The history of gyro

As early as the Song Dynasty, a toy similar to a gyro appeared in China, and its name was "Qian Qian". It is a needle-like object about three centimeters long. It is placed in a disk made of ivory and turned by hand. Whoever turns the longest is the winner. This was an aristocratic game used by concubines and ladies-in-waiting at that time to pass the boring time in the palace. The word "gyro" first appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Dong Liu and Yu Yizheng jointly wrote "The Scenery of the Imperial Capital": "Willow green, bell empty; Willow is alive, spinning top; Liu died and kicked the shuttlecock. " Record. As for whether the gyro evolved from "Qian Qian", there is no way to verify it. However, by the Ming Dynasty, gyroscopes had become children's toys, not the plaything of ladies-in-waiting. According to records, the gyro at that time was made of wood, solid and handless, and wound with a rope. As soon as you throw and smoke, you rotate silently on the ground. When it slows down, beat it with a rope to speed it up so that it can keep turning. This kind of drama has been circulating for two or three hundred years, and it still exists in the early years of the Republic of China.