What ancient toys are there in China?

In recent years, the Rubik's Cube, an intellectual toy, has swept the world, causing a "Rubik's Cube fever" in China. In fact, the ancestors of intellectual toys were in China. In ancient China, there were many intellectual toys comparable to Rubik's Cube, which had a long history and were deeply loved by generations, especially teenagers. And it spread abroad as early as hundreds of years ago, which fascinated many foreigners. Tangram (figure 1) is a puzzle with a history of thousands of years. It evolved from the ancient Yanji map in China. Yanji is a complicated case, which can be spliced into various figures. The ancients set seats according to numbers for guests' entertainment. Later, this practical product for adults was reduced and evolved into a toy puzzle. It divides a square piece of cardboard into seven pieces and uses them to make various figures. This kind of toy spread abroad a long time ago. It is said that Napoleon I at the end of18th century liked playing jigsaw puzzles very much. He is the emperor of the first empire of France, and he can't let go at the right time. Even after the defeat of Waterloo, he was exiled to St. Helena and never forgot to play Tangram. West Renye Fang named Tangtu Tangtu. The Tang Dynasty was a very prosperous period in China, and foreigners often used "Tang" to represent China. Thus, the puzzle became a "map of China". In the Qing Dynasty, a man named Tong Yegeng improved the jigsaw puzzle, from seven to fifteen, and renamed it "jigsaw puzzle" (Figure 2). As the name implies, it is a drawing board beneficial to intelligence, and it is worthy of the name. It is more attractive than jigsaw puzzles. Many ancient literati also used it to spell poetry and drama. According to Lu Xun's diary, Mr. Lu Xun also likes this kind of toy very much. Nine-ring is also an ancient intellectual toy. According to research, it has a history of at least several hundred years. After the Song Dynasty, it became popular among the people. Its structure is a little more complicated than a jigsaw puzzle, and it is made of iron wire and iron sheet. It has nine rings and a handle. The game is to put the nine rings into the handle one by one. Then take them off one by one. It doesn't look difficult, but it takes a lot of trouble to really play. There were also some intellectual toys associated with historical stories in ancient China, which made people more interested. Huarong Road (Figure 4) is one of them, which is related to a story in Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao Battle of Red Cliffs lost in the Eastern Han Dynasty and finally escaped from Huarong Road. It has a chessboard with twenty small squares on it, representing Huarong Road. There is an exit with two squares under the chessboard, which is for Cao Cao to escape. There are ten pieces of different sizes on the chessboard, representing Cao Cao, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong and Guan Yu respectively, with a total of four pieces. There are only two small squares on the chessboard. The game is to move the chess pieces through these two spaces and move Cao Cao out of Huarong Road with the least number of steps. This toy has aroused the interest of many people, and everyone is trying to reduce the number of moving steps. According to foreign data, American mathematician martin gardner once set a world record with the least number of steps: 8 1 step. In fact, according to the author's understanding, as early as the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, this kind of toy was widely circulated in the New Fourth Army of China. They set this world record long ago, but only when there were no conditions for publication. There are two other toys worth mentioning. They are dominoes and dice. Dominoes are rectangular with several patterns engraved on them; Dice is a regular cube with dots carved on all six sides. These two things were originally beneficial toys, but sadly, they were later used as gambling tools. Fortunately, however, some people with a heart have transformed them, making them evolve into brand-new intellectual toys: Twelve Painful Things and Twelve Painful Things (Figure 5) were almost born under the research of people at home and abroad. "Twelve Pieces" is the name given by China people, which vividly illustrates the structure and function of this toy. It is also a jigsaw puzzle with twelve pieces, each of which is made up of five regular cubes with different shapes. It can not only spell out many plane figures, but also spell out interesting three-dimensional figures, and even play chess like a chessboard. Foreign countries call this kind of toy "Pan Domino", which means domino, which also shows that this kind of toy evolved from dominoes in China. "I am fascinated by you" (Figure 6) is also a name given by China people, which means very charming. The name foreigners take is "crazy at once", which means that playing can make people crazy at once. This toy is very simple. Find four cubes or cartons of the same size, and paint their six faces with four different colors, such as red, green, blue and white, according to the color code shown in Figure 6. The game is to stack four regular cubes into a regular cube prism, so that the four faces of the prism have four colors respectively. This requirement doesn't seem too difficult. In fact, it's easy to talk if you play! The profound significance of China's ancient intellectual toys can be illustrated by the evaluation of Huarong Road abroad. It is no exaggeration for foreign countries to regard "Huarong Road" as one of the "four incredible things of intellectual games". Nine chains contain profound topological principles in mathematics, jigsaw puzzle and jigsaw puzzle. 12 nerve-racking jokes, involving geometry, space paving and game theory. Your fans are involved in the topic of "discrete mathematics". Almost all these toys are now connected with electronic computers. A computer expert in America has developed a program that can solve jigsaw puzzles with robots. Huarong Road has been incorporated into the electronic computer textbooks of foreign universities. Have become the research objects of artificial intelligence, which shows its great role in intellectual development. In ancient times, whenever the Dragon Boat Festival, the elders at home would make sachets of cotton cloth, silk and other materials, which were filled with fragrant medicinal materials and placed on the children's chests or hung on the bedside to drive away the illness and seek happiness. After the Dragon Boat Festival, throwing away the shabby sachet means abandoning the disease. So when you see a sachet thrown by others on the road, don't pick it up. Shadow play is a folk art form in China. Longdong Shadow Play in Gansu, northwest of China, is mainly distributed in Pingliang and Qingyang counties, and the triangle bordering Shaanxi and Ningxia in the east is relatively concentrated. Longdong Shadow Play was very popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14th century-19th century), with handsome and generous shapes and straight outlines. The carving is fine and smooth. Longdong Shadow Play uses young black bull cowhide, which is moderate in thickness, firm, flexible and green. The cowhide is scraped and dried until it is bright and transparent. First, draw a sample on the cowhide lightly, and then carve or chisel it with various knives. After that, the transparent water color is used, and the colors are generally not harmonious, so it is pure and beautiful, and the contrast is strong. After cutting and coloring, ironing is the most critical and difficult step. After the water comes out and dries, you can go on stage for binding combination. Diabolo Diabolo, also called "shake", is a famous folk toy. Tie the string with two small bamboo sticks and shake it around the wooden shaft. Diabolo rotates at high speed and makes a sound. As early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, the diabolo in Beijing became a spring toy. People are playing diabolo in hutongs and courtyards, and melodious voices come and go in Beijing. Hanging tigers and lions is an ornament used by the people to ward off evil spirits. They are made of mud and paper pulp, with black and white and color, varied lines and strong color contrast. Some archaeologists believe that hanging a tiger evolved from a mask in the play, and was later hung on the door by farmers to welcome the new year and exorcise ghosts. Mud whirring is a whistle that can be blown. Painted with oil, it is colorful, black and bright, suitable for children to play. There are many kinds of mud calls, such as bird whistle, fish whistle and pig whistle.