1. SET OF FOUR BRONZE LIUBO PLAYERS
Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD)
2 7/8” (7.4cm.) to 3 5/8” (9.2 cm.) high

Exhibition: The Glorious Tradition of Chinese Bronzes, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore, 2000, published by Li Xueqin, exhibition catalogue no. 102.

The players are seated in different poses and display the emotions and expressions of elation, disappointment and amusement. Sets of such bronzes cast variously in animal or human form, sometimes decorated with elaborate inlay, were used as weights for mats or shrouds in life as well as burials.

More often found singly or in pairs, complete sets of four appear rarely in records of excavations of the past. A set in the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Historie, Brussels, is published by Christian Deydier, Chinese Bronzes, 1980, pl. 102. The animation of another set is especially well described by Zhang Mingchuan in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Sculpture, vol. 2, pl. 75, "almost forgetting how to behave themselves, the dice thrower and his partner seem to be shouting at the top of their voices. Their opponents keep their mouths shut and watch the act with bated breath."

Two other groups include a set published in Ancient Chinese Art in the Idemitsu Collection, 1989, pl. 253; another was featured in the exhibition, Treasures from the Han, Emperor's Place, Singapore, 1990, catalogue, p. 59.

The exact nature of the game these figures are involved in is uncertain. They have variously been described as dice throwers, liubo players, gamblers and even mourners (only relevant in the case of the dejected figure).