Origin, History and Evolution

of Playing Cards

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Origin of playing cards

A History of playing cards in Europe

First historical references to cards in Europe

Introduction of playing cards into Europe

A History of European packs

Arrival of playing cards to America

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I) Origin of Playing Cards

Due to the very long history of cards nobody knows with certainty where they originated first. Who invented them, how and under what circumstances will always remain an open question. Were they invented by one or few people or they appeared as a result of evolution of other gambling tools? – that mystery will stay unsolved. We only have few legends and few theories, but not the final answers. Due to fragility of cards there won’t be any archaeological evidence to prove or reject different theories of cards origin. There are 3 most probable birth places of playing cards – China, Korea and India (some historians add Persia).

Chinese Roots

Chinese dictionary “Ching-tsze-tung” dating from 1628 includes the legend about creation of “dotted” cards. According to it numerous members of Emperor’s army of concubines invented playing cards in a desperate attempt to break the monotony of their existence and keep themselves occupied. Dictionary specified 1120 as the year when collective concubines’ creativity came up with the idea of cards.

Early Chinese cards had resemblance with and relation to other tools and things which already existed in everyday life. Some cards resembled Chinese paper money; others were derived from dominoes or were inspired by chess.

Chinese had quite a few different packs in the different areas of the country. The difference was in the number of cards in the packs, number and type of suits and court cards. The most simple and wide-spread pack had 30 cards, 3 suits and three court cards. The suits included cash; strings and myriads. The popular court cards were red flower, white flower and thousand myriads.

Chinese cards were produced by woodblock printing on thin card board. They usually were 3.5 inches long and from one half to one and a half inches wide. Many characteristics of Chinese cards can be seen in European cards. Cards were rounded at the top and bottom and they had markings at both ends to allow a player easy recognition of a card without flipping it over. The most usual back colors were black and red.

Chinese money-derived cards

Source : Hargrave (1966) Chinese domino-based cards

Early Korean Cards

Around 1900, Stewart Culin who was a renowned anthropologist and expert on Korean and Chinese games came to conclusion that Korean playing cards evolved from divinatory arrows. Those symbolic arrows were used in 6th century to predict future and in religious rituals. They were made from bamboo pieces.

The Korean packs had eight suites and each suit was represented by 10 cards. Nine of them were numbers from 1 to 9. The tenth and the highest card was “the general”. The suits showed man, fish, crow, pheasant, antelope, star, rabbit and horse.

Early Korean Cards

Source : Hargrave (1966)

Cards in India

India has its own legend explaining the creation of cards. It’s similar to Chinese one in a way that it connects cards with royalty and female boredom in King’s boudoirs. According to Hindu legend the wife of a Maharaja was bored and irritated by her husband’s disgusting habit of constantly pulling hair from his beard. In order to keep his hands occupied and away from his beard and to entertain herself and her husband, the wife conceived the idea of the game which used cards.

Unlike the cards in China and Korea, Indian cards had a round shape. They were made of ivory, paper, wood, cotton fiber, mother of pearl and even palm leaves. Their diameter was from one and a half to four and a half inches. Cards were represented by ten suits, each composed of ten numeric and two court cards. One of the court cards of each suit illustrates one of the incarnations of God Vishnu and the second one shows a detail related to that particular incarnation. Soldiers, elephants, ships, horses, demons, women etc. can be found among the cards suits.

The earliest known to Europeans Indian card game was the game called “Ganjifa” dating to 16th century. Some historians believe that this game migrated to India from Persia even before Moslem conquest of India.