2023-3-31
中華民族的歷史源遠流長，號稱有上下五千年的文明，其中有兩千五百多年的時間，都在孫子兵法的指導下。與天斗，其樂無窮，與地斗，其樂無窮，與人斗，其樂無窮。這種斗的本質，就是賭，而賭的始作俑者，就是田忌和齊威王，司馬遷在《史記》中說：
大英博物館藏東漢六博釉陶俑
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四川新津東漢畫像殘石上的仙人六博圖 |
於是乎，國人就發明了賭博的道具，叫作象棋、牌九、骰子和麻將，歷年壯大，推陳出新，就成了大國國粹。材質從木頭的，到骨頭的，再到象牙的，在英國倫敦一家叫霍尼曼（horniman museum and gardens）的博物館里，都有完整的收藏和介紹。
有了賭具了，計算輸贏的賭資也要跟得上：
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Nine round ivory gambling counters, eight of which are marked with Chinese numerals (2-7 & 9-10) in green, the other a large croupier's token marked in green with the 'zhuang' character, meaning 'banker' in a gambling game.
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118 Chinese dominoes of long, narrow rectangular tiles made of bone, marked with red or black dots on each end and on both obverse and reverse, contained in wooden box without lid.
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其中最高級的，是青花瓷的：
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| Three gambling tokens made of porcelain. Two of them are round, one is hexagonal. All are inscribed with Chinese characters in underglaze cobalt blue pigment on the reverse, either 'qian' (money) or 'He He' (name of the twin gods of riches). On the obverse, one token is embossed with Chinese inscriptions in seal script, one in regular script with 'li lu heng tong' (path to good fortune is smooth and prosperous), and one with a seated immortal.
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家裡還正好就有那麼幾枚，應該是世界上最小的青花瓷了：
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