醉綠 · Zuì Lǜ
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Zuì Lǜ (醉綠, ‘drunken green’) was a very old Chinese drinking game from the late Ming period that was played with five dice. At a later stage it was known as 合歡 Héhuān, ‘happy union’.A (42)
Diagrams from the instruction manual.
I suspect that the otherwise-unexplained 緑 ‘green’ in the title is a pun on the number 6 (六), since it is pronounced the same or similarly in all Chinese languages. In this game, rolling a 6 is what causes a player to obtain penalty drinks.
Rules for the game appear in the book 醉緑圖 Drunken Green Diagrams by a 張光 Zhāng Guāng, and this work is included in the 1646 edition of the 說郛 Shuōfú collection, first compiled during the Ming period (1368–1644).B This (very short) instructional text is available transcribed on WikiSource:
醉緑用五箇骰子擲先以一色相賽得一點者先擲得六點者㝡後擲不必賽其餘復賽如前
擲色以三同為主除三同外但以餘二色計之得么么二二三三四四五五點為賞采賞二杯么六二六三六四六五六為罰采罰一杯六六罰二杯得么二二三三四四五之類為賽色得三同六點為罰色罰一杯不賽獨三同六點么么二二三三四四五五為賞采賞二杯擲者罰一杯
擲出五星聚奎者賞依金谷酒數
賽色點數相同者罰賽者二杯多一點二點賞一杯少一點二點罰一杯
賞色在手仍即自擲如擲出賽色方許下次人賽擲出散色方許下次人擲不限擲數
An attempted summary of the above rules is as follows. (I do not speak Chinese so this might be inaccurate.)
Play
The game is played with five dice. To decide who starts, each player rolls a die a single time; whoever rolls a one goes first, whoever rolls a six goes last (anyone else can keep rolling until they are allocated a position).
On each player’s turn they roll all the dice. If they roll three of a kind (or the special roll of 1–5) then they have a scoring (winning, losing, or neutral) outcome. The result of the throw is determined by examining the two leftover dice:
a pair of 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, or 5s is a winning roll, earning two cups
a pair of 6s is a losing roll, gaining a penalty of two cups
a 6 and any other number is also a losing roll, gaining a penalty of one cup
in addition, if the triple is all 6s, this is also a penalty of one cup, and it is a “losing roll” unless the other two dice were a winning pair (in which case they earn two cups but also a penalty of one cup)
if the other two dice are not a pair, then it is a “competing” roll; if the sum of the two dice beats the last competing roll made by someone else then the player earns one cup, if less they are penalized one cup, if equal then they are penalized two cups
If a player rolls a winning roll then they keep rolling; if a losing or neutral roll they pass the dice on.
A table summarizing these outcomes:
Roll | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Win: 5 cups of wine |
| Win: 5 cups, penalty of 1 if any |
| Win: 3 cups, penalty of 1 if any |
| Win: 2 cups |
| Win: 2 cups, penalty of 1 |
| Lose: penalty of 1 |
| Lose: penalty of 2 |
| Lose: penalty of 1 |
| Neutral: competition |
Anything else | Neutral: pass |
All of the four- and five-of-a-kind rolls, as well as the special 1-5 roll, have special names, as follows:
Roll | Name | Translation | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| 群英入轂 | Heroes in a chariot | +5 |
| 五星聚奎 | Five star alignment | +5 |
| 兩儀四像 | +3 | |
| 七曜麗空 | +3 | |
| 丹露聮珠 | +3 | |
| 四方歸極 | +3 | |
| 六化四時 | +3, −1 | |
| 十道同風 | +5 | |
| 八荒一體 | +3 | |
| 麟閣功臣 | +3 | |
| 瓊樓十二 | +3 | |
| 五行八字 | +3 | |
| 八柱擎天 | Eight pillars holding up the sky | +3, −1 |
| 陶柳三眠 | […?] three sleeps | +5 |
| 月夜南飛 | Moonlit night, flying south | +3 |
| 夢合巫山 | Dream meeting in Wushan | +3 |
| 落紅飛鷰 | Falling (red) flowers, soaring swallows | +3 |
| 花壓玉欄 | Flowers against the jade railing | +3 |
| 霜空鴈字 | Geese like writing in the frosty sky | +3, −1 |
| 丹鳳聮飛 | Red phoenixes flying together | +5 |
| 葵蕚向陽 | Sunflowers (?) facing the sun | +3 |
| 雙蝶穿花 | A pair of butterflies dancing amongst flowers | +3 |
| 落霞飛鶩 | Sunset’s glow and flying ducks | +3 |
| 梅飄花徑 | Plum blossoms falling on the garden path | +3 |
| 六女踏花 | Six Girls Trampling Flowers | +3, −1 |
| 江城梅落 | River City blossom-fall | +5 |
| 五雲捧日 | Five Clouds Lifting the Sun | +3 |
| 合璧連珠 | Jade joined, pearls strung | +3 |
| 三弄梅花 | +3 | |
| 紅英綴翠 | +3 | |
| 雪㸃隴梅 | +3, −1 | |
| 六魔降世 | Six Demons Come to Earth | +5, −1 |
| 麗日中天 | Fair Sun in the Midst of Heaven | +3, −1 |
| 二雄逐鹿 | Two Men Fight for the Throne | +3, −1 |
| 碧天劍氣 | +3, −1 | |
| 二十八宿 | +3, −1 | |
| 月值朔虛 | +3, −1 |
References
Li, En (). Betting on Empire: A Socio-Cultural History of Gambling in Late-Qing China. PhD thesis, Washington University: St. Louis, MO, USA.
張, 光 [Zhāng Guāng] (). 醉緑圖 [Zuì Lǜ Tú; text in Chinese]; 說郛 [Shuōfú] volume 104, series editor 陶珽 [Táo Tǐng].
Elvin, Mark (). ‘Personal Luck: Why Premodern China—Probably—Did Not Develop Probabilistic Thinking’. Pages 400–468 in Concepts of Nature: A Chinese-European Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by Hans Ulrich Vogel and Günter Dux; Conceptual History and Chinese Linguistics volume 1. Brill. ISBN: 978-90-04-18751-1. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004185265.i-566.112.
Waley, Arthur (). The Temple and Other Poems. George Allen & Unwin: London.