Chinese Money-Suited Playing Cards

Ma Diao Pai. China. 38 of 40 cards. ~ 1887. Sent from China to Stewart Culin by J. P. Cowles in 1887. It eventually resided in the Brooklyn Museum but its whereabouts is now unknown. This picture was constructed from a photo in the 'Ostasiatische Spielkarten' (East Asia Playing Cards) Exhibition Catalogue by Gernot Prunner 1989 (after Asia, Vol. XXXI, Nr.3).
The ranking and value of each card in a suit is usually from left to right, so the card of the lowest rank and value is on the left and the highest on the right (the cards with a red stamp). The ranking of each suit is from bottom to top - the lowest suit is at the bottom and the highest at the top.
However, in this deck the bottom 'Cash' suit is reversed such that the lowest ranked card is valued the highest and the highest ranked card ('Nine Cash') is valued the lowest. The highest value card is called 'Zero Cash' and shows a person presenting a treasure and sports a red stamp. The card next to this highest value card is the 'Half Cash' card, and at the top has the sinograms bàn zhī huā, 半 枝 花 = half, sprig, flowers. In this case the card is called 'Half Cash' and is sometimes called a 'Spray of Flowers'. The values then proceed from 'One Cash' down to 'Nine Cash'.
The number of cards in this deck (38 cards) resembles the number of cards in the deck described by the early Ming Scholar Lu Rong (1436-1494). However Lu Rong's deck did not have the 'Zero Cash' and 'Half Cash' cards found in this deck.
Those two cards are found in the deck described by the Late Ming scholar Pan Zhiheng(1556-1622).
If this deck is a Pan Zhiheng type deck, then the top two cards - Ten Thousand Myriad Guan and Thousand Myriad Guan - are missing. Comparison with a similar deck shows this to be the case.
Pan's deck had the 'Cash' suit reversed and it contained the 'Zero Cash' and 'Half Cash' cards. This reversed arrangement is shown here and in the next photo and is also a feature of the Three Suits-18 'Dong Guan Pai' deck shown below.

The same deck as the previous one but with the cards shown in a different arrangement. The top card for each suit is still shown on the end of each suit on the right and has a red stamp.
More importantly, as in the previous photo, the Cash suit is reversed in order of strength.

Local name; hakka ti pai. China ~ 2000? Complete deck of 38 cards. The top suit is Tens of Myriads of Cash. The next is Myriads of Cash, then Strings of Cash and finally, Cash.
The three extra cards down the side serve as Jokers. In older packs there would be five or more extra Jokers. See also.,
http://www.pagat.com/multitrk/liukfu.html#cards
Printed black on white card with black backs.

Local name; lao qian pai. China ~ 1905. 30 of 120 cards. A very well preserved deck of cards, showing the three suits bearing naturalistic coins for the 'Cash' suit and strings of coins for the 'Strings of Cash' suit. The sinogram for wan(guan) is on each of the 'Myriads' suit as well as naturalistic figures from the Shui Hu Zhuan = shui 'water', hu 'riverbank', zhuan 'story' = the Water Margin.

Local name; lao-qian-pai (Ancient Cards). China, ~ 1900. Partial deck, 30 of 98 of 120 cards. An old deck displaying the three suits, with realistic coins, strings of coins and portraits of characters from the 'Water Margin'.

Local name; fo-pai (Buddha Cards)-1. China, ~ 1905. Partial deck, 115 of 120 cards. Very similar to the Three Suits-0 deck above, except for some of the human portraits facing in the opposite direction and the backing pattern of the cards. Realistic portrayal of the cash coins and string of cash.

Local name; yu-pai. China, ~ 1905. Partial deck, 16 of 27 of 120 cards. The top row is the wan suit and the card number and suit name appear above the human portraits. These are most likely figures from the shui hu zhuan (Water Margin). At the end is an extra card with three, painted red stripes. This card is called 老千, lao qian = old thousand, and was the Thousand Myriad Guan card from the old discarded fourth suit - the Tens of Myriads of Guan. It was used to head up the Myriads suit.The name Lao Qian appears at the top of the card. At the bottom, with two red stripes is hong hua, 红 花, Red flower, and has the figure of wang ying, 王英, a character from the Water Margin story. These names appear, respectively, at the top and bottom of the card.

