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Madiao

Madiao
Kinesiska spelkort för kortspelet Mo Diao - Skoklosters slott - 13617.tif
11 out of the 40 cards
Origin China
Type Trick-taking game
Players 4
Skills required Tactics & Strategy
Cards 40 Money-suited cards
Play Counter-clockwise
Playing time 20 min.
Random chance Medium
Related games
Khanhoo

Madiao (simplified Chinese: 马吊; traditional Chinese: 馬弔; pinyin: mǎdiào), also Ma Diao, Ma Tiu or Ma Tiao, is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of Paper Tiger. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by Pan Zhiheng and Feng Menglong during the early 17th century. Korean poet Jang Hon (1759-1828) wrote that the game dated back to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It continued to be popular during the Qing dynasty until around the mid-19th century. The game was also known in Japan from at least 1791. It is played with 40 cards and four players.

In Chinese, mǎ (马) means "horse" and diao (吊) means "hanged" or "lifted." The name of the game comes from the fact that three players team against the banker, like a horse raising one shoe (banker), with the other three remaining hooves on the ground (three players).

A set of Madiao consists of 40 cards of four suits:

Each card of myriads or tens (of myriads) along with the zero cash was illustrated with one of the 108 Stars of Destiny of the Chinese novel the Water Margin attributed to Shi Nai'an. The characters depicted on these cards can vary depending on the region or manufacturer. Usually they play no role in games, however in Feng's version they do. In the suits of cash and strings, the pips were copied from banknotes such as the jiaozi and chao. Unlike the other cards, the half cash displays a sprig of flowers.

Ten cards contain red stamps mimicking banknote seals and are known as red cards which carry bonuses: Myriad Myriad, Thousand Myriad, Hundred Myriad, 20 Myriad, 9 Myriad, 1 Myriad, 9 Strings, 1 String, Zero Cash, and 9 Cash.


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