New Concepts in Playing Cards and Tarot: Five Newly Designed Packs of Cards with Chinese Symbolism (in English)
Synopsis "New Concepts in Playing Cards and Tarot: Five Newly Designed Packs of Cards with Chinese Symbolism (in English)"
In the mid 1980s I wanted to create playing cards based on the planets and heavenly bodies and started drawing the Shakespearean characters which gave their names to the moons of Uranus. At the same time my drawing program was expanded to include concepts from Chinese culture. In 2015 a book of 1000 of my drawings was published by CreateSpace and the 2nd edition is entitled Astronomical Pencil Drawings. These playing card drawings had titles in English and Chinese and I recently decided to refine them further and create 5 new card games which require special packs of cards. I devised some basic rules of play although they are open to change and could evolve further as people play these games. The first game in this book is based on my drawings of the 88 modern Constellations which were recognized by astronomers in 1928. They are numbered in sequence around the celestial sphere beginning with Sculptor. Each is arranged in order of the right ascension of its midpoint starting from zero hours based on the constellation boundaries drawn up by Eugène Delporte in 1930. The constellations are divided into several families including birds, dogs, centaurs, fish, ancient Greek heroes and reptiles such as dragons and serpents etc. The next game is devoted to the Seven Days of the Week as expressed in their Anglo-Saxon, ancient Roman, Japanese and Chinese names. These cards display drawings of Mona, Tiw, Odin, Thor, Frigg, Saturn and Sunne representing the Old English days. The Roman days follow with Dies Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Jovis, Dies Veneris, Dies Saturni and Dies Solis. The modern Japanese days displaying the moon, fire, water, wood, metal, Earth and the sun are followed by the modern Chinese days with culturally appropriate images. The Seven Luminaries depicting the sun, moon and five planets from the ancient Greco-Roman world are followed by Chinese images of the luminaries including the moon goddess Chang E and Tai Bai Jin Xing, the old man representing planet Venus. Finally these cards are related to the days of the week which appear in the 28 Chinese Lunar Mansions representing a lunar month of four weeks. The 28 days of the lunar month are depicted as animals making the game visually attractive. Altogether there are 10 suits of 7 cards in this interesting game, all illustrated with culturally appropriate images. The third game in this book requires the matching of similar animals depicted in the 12 Earthly Branches from Ancient China, the 28 Chinese Lunar Mansions, the 8 Later Heaven Trigrams or Ba Gua, the 8 Martial Arts Ba Gua as well as animal images in the Western Zodiac. The fourth game requires matching the trigrams of the Earlier Heaven, Later Heaven and Martial Arts Ba Gua with trigrams found in the Nine Northern Dipper Stars. Images of the 12 Earthly Branches are also employed in this game. Finally at the end of the book is a Chinese version of Tarot influenced by Mahjong and using the Five Chinese Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water) as suits. This pack contains 145 cards or 144 if you discount the Tarot Fool in the Major Arcana which is numbered zero. This corresponds with the 144 tiles (including flowers) in a Mahjong set. The ancient Chinese philosophers, maritime adventurers and Silk Road travelers are also depicted as well kings and queens. The collapsing Tower in the Major Arcana is Lei Feng Pagoda in Hangzhou City which collapsed in 1924 and the hanged man is the last Ming Emperor Chong Zhen (1611-1644) who hanged himself on a hill behind the Imperial Palace. Ancient Chinese swordsmen and swordswomen are also depicted together with the four pastimes of music, chess, calligraphy and painting and the four professions of fisherman, woodcutter, farmer and scholar. Then there are the 5 stars of good fortune Fu Xing, Lu Xing, Shou Xing, Xi Shen and the God of Wealth Cai Shen. The Five Auspicious Animals as well as the Eight Immortals and their ritual implements are also depicted.