Local name; tian-pin-pai. China, ~ 1905. Partial deck, 19 of 20 of 120 cards. As in the preceding example, the wan suit cards have names above each portrait. The cards most likely feature the names of characters from the Water margin below each portrait. Note the simplified form of wan in the upper row as compared to the traditional form in the preceding image. Note also the use of and style of the fish on the number one Strings(of Cash) and the use of the swastika as the backing pattern on the cards. The swastika was used to denote 'infinity'. As usual, at the top on the right with three red stripes is Lao Qian, Old Thousand. Beneath that is bai hua, 白花, White Flower, with two red stripes.

Local name; tian-xia-pai (a land under heaven = China = Chinese Cards) - 1. China, ~ 1910. Partial deck, 20 of 56 of 120 cards. Similar to the deck 'Three Suits-0' in this gallery, except for the different backing pattern on the cards and the lack of names below the suit images.

Local name; tian-xia-pai (Chinese Cards)-2. China, ~ 1910. Partial deck, 13 of 27 of 120 cards. Similar backing pattern to the previous cards. However note the highly realistic form of a fish on the number one String of Cash. This style is similar to one engraved on a number one SoC/'Bamboo' tile that belonged to a set in the late Japanese MJ Museum collection and was featured in their Bulletin.

Local name; fo-pai (Buddha Cards) -2. China, ~ 1905. Partial deck, 18 of 46 of 120 cards. Very realistic figure of a fish on the number one Strings (of Cash) card. Similar backing pattern to the deck 'Three Suits-3'. Note the painted stripes patterns on the three extra cards.

Local name; wen-ming-pai (Civilized cards). China, 1941. 30 of 120 cards with the name of each suit written on each card. Thus, from the bottom we have; bing 'cakes' (of silver), tiao (strings) and wan (myriads). The three extra cards associated with each suit are, from the bottom; hong hua 'red flower', bai hua 'white flower' and lao qian 'old thousand' (this card was kept from the fourth suit of a four suited money deck that was discarded to form the three-suited type of deck). These cards show exceptional print work with some slight overlap of colour. Possibly machine printed. They depict scenes from perhaps the second Sino Japanese war 1935-1945. Note the similarity between these depictions and those on 16 Flowers/Seasons synthetic sets in the 'Synthetic' tile set gallery.

Local name; tai-zeng-pai (Venerable Cards). China, ~ 1930. Partial deck, 30 of 65 of 120 cards. According to the late Japanese Mahjong Museum (JMJM) these cards were used in Beijing, North China. The names of characters from the novel Shui Hu Zhuan = shui 'water', hu 'riverbank', zhuan 'story', are written on all the cards. Using the North China names, the three suits are(from the bottom suit); bing 'cake' (of silver) with the extra card hong hua 'red flower', tiao (a unit to count fish) with the extra card bai hua 'white flower' and wan 'myriad = ten thousand' with lao qian 'old thousand' as the extra card. This is a remnant from the fourth 'ten myriads' suit. For a discussion of these suit terms see the Introduction to this section and the article "From Cards to Tiles" in the Tile Set History section. The middle suit, 'bing', displays fish on each card. As can be seen from other decks in this gallery, this is one of two symbols that were used in early money-suited decks. However, other symbols were/are used in more modern times. The coloured figures are portraits of characters from the Water Margin story.

shui-hu-pai (Water Margin Cards/108 Heroes in Liangshan Mountain cards). China, ~ 1960. 30 of 120 cards. This is the 1st example of this type of deck. Widely distributed in N. E. Provinces of North China and along the coast of the Long River.
Also there are many manufacturers spread over wide areas. This last observation is supported by some of the decks in this gallery (10 - 13) that are very similar to this deck but differ in colouring and some subtle differences in figure work (#13) plus different back colouring. Further, the the late JMJM reported that the number one SoC card is called 'Big Fish Card' or 'Small Fish Card' and there are two patterns on the SoC, either fish or realistic strings of coins. However, different symbols have now recently been used on these cards.

Local name; shui-hu-pai (Water Margin Cards). China, Dalian, ~ 1975. 30 of 120 cards. As above, according to the JMJM these cards are "widely distributed in North Eastern 3 provinces, North China and along the coast of the Long River.

Local name; shui-hu-pai (Water Margin Cards). China, Dalian, ~ 1975. 30 of 120 cards. Again, according to the JMJM these cards are widely distributed in North Eastern 3 provinces, North China and along the coast of the Long River. This is part of a group of similar three-suited cards (cf, 10 -13)

Local name; shui-hu-pai (Water Margin Cards). China, ~ 1970. 30 of 120 cards. Widespread in the N. E. provinces of North China.

