According to legend, as early as during the struggle between Chu and Han in the late Qin Dynasty, the general Han Xin invented a card game in order to relieve the soldiers' homesickness. Because the cards were only the size of leaves, they were called "leaf play". (The "leaf card" is the size of two fingers. The "leaf card" is 8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. It is mounted on silk and paper, and the pattern is printed on a woodblock). It is said that this is the embryonic form of playing cards.

In the twelfth century, Marco Polo brought this card game to Europe, which immediately aroused great interest among Westerners. At the beginning, it was just a luxury for the nobles, but because of its low cost, diverse gameplay, and easy learning, it quickly became popular among the people.

The French understood the four colors as spear, square, lilac leaf and red heart;

The Germans understood the four colors as leaves, bells, acorns and red hearts;

Italians understand the four colors as swords, coins, canes and wine glasses;

The Swiss understood the four colors as acorns, bells, flowers and shields;

The British understood the four colors as shovel, diamond, clover and red heart.

There are many ways to say why these four patterns are used as the suits of playing cards. There are two more concentrated statements

One said that these four colors represented the four main industries of the society at that time. Among them, spades represented spears, symbolizing soldiers; plum blossoms represented clover flowers, symbolizing agriculture; squares represented bricks and tiles used by artisans; hearts represented red hearts, symbolizing priests .

The other is that these four colors are derived from the patterns of artifacts used in ancient European divination. Spades represent olive leaves, symbolizing peace; plum blossoms are clover, meaning luck; squares are in the shape of diamonds, symbolizing wealth; and hearts are red hearts. , A symbol of wisdom and love.

The 54-card pattern of playing cards is also very curious to explain:

The big king represents the sun, the little king represents the moon, and the remaining 52 cards represent 52 weeks of the year; the four suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades symbolize the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively; The suit has 13 cards, which means there are 13 weeks in each season. If J, Q, and K are regarded as 11, 12, and 13 points, the king and the king are half points, and the total points of a deck of playing cards are exactly 365 points. In leap years, the big and small kings are counted as 1 point each, for a total of 366 points.

Experts generally believe that the above explanation is not a coincidence, because the design and invention of playing cards are inextricably linked with astrology, divination, astronomy, and calendar.

There was a legend that Henry VIII was a model of the pattern of four kings; the portrait pattern of the four kings of the oldest British playing card in existence has the same curly beard and beard that separates on both sides as Henry VIII. Bearded. It is also said that the model of the portrait pattern on the four Qs is probably Queen Elizabeth of the York dynasty, that is, the Queen of Henry VII. The manufacturing of French playing cards has always been developed along the lines of each manufacturer. By 1813, the government issued an officially approved design, giving each head card a name. To this day, many playing cards still use this name. : Spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. The avatar names are:

K: David, Charlie, Caesar, Alexander;

Q: Pallas, Judith, Rachel, Akinney;

J: Hogil, Rahel, Hector, Lancelot stay.

King of Spades:

David (1005 BC to 965 BC), the first official monarch of the kingdom of Israel in the 10th century BC, was the monarch chosen by God. David was a great monarch, warrior, musician and poet.

David was the father of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century BC. He played well with the harp and wrote many hymns in the Bible. Therefore, the king of spades often has a harp pattern on the screen.

Heart K

Charlemagne (742 or 747 to 814) (also translated as Charlemagne), the monarch of the Charlemagne Empire, he conquered most of the lands of Western and Central Europe, had supreme authority, and completed the alliance between religious power and royal power. Order the people of the whole country to believe in Christianity, thus promoting the spread of Christianity. Charlie revived the Western Roman Empire and set off a wave of medieval Renaissance. He is the only king of cards without a beard.

Box K

Caesar (100 BC to 44 BC), an outstanding military strategist and statesman in ancient Rome, promoted the transformation from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. He fought for several years and finally gained dictatorship power, including consul and dictator. Because Caesar's administrative measures touched the interests of the nobles in the Senate, he was finally stabbed to death by the opposition in the Senate Chamber. The square K is the only side face of the 4 king cards.

Plum K

Alexander the Great (356 BC to 323 BC), the king of the Kingdom of Macedonia, Alexander the Great rose in Macedonia, first destroyed the enemy Persian Empire, and then successively conquered many Western civilized city-states. From Egypt in the west to the northwestern border of India in the east, the famous ancient Greek empire was established. Alexander always wears jewelry with a cross on his clothes.

Q of spades:

Athena is the goddess of war and wisdom in Greek mythology. The city of Athens is named after her and is her exclusive city. She is the only queen holding a weapon among the four queen cards.

Heart Q

It's Queen Judith.

Square Q

Queen Leker.

Plum Q

The word Argine is derived from the word “Regina” by shifting the letters. She holds a rose, which represents the Lancaster dynasty marked by a red rose in England and a white rose. The iconic York dynasty finally reconciled after the War of the Roses and tied the roses of the two sides together.

J of Spades

Hogier (Ogier) is also translated as Hokla, the Danish Hogier is a fictional Danish hero, based on ancient French poetry.

Heart J

La Hire (La Hire, 1390 to 1443) was a French commander in the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, and a comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc.

Box J

According to the records in Homer's epic poem "Iliad", Hector is the prince of Troy and the first warrior of Troy.

Plum J

Lancelot (Lancelot) A character in the English legend, a member of the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur.

The J (JACK) in poker originally used the term KNAVE (villain). This term was still quite popular in the UK and continental Europe until the 1940s. It has been basically abandoned and used in some European countries such as Sweden. Use this word. One of the reasons why the word JACK is used instead of KNAVE can be quickly accepted by the public is that when recording or reporting card examples, or when using abbreviations, or when describing the process of playing cards, it is convenient to use the first word of the word JACK. A letter J, and when the word KNAVE was used in the past, Kn must be used. If only K is used, it will cause confusion.

After the Opium War in 1840, foreign poker also entered China with foreigners. The imported poker at that time mainly came from the United States and Japan. Japanese poker was popular because of its low price. In 1931, the nation set off a boycott of Japanese goods, advocated domestic products, and developed industry. Shanghai Jinsheng founded the Cuihua Card Factory and trial-produced China's first batch of poker, the Red Lion poker.