bo bing

This game is traditionally played during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Bo bing requires just six dice and a bowl. The dice are cast into the bowl and the different pips stand for different ranks of awards a player can win.

The gambling game has six ranks of awards, which are named as the winners in ancient imperial examinations, and has 63 different sized mooncakes as prizes.

From the lowest to the highest, the titles of six ranks are Xiucai (the one who passed the examination at the county level), Juren (a successful candidate at the provincial level), Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), Tanhua, Bangyan and Zhuangyuan (respectively the number three to number one winners in the imperial examination at the presence of the emperor).

Game players throw the dice in turns. Depending on the results, a player will recieves the corresponding "title" and mooncake.

The lucky player who gains the title of "Zhuangyuan," will be the ultimate winner in the game and recieve the largest mooncake

The 300-year-old game of bo bing dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The inventor, Zheng Chenggong (1624-62), a general of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), stationed his army in Xiamen. Zheng was determined to recover Taiwan, which was occupied by Dutch invaders since 1624.

When the Mid-Autumn Festival came, the soldiers naturally missed their families but fought with heroic determination to drive off the aggressors.

General Zheng and his lower officer Hong Xu invented bo bing to help relieve homesickness among the troops.