2023-3-31
中华民族的历史源远流长，号称有上下五千年的文明，其中有两千五百多年的时间，都在孙子兵法的指导下。与天斗，其乐无穷，与地斗，其乐无穷，与人斗，其乐无穷。这种斗的本质，就是赌，而赌的始作俑者，就是田忌和齐威王，司马迁在《史记》中说：
大英博物馆藏东汉六博釉陶俑
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四川新津东汉画像残石上的仙人六博图 |
于是乎，国人就发明了赌博的道具，叫作象棋、牌九、骰子和麻将，历年壮大，推陈出新，就成了大国国粹。材质从木头的，到骨头的，再到象牙的，在英国伦敦一家叫霍尼曼（horniman museum and gardens）的博物馆里，都有完整的收藏和介绍。
有了赌具了，计算输赢的赌资也要跟得上：
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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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其中最高级的，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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家里还正好就有那么几枚，应该是世界上最小的青花瓷了：
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