Playing Cards appear to have been known from an early period in China. In the Chinese dictionary, entitled _Ching-tsze-tung_, compiled by Eul-koung, and first published A.D. 1678, it is said that the cards now known in China as _Teen-tsze-pae_, or dotted cards, were invented in the reign of Seun-ho, 1120; and that they began to be common in the reign of Kaou-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131.[70]--According to tradition, they were devised for the amusement of Seun-ho's numerous concubines. M. Abel Remusat, probably on the authority of the Ching-tsze-tung, has also observed that cards were invented by the Chinese in 1120.[71] Mons. Leber, however, considers it to be more likely that they got their first cards from Hindostan; and that, like the Europeans, they merely changed or modified the types, and invented new games. The general name for cards in China is _Che-pae_, which literally signifies "paper tickets." At first they are said to have been called _Ya-pae_, bone or ivory tickets, from the material of which they were made. A pack of dotted cards consists of thirty-two pieces, and the marks--small circular dots of red and black--are placed, alternately, at two of the corners; for instance, in a card containing eight dots, four are placed in one corner and four in the other diagonally opposite to it. Ten of those cards are classed in pairs; the first pair are called _Che-tsun_,--"the most honorable,"--and are superior to all the others; these may be considered as coat cards, as the one contains the figure of a woman, and the other that of a man; both these cards are also marked with black and red dots,--that of the woman with six, and that of the man with twelve. The second pair are called _Tien-pae_,--"celestial cards;" each contains twenty-four dots of black and red, corresponding with the twenty-four terms in the Chinese year. The third pair are called _Te-pae_,--"terrestrial cards;" each contains four red dots corresponding with the four cardinal points of the compass. The fourth pair are called _Jin-pae_,--"human cards;" each contains sixteen red dots, relating to benevolence, justice, order, and wisdom in a four-fold degree. The fifth pair are called _Ho-pae_; each card contains eight black dots, relating to a supposed principle of harmony in nature extending itself towards all points of the compass. The remaining twenty-two cards have distinct names, which it is needless here to give: the aggregate of the dots upon them is said to have reference to the number of the stars.