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Evidence for Dongjintian (Four Players)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.2095
Type Ethnography
Location 23°25'52.63"N, 101°41'4.76"E
Date 1994-03-01 - 1994-03-31
Rules 4x5 board. Five counters per hole. Players can sow from any hole. Sowing occurs orthogonally in any direction, and a player can change direction orthogonally at any point in the move, but can never double back. When the last counter falls into a hole, sowing continues if there are counters in the following holes; these are picked up and sowing continues from there. The hole from which the sowing continues will always be the next one in the opposite direction from the penultimate hole in which a counter was dropped. Therefore, if the sowing ends when a sowing hits an edge or corner, sowing does not continue. When the hole after the end of a sowing is empty, the counters in the next hole following it are captured, but captures cannot be made when the final counter falls into a hole from which a new direction must be chosen. Captures cannot be made from the central two holes of the board. The player who captures the most counters wins.
Content "But for four players there is a rather unusual game, as follows: Principal informant: Wang Hongbin, 23, male, Hani nationality. Interviewed March 1994. Configuration: The board is 4 x 5, with five stones per hole. There are no large stones. Sectors: None, A player may play from any of the 20 holes on the board. Sowing: The first stone may be sown in any hole horizontally or vertically neighboring the hole being played; subsequently stones are sown forward, left, or right, but may not double back. Thus if a corner hole is lifted it may be sown in two directions; if one of the ten holes on the edge of the board which are not corners are played there are three possible directions, and if one in the middle six holes is lifted, there are four possible directions. If a stone has been sown in a corner, edge, or middle hole and there remain stones to be sown, there are respectively one, two, or three possible choices for the hole in which to sow the next stone. This results in a huge number of possible moves. For example, if four stones are lifted from one of the holes diagonally neighboring a corner, there are 52 different ways in which they can be sown. Relays and captures: These are pussa kanawa, but can only be made straight aead in the direction in which the last stone was sown. That is, after the last stone of a sowing is played, the contents of the neighboring hole in the opposite direction from the hole in which the penultimate stone was sown are lifted and sown. If this hole is empty, the contents of the hole beyond, if any, are captured. This results in diminished possibility of relay and capture. If the last stone lands in a corner, no relay or capture is possible. If the last stone lands in an edge-hole, but the penultimate stone was sown in a middle hole, again there is no relay or capture. Stones lying in one of the two holes at the midpoints of the two internal rows cannot be captured at all." Eagle 1995: 57-58.
Confidence 100
Ages Adult
Genders Male
Source Eagle, V. 1995. "Some Newly Described Mancala Games from Yunnan Province, China, and the Definition of a Genus in the Family of Mancala Games." In A. de Voogt, ed, New Approaches to Board Games Research: Asian Origins and Future Perspectives. Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, 48-63.
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