Games, Music and Recreation in Han Communities: Social Life, 202 BCE–220 CE

Games and performances formed one part of the wider pattern of work, learning and leisure in Han communities. The period considered here begins with the Western Han, founded in 202 BCE, includes the interruption of Han rule by Wang Mang’s Xin regime from 9 to 23 CE, and continues with the Eastern Han from 25 to 220 CE. Recreation took different forms in households, imperial settings, cities and villages. Some activities required costly equipment or performers; others drew larger audiences or brought residents together for local festivities.

Excavated boards, pieces and throwing sticks preserve the physical equipment of liubo. Images show players facing one another, while a later commentary records one version of scoring. Music and performance had similarly varied settings, from singers and instrumentalists supported by wealthy patrons to urban spectacles with public audiences.

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Games in households, courts and cities

Liubo , a board game played with throwing sticks and pieces, was popular during the Han. Written references place it within a broader culture of recreation, while Han tombs have yielded boards and playing equipment. Eastern Han tomb reliefs and bricks often show people playing, sometimes in scenes with attendants or a pavilion. Ceramic figures also model pairs of players.

Other pastimes drew on physical skill or spectacle. Accounts of urban life describe audiences watching trained animals perform tricks, cockfights, animal fights in cages, horse racing, puppet shows, musical performances with dancing, acrobatics and juggling. Such amusements could attract rich and poor spectators. The range of entertainment did not mean that everyone had equal access to producing it: wealthy families could maintain performers at home, while public spectacles offered entertainment to wider audiences.

Liubo: equipment and possible rules

Liubo boards were made from materials including wood, lacquered wood, pottery, stone and bronze. They varied in shape and construction, but shared a distinctive surface pattern: angular marks at the corners, L-shaped marks along the edges, a central square and T-shaped marks. Most also had marks between the corners and the central square. The layout created marked positions for pieces, although the precise routes players followed remain disputed.

A complete lacquered set from a second-century BCE tomb at Mawangdui shows the equipment in more detail. It included a square wooden board about 45 centimetres across, twelve ivory pieces in two groups of six, and twelve long throwing sticks. Thirty rod-shaped counters were also found with the set. The sticks were thrown to determine moves, which explains the game’s name, commonly translated as “six sticks.” An eighteen-sided die and twenty additional ivory pieces in the same assemblage may have belonged to a different game, rather than to liubo.

A later account, preserved in a Jin-period commentary quoting a lost manual, describes one form of play between two people. Each had six pieces, and two fish markers were placed in the board’s central area, called the “water.” Players took turns throwing and moving pieces. When a piece reached a designated position, it could be stood upright and called an “owl.” In this account, an owl could enter the water and take a fish; counters recorded gains, and reaching six counters won the game.

Other descriptions differ over the throwing equipment and the game’s play. One later writer distinguishes a larger form using six sticks from a smaller form using dice. Modern reconstructions have proposed routes across the board and ways to capture or block opponents’ pieces, but the exact moves and the relationship between those proposals and Han play are not settled. The equipment and written descriptions support a game in which throws shaped movement and scoring mattered, while leaving important details open.

Cuju as exercise and entertainment

Cuju, literally “kick-ball,” was a form of ball play known in Han China. A Han military text describes the game as exercise, and accounts associate competitive play with physical training for military riders. It also had a recreational life in wealthy cities such as Linzi and reached courtly settings. These different uses show that ball play could serve both training and entertainment.

Cuju players propelled a ball with their feet. Accounts of Han court grounds mention several crescent-shaped goals, giving players targets for kicks. The format belongs to the history of kicking games, although the surviving descriptions do not supply a complete Han scoring system or team arrangement.

Music, performers and social gatherings

Music and performance could be part of private household display. Wealthy families might maintain a choir and a small instrumental ensemble using bells, drums, flutes and stringed instruments. Their resources made it possible to support music and performers at home, a different setting from the urban spectacles watched by wider audiences. Some women earned livelihoods by singing or dancing for wealthy patrons. Some household slaves were also assigned work as singers, dancers, musicians, acrobats or jugglers, showing that performance could depend on service as well as specialist skill.

In an ensemble, struck bells produced sustained tones while drums supplied rhythmic accents. Flutes sounded as the player blew across an opening, and a zither carried plucked strings over a wooden resonating body. A sheng, or mouth organ, grouped pipes over a shared air chamber; blowing through its mouthpiece set reeds vibrating, allowing more than one pitch to sound. These instruments supplied contrasting sounds for songs, dancing and ceremonial performance.

Village gatherings had a local setting in the altar dedicated to the community’s deity, where festivities could bring residents together. Public performances and privately maintained ensembles required different resources: a patron supplied performers and instruments, while spectators could participate by gathering to watch and listen.

For the wider setting, see Work, Learning and Leisure in Han China: Community Life from 202 BCE to 220 CE.