Local name; majiang pai/liang shan pai (Mah Jong Cards/Liang Shan (mountain) cards, another name for shui hu pai or Water Margin cards). China, ~ 1990? 34 of 136 cards. These cards are found in North East China, mainly in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia. When using these cards for a game such as zuihu then the 120 three-suit money cards (including the quadruplicated three extra cards - Red Flower, White Flower and Old Thousand) are used by removing the Winds and the Flowers (if present). Zuihu is a game played by four people, but only three hold cards in each game and the fourth one is resting. When used for playing ma qiao/Mahjong, the Red Flower equals the Red 'Dragon', the Old Thousand equals the Green 'Dragon' and White Flower equals the White Dragon.

Local name; Lao qian pai/Ancient Cards. China. Date unknown. 30 of 120 laminated cards. Complete deck. On the wan/Myriads suit cards are figures from the 'Water margin' novel. The tiao/Strings suit features a big fish on the # 1 with the rest of the suit as well as the bing/Coins suit displaying the iconography usually found on majiang/mahjong cards. Note the simalarity of the iconography on the suits with those in 'Three-Suits 30.
If the deck was used for majiang/Mahjong, then the three extra cards found at the end of each suit may have been used as the 'Dragons' group. This would give the deck the structure of a majiang.Mahjong deck as found in the "Three-Suits-29" deck.

Local name; Suifu yule pai/ma-jiang-pai. China ~ 1990? 34 of 136 cards. In contrast to the previous deck, the depictions on these cards lean more towards the ma jiang/Mahjong iconography.

Cardboard box showing some of the imagery found on the Directions cards.

Golconda Mah-Jongg playing cards. Germany. ~ 1925? Complete deck. 42 of 144 cards. The Golconda logo together with the letters D.R.G.M are on the back of each card. D.R.G.M = Deutsches Reich Gebrauchsmuster or German State Registered Design.
Superb printing on each card.
The human figures are from the novel sanguozhi yanyi (Romance of the three Kingdoms) by Luo Guanzhong. According to Prunner, each suit of figures represent one of the three parties in this novel;
the Myriad suit corresponds to Cao Cao and his followers - the party of the State of Wei.
the Bamboo suit corresponds to Sun Quan and his followers - the party of the State of Wu.
the Circle suit corresponds to Liu Bai and his followers - the party of the State of Shu.

The Myriad or ‘Character’ suit corresponds to Cáo Cāo and his followers of the Kingdom of Wèi.

1) Cáo Cāo. 曹操. Cáo Cāo created the foundation for what would become eventually the Jin Dynasty.

2) Guō Jiā. 郭嘉. Guō Jiā was a trusted adviser during the years the Wei Kingdom was formed.

3) Xià Hóu Yuān. 夏侯淵. Xià Hóu Yuān was Xià hóu Dūn’s brother (see the following character). He was famous for making attacks against barbarians from the west.

4) Xià Hóu Dūn. 夏侯惇. Xià Hóu Dūn was an original follower and officer of Cáo Cāo.

5) Xú Huǎng. 徐晃. Another follower of Cáo Cāo.

6) Cáo Rén. 曹仁. Cáo Rén was a Minister of War for Cáo Cāo. He was also his cousin.

7) Cáo Hóng. 曹洪. Another cousin of Cáo Cāo.

8) Zhāng Liáo. 張遼. Another follower of Cáo Cāo.

9) Xǔ Chǔ. 許褚. He was a commander and guard of Cáo Cāo.

The ‘Bamboo’ suit corresponds to 孫權 Sūn Quán and his followers of the State of Wú.

1) Sūn Quán. 孫權. The first Emperor of Wú.

2) Zhōu Yú. 周瑜. A Commander of war for the state of Wú.

3) Lǔ Sǔ. 魯肅. A Wú commander and ambassador to the state of Shǔ.

4) Lǔ Méng. 呂蒙. A warrior and scholar of Wú.

5) Xú Shèng. 徐盛. Commanded troops in the invasion of Wèi.

6) Dīng Fèng (Elder). 丁奉. Dīng Fèng was a famous Wú officer.

7) Zhāng Zhāo. 張昭. A trusted administrator for the affairs of Wú.

8) Lù Xùn. 陸遜. Famous warrior and commander who defeated Líu Bèi.

9) Gān Níng. 甘寧. A warrior and administrator of Wú.

The ‘Circle’ suit corresponds to 劉備 Líu Bèi and his followers of the State of Shǔ.

1) Líu Bèi. 劉備. The first Emperor of Shǔ.

2) Guān Gōng. 關公. (honorary title). Actual name Guān Yū 關羽. First of the Five Tiger Generals.

