The Chinese Game of Shengguan tu

It can be argued that board games reflect the society in which they are conceived. Thus Monopoly reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of a capitalist society, while the Chinese game of Shengguan tu H'h or Promoting Officials reflects the obstacles confronting officials throughout their careers.' On the scaled-down reality of a Monopoly board, players can display their entrepreneurial talents by acquiring desirable properties. By increasing the number of buildings they construct on these plots, owners charge ever higher rents until the other players run out of funds. By contrast, success in Shengguan tu is measured not only by the amount of funds that a player accumulates on his way to high office, but also by the prestige that the office confers on the holder. However, social approval comes at the price of decision making freedom. While Monopoly players need not always act on what the dice suggest, players of Shengguan tu appear to enjoy much less leeway. The amounts they must pay in fines when demoted or contributions they can expect when promoted are inscribed on the game's board or chart. In principle, players must comply with these amounts, denominated in tokens or chou M inscribed on the section on which they happen to land. In practice, Shengguan tu players, like their reallife counterparts, are able to work around these constraints. Given that corruption inflected all levels of the premodern civil and military bureaucracies, especially during the Qing dynasty on which the present-day game is based, promotion depended not so much on an individual's competence, as on his ability to buy offices, titles, and patronage. Consequently, the frequent use of the term juan t3 donation on Shengguan tu game charts accurately reflects the bribery that plagued the lives of most officials. Though Shengguan tu bears some resemblance to Snakes and Ladders, its financial component makes it far more complex than the children's game we know. In fact, the penalties and rewards associated with almost every move have turned Shengguan tu into a gambling game, which may explain why it is still played in Hong Kong and Taiwan and, perhaps, even on the mainland. However, Cai Ce # , the author of a pamphlet discussed below, deplores this trend by claiming that the game should not be a vulgar entertainment, but a graphic learning tool which clearly depicts the workings of the Qing bureaucracy. This view is encouraged by an inscription on the large game-chart that states: Historical material for the study of officialdom. That Shengguan tu can be used for this purpose is owing to the fact that the game is played on a large paper chart that is divided into compartments, almost all of which are preceded by the name of a Qing administrative office or bureau. These bureaus are then divided into sections, each of which bears a title. The aim of the game is to advance from the low ranking offices around the rim of the chart to the high-ranking ones at its center while accumulating as large a cache of funds as possible. Shengguan tu game-charts come in two sizes: large and small. The larger version is approximately twice the size of the smaller one and contains far more bureaus, but both

Art · Bureaucracy · Business · Economics · Inscribed figure · Language change · Law and economics · Market economy · Monopoly · Political science · Politics · Promotion (chess) · Japanese History and Culture · Law

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