performances of musicians to "delay" the guest.
Risks. Debts, fights, thefts, police raids; therefore - code phrases, "emergency exits," closed schedules.
8) Morality and law: three lines of influence
1. Confucian morality: priority of study and service - excitement lower on the scale of values; respect for family and reputation places limits on public play.
2. Taoist-Buddhist angle: fatalism and the cycle of luck are present in folk religiosity; fortune-telling, amulets, "happy days" easily coexist with the game - and feed it with symbols.
3. Imperial law: periodic bans, fines and corporal punishment for dens, violence, usury and "cheating commoners."
9) Gender, estates and holidays
Male leisure. Most of the visitors are men: artisans, sailors, horse messengers, soldiers on leave, small traders.
Female presence. In the entertainment districts next to the Duchans, houses of music and dance operated; sometimes hostesses/employees participated in the "social part" of the evenings, but women were rarely the organizers of the games.
Holiday peaks. The New Year, Lantern Festival and fall fairs increased the number of tables and tolerance for betting "for the good luck of the year."
10) Regional features
Southern ports (Guangdong, Fujian): Earlier commercialization of leisure activities, seaside mobility, elements of lottery culture, and dominoes.
North and capitals: strict decrees, but bohemian circles near markets, taverns and "wells of stories" (places for storytellers).
Mountain and border zones: bets on animal competitions, power contests, bone rolls in inns.
11) A long shadow: what came from antiquity to modernity
Venue format. A specialized space with a host, tables, a "commission" and drinks is a prototype of a modern gambling hall.
Regulatory logic. The pendulum "prohibition - tolerance - regulation" is repeated later, already in the colonial port zones and republican China.
Cultural good luck codes. Symbols (coins, fish, hieroglyph "fu"), "happy numbers," seasonal rituals - all this still "frames" gaming practices.
12) Myths and Facts: Short Checklist
"Keno built the Great Wall" is a myth. Lottery practices in the later imperial eras are not equal to ancient government programs.
"Mahjong - the oldest game of ancient China" - no: late Qing/early XX century.
"Confucianism completely destroyed excitement" - no: it set the moral framework; in practice, there was a tolerance for "low risk" on holidays and in the private sphere.
"Duchans were ubiquitous and open" - no: more often these are semi-private spaces with access codes, especially in the era of strict prohibitions.
Conclusion: empires, cities and eternal play
Gambling houses of ancient China were born at the junction of ritual, celebration and market. Their fate was determined by two engines: urbanization and human risk appetite. The authorities either pressed or endured, society condemned and... came again. From these dynamics grew the familiar features of East Asian gaming culture: specialized spaces, a "menu" of games from dice to dominoes, the symbolism of luck, and a pendulum of regulation. Understanding this story helps to soberly look at modern disputes - where is the line between tradition, entertainment and responsibility.