Bural model of liubo-players, game board and table
Medium:Moulded, slab-built, hand-made earthenware with glaze
Geography: China
Date: 2nd century AD
Period: Eastern Han Dynasty
Dimensions:6.2 x 22.8 x 17.8 cm
Object number: 992.78.1.3
Credit Line: Dr. Herman Herzog Levy Bequest Fund
Gallery Location:Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of China
DescriptionTwo players sit at a low table that carries a rectangular slab in the middle. One sits with his hands lifted over his knees, apparently waiting for his opponent, who has his arm stretched out, to make his move. The lines of the square gaming board proper are engraved on the rectangular slab in a simplified way: only the V's at the corners are indicated; the inner square and the T's and L's are missing. The six sticks that are thrown as part of the game are aligned on the other half of the slab. Six large and five small stones are distributed on the gaming board. Liubo players. Glazed earthenware. Eastern Han Dynasty, 100 - 200. The liubo (six rods), once a craze from ca. 350 BC to 200 AD, died out by the 4th century and the rules of the game forgotten. We now only know that it was a game of chance, using either the six rods or dice to determine the moves of the pieces.