3) Zhāng Fēi. 張飛. Second of the Five Tiger Generals.

4) Zhào Yún. 趙雲. Fourth of the Five Tiger Generals.

5) Mǎ Chāo. 馬超. Third of the Five Tiger Generals.

6) Huáng Zhōng. 黃忠. One of the Five Tiger Generals.

7) Yán Yán. 嚴顔. First served Liu Zhang and subsequently surrendered to Zhāng Fēi.

8) Wèi Yán. 魏延. A commander who surrendered to Líu Bèi
and became a follower.

9) Mǎ Dài. 馬岱. Mǎ Dài is the cousin of Mǎ Chāo. They both surrendered to Líu Bèi.

The Four Directions or Winds, refer to four women from the Three Kingdoms period.

E) Ér Qiáo. 二喬. The Two Qiáos (of Jiangdon). The two Qiáos were two sisters. However, due to the lack of mention in records, they are now referred to individually as大喬Dà Qiáo ("older Qiáo") and小喬Xiǎo Qiáo ("younger Qiáo"). Dà Qiáo married the warlord Sùn Cē and Xiǎo Qiáo was married to the General Zhōu Yū, a follower of Sūn Quán of the Kingdom of Wú.

S) Sūn Fūrén, 孫夫人. Lady Sun. She was the daughter of Sùn Cē (who was the older brother of Sūn Quán). She was also the wife of Lù Xùn a General and politician under Sūn Quán of the Kingdom of Wú. The marriage joined the Lù and Sūn families together.

W) Cài Wén Jī. 蔡文姬, (also known as Cài Yǎn). Cài Yǎn was a poet and musician. She was captured by nomads and married their chieftan and had two sons. After a paid ransom by Cáo Cāo on behalf of her father she later remarried. She was affiliated with the Kingdom of Wèi.

N) Diāo Chán. 貂嬋. A fictional character in the novel.

The ‘Dragons’ are all Líu Bèi's military strategists:

Bái) Xú Shù, 徐庶. He was an official of the state of Wèi then became an advisor to Líu Bèi of the state of Shǔ. He subsequently returned to Weéi and became an advisor to Cáo Cāo. He was thus affiliated with both the Kingdom of Wèi and the Kingdom of Shǔ.

Fā) Páng Tǒng, 龐統. Together with Zhūgé Liàng, Páng Tǒng was a “Military Advisor General” to Líu Bèi.

Zhõng) Zhūgé Liàng, 諸葛亮. He was a military strategist and Chancellor of the Kingdom of shǔ.

Special thanks to James Peirce of the kongming.net web site for his advice and suggestions regarding the information in this article. With reference to the identification of The Five Kingdoms novel found in engravings on ‘Flowers’ tiles in Mahjong tile sets, this web site is highly recommended.

Leather box containing plastic counters, dice and paper Golconda instructions in both German and English.
'Golconda No. 3' and 'Mah-Jongg' printed on the inside of the lid.

Leather box.

Local name; lao shui hu majiang pai (Old Water Margin/Mahjong cards). China ~ 1950. Partial deck, one card missing. 34 of 135 of 136 cards. Figures from the Shui hu zhuan (the novel the Water Margin) feature on all the cards of the three suits. Four Direction Winds and three Honours are also present. The three suits are; 餅 (in its traditional form) bing, 'Cake' as in metal cake or silver cast into the shape of a cake; 條 (trad.) tiao, Strings (of cash) and 萬(trad.) wan, Myriads (of strings of cash). The names of the three suits are therefore in their traditional forms.
On an aesthetic level, these cards feature very fine realistic human figures with superb colouring.

Local name; Changchun majiang pai/Changchun Mahjong cards. China, ~ 1960. 30 of 120 pasteboard cards. A complete deck. Manufactured in Changchun, Jilin province in north east China.
An unusual and picturesque deck with the wan/myriads suit displaying figures from the "Water Margin" novel; the 'Bamboo' suit showing different species of birds, and the 'Circles' suit showing different species of flowers.

Side of box showing the contents - the three suits and the three Dragons only.

Side of box showing the place of manufacture.

View of the box illustrating the squat nature of the deck.

Local name; Jinlu majiang pai/Jinlu Mahjong Cards. China, ~ 1970. 42 of 144 cards. Complete deck of cardboard cards. This deck is probably a rare product of the Quanzhou Paper Factory in Fujian Province that began publishing a few card decks under the Jinlu name around 1970, when the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976) prohibition of playing card games was most likely weakening. (source. Tao Liu. Vice Chairman and Secretary-general of the Council of the Chinese Association of Collectors of Playing Cards).
The 'Character' suit shows a Dragon among wish-granting clouds and chasing a wish-granting pearl. The 'Bamboo' suit shows a wish-granting wand. On the wand head are the symbols for yin and yang. On the 'Circle' suit cards is a Phoenix.

