Luk Fu / Six Tigers 1 (Hong Shi Factory, China)

Luk Fu / Six Tigers. Hong Shi Factory, China. Bespoke deck, Chinese money suited, 38 cards. Size: 21mm x 82mm.

Deck make-up:
Cash, strings, myriads, tens: 1-9.
Extras: jokers x2.

This pack is used to play the game of Luk Fu or Six Tigers. It is played by the Hakka Chinese, though, as with most games played with traditional Chinese cards, interest is decreasing and it is now mainly old people who keep the flame alive (there remain only one or two manufacturers of the deck). Unusually, it is a game for three players, though a fourth can act as banker and dealer, and there are variants which allow for four players proper. The basic object is to win tricks, but there are many slight variations of play.

The deck is based on Chinese money-suited cards (for a primer on this, read the initial text here). In fact, a Luk Fu deck is the sole remaining design to use all four original Chinese suits, including the tens suit; other traditional packs (including the tile game mahjong) today only use the lower three suits.

Each card consists of two symbols: an upper symbol (usually very stylised) indicating the rank of the card, and a lower symbol indicating the suit. The ranks range from 1 through 9. Some cards have a coloured aspect to them which indicates high-powered cards in the game (called aged or lao sui cards).

This deck

luk fu stylised numbersThe upper character on each card is a stylised version of the value of the card. The diagram on the right shows the correspondences for this deck between these symbols and the conventional everyday Chinese numbers. You'll notice our own French / English suit symbols creeping into some of the designs!

The backs of all the cards in this deck are plain glossy black. The cards in this deck really are still printed on card. This is getting to be a bit unusual as most of these traditional decks are now produced in plastic (sometimes even with a choice of the weight / thickness of the plastic).

Click on any card to explore the design.

(Comments or corrections, please e-mail: Click to see e-mail address.)



Card image size, below:     

Cash

On the card, the lower character is the suit – cash in this case. However, apparently there is a corruption in almost all Luk Fu decks (including this one) and the character actually shown appears to be some sort of mash-up between 线 and (both of which mean wire, thread or string) instead of the correct character of (for cash). So, given the suit below, the deck has two suits named after strings! The error is recognised, but appears to have become part of the standard Luk Fu pattern nevertheless.
The 1 has a special design (having exceptions to everything seems to be a "feature" of Far Eastern cards and games!) in which both characters do not seem to readily match anything in common use. Opinions vary, but one theory is that they are a reference to Mr Máo, a professional gambler in the Warring States period – this is very uncertain, however. A more likely guess is that they are supposed to be 戈匕 and mean spear or dagger.

Strings

The suit here is strings (  – which usually means rope rather than string). Note the remark about the typo on the cash suit, above.

Myriads

The suit is called myriads (meaning "ten thousand"). The suit symbol is a stylised version of one of the two symbols the Chinese use for the myriads suit (  ).

Tens

The fourth suit is tens (of myriads) (  ). This suit was once a standard part of a Chinese money-suited deck of cards but has been discarded over the years, the exception being a Luk Fu deck, as here.
There is a special card as the 1 (which is sometimes adjudged a joker rather than being part of this suit). The characters on it ( 百子 ) are a blessing meaning "a hundred sons / children".

Extras

Most Luk Fu decks have two jokers. The one on the left (sometimes used in play, sometimes not) is usually called li chen (despite the lower symbol, this card has nothing to do with the cash suit above). One theory is the text references a coin from Yúnnán province.
The joker on the right is, apparently, never used in modern play. It is usually called li fa (to parallel the other joker, li chen) and the Chinese on it is read (at least these days) to mean "stag flower" ( 鹿花 ).

Links to traditional Chinese decks

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 1 (Jīn Hóu, Tiānjīn, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 2 (Mín Lè, Shùyáng, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 3 (unknown, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 4 (Taizhou Luqiao Xingqin Plastic Factory, Shenyang, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 5 (Jinxin, Jinxiang, Zhejiang Province, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 6 (Guangzhou Qimiao, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China)

Chinese Money-Suited Cards 7 (unknown, China)

Luk Fu / Six Tigers 1 (Hong Shi Factory, China)

Luk Fu / Six Tigers 2 (Jinzhong Playing Cards, Chongzhou City, Sichuan, China)

Mahjong (Da Zong, Yiwushi Chuiyun Wanjuchang, Zhejiang, China)

Chinese Domino Cards (Jinzhong Tianzi brand / Shu Brand Boutique / Chengdu Famous Trademark, China)

Chinese Numeral Cards (Laughing About ( 笑谈中 ), Zhejiang, China)

Chinese Chess Cards (All American Group, Guangdong Quanmei Poker Co., China)

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