| Object Number | 73-14-20A |
| Current Location | Collections Storage |
| Provenience | China |
| Section | Asian |
| Materials | Bone |
| Technique | Inscribed |
| Iconography | Pheasant |
| Inscription Language | Chinese Language |
| Description | Playing piece for a game that exists in several regional varieties, sometimes called wei chou 圍籌 or zhuang yuan chou 狀元籌. The game is played with a set of dice, and the sticks are won according to the dice rolls. In most versions, the sets of gaming sticks are labelled with ranks from the Chinese civil service exam, the highest being zhuang yuan “first place in the metropolitan exam” (worth 32 points) and the lowest and most numerous being xiu cai 秀才 “’distinguished talent’, someone who had passed the college exam” (worth one point). The sticks in the 73-14-20 lot are for playing a version of the same game, but with beasts and birds in place of civil service exam ranks. The four sticks in the lot are all of the lowest value, zhi 雉 “pheasant” (worth one point). The text on the sticks reads: 雉 zhi “pheasant” (black text, image of pheasant below). 一紅 yi hong “one red” (red text). [I’m not really sure what this means, but the articles below probably explain it.] 一注 yi zhu “one point” (black text). |
| Credit Line | Gift of Jesse H. Holmes, Jr., 1973 |
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