Local name; 東莞 牌 Dōng guǎn pái from the prefecture-level city of Dongguan in Guangdong province in Southern China. 31 of 120 cards. The three money derived suits are evident, bearing abstracted representations. An additional card is present, showing a human figure in colour. All cards are very narrow and have red backs. The layout of these cards follows from an analysis - by the late playing card student John Berry - that appeared in The Playing-card Vol. 31, No. 5. (see Important Links at the bottom of the Home page). Close inspection will show that the underlying structure of each suit of 1 up to 9 is absent from the 'Cash' suit. This is because this suit has been reversed, such that the lowest value card is the number 9. Thus, from left to right, we have 9 through to 1 plus two cards called 'half cash' and 'zero cash'. Hence 11 cards. This arrangement shows that the three cards that have red stamps now rank as the top cards of each suit. This ranking explains the combinations required in the game of Kan Hu. One of the combinations for a winning hand is a group of three cards of the same rank - the cards bearing a red stamp. Other three-card combinations are also explained by this suit ranking. This arrangement of the suits also follows that described in Pan Zhiheng's 1613 account of a four suited and three suited reduced money deck, as translated by Doctor Andrew Lo in The Playing-card Vol. 31 No 2 and Vol 31 No 5.

Local name; Si-hua-pai (Ten Flowers Cards). China, ~ 1970. 40 of 130 cards. According to the late JMJM, these cards are used in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Hebei and Inner Mongolia. These cards show a more stylised representation of the three suits bing, tiao and wan. The three extra cards at the end of each suit are, from the bottom; lao gai (with the name wang yin), Bai Ya? and qien wan. The ten extra cards depict characters from the Chinese opera "Bai She Zhuan".

Local name; Tianjin chuantong pai (Tianjin Traditional Cards). China, ~ 1970 or earlier. 40 of 130 cards. These are a form of "Ten Flowers Cards" (see previous deck) and as the name suggests, were used in Tianjin.
As before, these cards show a more stylised representation of the three suits bing, tiao and wan - Cash, Strings and Myriads, respectively. The three extra cards at the end of each suit are, from the bottom; lao gai (with the name wang ying), Bai Ya? and qien wan (also known as 'Old Thousand'). The ten extra cards depict characters from the Chinese opera "Bai She Zhuan".

Local name unknown. Date unknown. This deck (incomplete) might be another form of si hua pai (ten Flowers Cards - see the preceding deck).

Local name unknown. Date unknown. Incomplete deck. Another possible example of si hua pai (see Three suits -20 for a complete deck).

Local name; na tong pai. ~ 2005. China. 30 0f 120 cards.

Local name; hu-pai. China, ~ 2000. 93 156 cards. Note how the cards are doubled, plus there are six extra cards, four of which bear sinograms identical to those found in four extra tiles of the Himly set (see MJ, Before and After MJ part 1). These have the sinograms, wan 'myriads', suo 'string (of 100 coins)', qian 'cash', and hence might serve as 'Jokers' for their respective suits. The fourth card is marked zong, 'almighty' - perhaps an all-purpose card akin to an all purpose 'Joker' for the three suits. The fifth card is marked 'yao', the one dot on a dice. Perhaps this is the Joker for the aces or number ones of each suit. The sixth card is marked at the top 'wang pai' - king card - and is probably a card that trumps all other cards. (See the article 'Flowers and Kings" in the Tile Set History section). This deck is found in Zhejiang province.

shi-hu-pai (Ten Points Cards). Again, the three suits are well delineated. Note however, the Strings of Cash suit appear to show coils of strings. The simplified form of wan is used on the top suit cards.

Local name; zhi-qi-pai. Singapore, ~ 2005? 30 of 120 cards. The three suits are highly abstracted. These are popular among the overseas Chinese in South East Asia. This type of set is used in Singapore.

Local name; zhi-qi-pai. Plain paper wrapper with a green print of a bird of prey and the logo "Handelsvereeniging Harmsen, Verwey & Dunlop N. V.. Java . Sumatra . Celebes". 60 of 60 cards. Two packs makes a quadruplicated deck of 120 cards. Manufactured in Belgium for the S. E. Asian market. 1930. The three suits are highly abstracted on these short, squat cards. According to Prunner, these are popular among the overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.