Editing Liubo (section)

==Liubo patterns on other objects==

===Mirrors===
{{main|TLV mirror}}

[[File:British Museum Han TLV Mirror.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Han dynasty bronze mirror with TLV pattern]]
The pattern found on the surface of Liubo boards is also found on the most common type of Han dynasty bronze mirror, known from their distinctive markings as [[TLV mirrors]]. There is some debate over whether the Liubo pattern on these mirrors was simply decorative, or whether it had a ritual significance, or whether perhaps the mirrors doubled as portable Liubo game boards. Zhou Zheng has pointed out that one TLV mirror dating to the reign of [[Wang Mang]] (9–23) has an inscription that includes the words "Carved with a Liubo board pattern to dispel misfortune" (刻具博局去[祛]不羊[祥]), which suggests that the main purpose of the Liubo pattern on mirrors was ritual, and that the pattern had a special significance beyond game-playing.<ref>{{cite journal | author=周铮 (Zhou Zheng) | script-title=zh:"规矩镜"应改称"博局镜" |trans-title="Geometric mirrors" should be called "Liubo pattern mirrors" | journal=考古 (Archeology) | volume=1987 | issue=12 | pages=1116–1118 | language=zh}}</ref>

===Coins===

The Liubo pattern is also sometimes found on the reverse of [[Ancient Chinese coinage#Western Han and the Wu Zhu coins|Wu Zhu]] coins. Such coins were not used as currency but were probably lucky charms.<ref>{{cite web | title=#54832: China, charm&nbsp;– Wu Zhu coin  | publisher=Zeno Oriental Coins Database | url=http://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=54832 | access-date=2009-06-26}}</ref>

===Sundials===
[[File:Stone sundial with Liubo markings.jpg|thumb|left|220px|A Han stone sundial overcarved with a Liubo board pattern]]
In 1897 a Han dynasty stone [[sundial]] was discovered in [[Inner Mongolia]] which had been overcarved with a Liubo board pattern.<ref>{{cite journal | author=孙机 (Sun Ji) | script-title=zh:托克托日晷 |trans-title=The Togtoh sundial | journal=中国历史博物馆馆刊 (Journal of the Museum of Chinese History) | volume=1971 | issue=3 | pages=74–81 | language=zh}}</ref> The only other complete Han dynasty sundial, in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, also has a Liubo pattern carved on it. It may be that the sundials were repurposed as Liubo boards by carving the Liubo pattern over the original sundial markings, or it may be that the Liubo markings were added for some unknown ritual purpose.

===Divination boards===

In 1993, a wooden board with turtle divination diagrams and prognostications on one side and a Liubo diagram and forty-five prognostications on five topics on the other side was excavated from a late Western Han tomb at Yinwan in [[Donghai County]], [[Jiangsu]].<ref>{{cite journal | script-title=zh:尹湾汉墓简牍初探 |trans-title=Preliminary investigation about the wooden slips from the Han tomb at Yinwan | journal=文物 (Cultural Relics) | volume=1996 | issue=10 | pages=68–71 | language=zh}}</ref> The Liubo diagram is too small to have been used for playing Liubo, and is covered with the sixty terms of the [[sexagenary cycle]] which are written all along the lines of the Liubo diagram, in a similar way that the turtle diagram on the other side of the board is filled with the sixty terms. The prognostications under the Liubo diagram are headed with one of nine terms that correspond to the words of an enigmatic, mnemonic rhyme about Liubo written by Xu Bochang (許博昌) during the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han]] (141–87 BCE); Lillian Tseng (Zeng Lanying) argues that these are the names for particular points on the board (the two lines of the "V" mark, the two lines of the "L" mark, the two lines of the "T" mark, the circle or line between the corner and the central square, the outside edge of the central square, and the inside of the central square).<ref>{{cite journal | author=曾蓝莹 (Lillian Tseng) | script-title=zh:尹湾汉墓"博局占"木牍试解 |trans-title=Attempt to explain the "Liubo divination" wooden slip from the Han tomb at Yinwan | journal=文物 (Cultural Relics) | volume=1994 | issue=8 | pages=62–65 | language=zh}}</ref>

[[File:LiuboDivinationDiagram.png|frame|center|Schematic diagram of the Yinwan Han dynasty Liubo divination diagram, showing the positions of the sixty terms of the [[sexagenary cycle]] (following the corrections of Zeng Lanying) and examples of the nine board positions: '''A'''=''fāng'' 方 "square"; '''B'''=''lián'' 廉 (''pàn'' 畔) "edge"; '''C'''=''jié'' 楬 (''jiē'' 揭) "lift"; '''D'''=''dào'' 道 "path"; '''E'''=''zhāng'' 張 "stretch"; '''F'''=''qū'' 曲 (''jiǔ'' 究) "bend"; '''G'''=''qū'' 詘 (''qū'' 屈) "curve"; '''H'''=''cháng'' 長 (''xuán'' 玄) "long"; '''I'''=''gāo'' 高 "tall" (terms used in Xu Bochang's rhyme given in brackets if different).]]

[[Li Xueqin]] has suggested that the board was used for divination by matching the day to be divined to the corresponding sexagenary term on the Liubo diagram, and then reading off the corresponding prognostication according to the position of the sexagenary term on the Liubo diagram.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Li Xueqin | author-link=Li Xueqin | script-title=zh:"博局占"与规矩纹 |trans-title="Liubo board divination" and geometric patterns | journal=文物 (Cultural Relics) | volume=1997 | issue=1 | pages=49–51 | language=zh}}</ref> However, Lillian Tseng points out that the divination could also be done the other way round, by looking for the desired prognostication (for example an auspicious marriage day), and then all the days on the Liubo board that were written on the position corresponding to the term heading the prognostication would match the desired prognostication.

It has been theorized that the placement of the sixty sexagenary terms on the points of the Liubo divination diagram indicate the possible positions for placing pieces when playing Liubo, and that the sequence of the terms across the divination diagram reflects the path to be followed around the board when playing the game (starting at the north-east corner and ending at the north side of the central square).<ref>{{cite web | last=Cazaux | first=Jean-Louis | title=Liubo | url=http://history.chess.free.fr/liubo.htm | access-date=2009-06-26}}</ref>