| Popis: |
The pieces traditionally used to play the Chinese board game da ma 打馬 were shaped like Chinese coins. According to the Ming period (late sixteenth-century) version of this game (Fig. 1.22 in Chap. 1 in this volume), the pieces looked like contemporary square-holed bronze coins. This characteristic has ensured that many examples have survived to the present day. It has led to their preservation in large numbers by coin collectors, who call them ma qian 馬錢 horse coins; there are, for example, 125 specimens in the collection of the Department of Coins and Medals of the British Museum. This paper is intended to provide an introduction to horse coins and to examine the evidence they provide for the da ma game itself. |
