Re: Gebelin: ARTICLE V
Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 18:43
ARTICLE V.
Relationship of this Game with a Chinese Monument.
M. BERTIN, who has rendered such great services to Literature and Science, by the excellent memoirs he has procured and which he has had published on China, has communicated to us a unique monument which was sent to him from this vast country, and it goes back to the earliest ages of this empire, since the Chinese regard it as an inscription by Yao on the receding of the waters of the flood.
It is composed of characters that form large quarter-length compartments, all equal, and precisely the same size as the cards of the Game of Tarot.
These compartments are distributed in six perpendicular columns, the first five of which contain fourteen compartments each, while the sixth, which is only half-filled, contains only seven.
This monument is thus composed of seventy-seven figures as is the game of Tarot: and it is formed from the same combinations of the number seven, since each column is fourteen figures, and that which is only half-filled, contains seven.
Without this, it would have been possible to arrange these seventy-seven compartments so as to leave almost no void in this sixth column: one would have had only to make each column of thirteen compartments, and the sixth would have had twelve.
This monument is therefore perfectly similar, as to the layout, to the game of Tarot, if they are placed on a single board: the four suits would make the first four columns with fourteen cards each: and the twenty-one trumps would fill the fifth column and precisely half of the sixth.
It would be very odd if such a relationship was the simple effect of chance: it is, therefore, very apparent that both of these monuments were formed according to the same theory, and on the attachment to the sacred number seven; they, therefore, both seem to be a different application of a single formula, perhaps predating the existence of the Chinese and Egyptians: perhaps we'll even find something similar among the Indians or the people of Tibet placed between these two ancient nations.
We were very tempted to have this Chinese monument engraved as well; but the fear of misrepresenting it by reducing it to a field smaller than the original, coupled with the impossibility, given our means, of doing all that the perfection of our work would require, prevented us.
Let's not leave out that the Chinese figures are in white on a very black background; which makes them very prominent.
Relationship of this Game with a Chinese Monument.
M. BERTIN, who has rendered such great services to Literature and Science, by the excellent memoirs he has procured and which he has had published on China, has communicated to us a unique monument which was sent to him from this vast country, and it goes back to the earliest ages of this empire, since the Chinese regard it as an inscription by Yao on the receding of the waters of the flood.
It is composed of characters that form large quarter-length compartments, all equal, and precisely the same size as the cards of the Game of Tarot.
These compartments are distributed in six perpendicular columns, the first five of which contain fourteen compartments each, while the sixth, which is only half-filled, contains only seven.
This monument is thus composed of seventy-seven figures as is the game of Tarot: and it is formed from the same combinations of the number seven, since each column is fourteen figures, and that which is only half-filled, contains seven.
Without this, it would have been possible to arrange these seventy-seven compartments so as to leave almost no void in this sixth column: one would have had only to make each column of thirteen compartments, and the sixth would have had twelve.
This monument is therefore perfectly similar, as to the layout, to the game of Tarot, if they are placed on a single board: the four suits would make the first four columns with fourteen cards each: and the twenty-one trumps would fill the fifth column and precisely half of the sixth.
It would be very odd if such a relationship was the simple effect of chance: it is, therefore, very apparent that both of these monuments were formed according to the same theory, and on the attachment to the sacred number seven; they, therefore, both seem to be a different application of a single formula, perhaps predating the existence of the Chinese and Egyptians: perhaps we'll even find something similar among the Indians or the people of Tibet placed between these two ancient nations.
We were very tempted to have this Chinese monument engraved as well; but the fear of misrepresenting it by reducing it to a field smaller than the original, coupled with the impossibility, given our means, of doing all that the perfection of our work would require, prevented us.
Let's not leave out that the Chinese figures are in white on a very black background; which makes them very prominent.