The Symbolism of Backgammon

 
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In "Chinese Games with Dice," by Stewart Culin, Philadelphia, 
1889, is described the Japanese game of sugoroku, which is a variety 
of backgammon (older name, tables). In this game the board is 
divided into twelve parts by as many longitudinal lines, broken in 
the midst by an open space. The moves are made according to 
throws with dice. The twelve compartments are said (in a Japanese 
encyclopaedia) to symbolize the twelve months, and the black and 
white stones employed as the men, to represent day and night. On 
the authority of Chinese authors, the game in China is said to be as 
old as the third century. 

Thomas Hyde ("De ludis Orientalibus," Oxford, 1684, ii. 48) quotes 
the Arab " Ibn Chelikan " to the following effect : — 

" And he [the inventor of the game] arranged it according to the 
example of the world, to which he compared it ; for he divided the 
board into twelve houses, according to the number of months in the 
year ; and the men are thirty pieces, according to the number of 
days in the month ; the dice correspond to the revolving spheres, 
and their throws to the motions and circulation of the latter ; the 
points upon them answer to the number of the planets, since their 
positions always constitute the number seven, the one being opposite 
the six, the two opposed to the five, the three to the four. And he 
established the casts, which one obtains in playing, after the example 
of divine predetermination and decree, which are sometimes in his 
favor, sometimes against him ; he himself moves his men according 
to the throws, so that, if he has a quick intelligence, he is able so to 
arrange matters as to get the victory, and overcome his adversary, 
under the conditions which the dice have determined." 

The mediaeval Greeks adopted the same view of the game. Thus 
Cedrenus : " He determined that the board was the terrestrial 
world ; the twelve houses the number of the zodiac ; the dice-box, 
and grains within it, the seven planets ; the tower [into which the 
dice were formerly emptied], the height of heaven, from which are 
distributed all things good and evil." So also Suidas (tenth century). 

The stones used in Japan correspond to the Latin term for the 
men, calculi, Greek pessoi (that is, pebbles, mentioned in Homer). 

The number twelve may find an explanation in its representing 
the sum of the numbers on the two dice, without resorting to the 
symbolic reference. 

W. W. N.  

https://archive.org/details/jstor-532801