Bo Bing

What it is

Bo Bing is a folk dice game with roots in southern Fujian. It asks for very little: six dice, a bowl with a wide mouth, and a table of people. The bowl is often china, and the clatter of dice against it is part of the fun. Players take turns, and every roll matches a named place on a prize list. The game belongs to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which many people also call the Mooncake Festival, so it turns up wherever that festival is kept. China lists Bo Bing as a national-level intangible cultural heritage, a status granted in 2008.

Origins and history

Tradition places the game's beginnings in the 1600s and connects them with Koxinga, who led Southern Ming forces, and with Hong Xu, an officer beneath him. The troops were camped at Amoy, today's Xiamen, getting ready to besiege Fort Zeelandia and take Formosa from the Dutch, who had held it since 1624. The men were far from home at Mid-Autumn, and the game is said to have been a way of lifting their spirits. It caught on around Amoy and settled into ordinary life as a folk game.

Prizes and mooncakes

The old prize list is all mooncakes, and it is built on halving. A full set runs to 63 cakes. Thirty-two are the smallest size, then comes half that number of the next size up, and the count keeps shrinking until a single large cake is left, the champion cake, or Chiōng-gôan-piáⁿ. The Hokkien name for the game means gambling for cakes, which says plainly what is at stake. In mainland China the rules are often printed on mooncake packaging, and prizes now include cash or goods for the home. Chinese Filipino players often play for money and household items, with toys, school supplies and snacks for younger players.

Big throws and chasing

The prize names are ranked, and the biggest ones draw the loudest reaction. They include 状元, the champion roll, along with 对堂 and 三红. A player who rolls six fours makes the ultimate throw and collects every mooncake from sixth place up to first, even the ones already handed out. A group may leave that rule out so that each person wins something. Large prizes can be chased: once a set of cakes has been taken completely, another player who rolls that set's combination may claim it from whoever holds it. The champion cake, being a single prize, changes hands only for a higher champion roll.

Luck and ritual

Many players treat the game as more than chance. Some keep small rituals that they believe bring luck and a good year ahead. The person who takes the champion prize sometimes puts on a champion hat, a sign of success. That same winner may be asked to buy the mooncakes for the next year's game, so the good fortune is spread around. Players also speak of rolling with one hand or two, and of calling out "Chiong Wan" as the dice land. None of this is fixed law; it varies from table to table.

How Bo Bing is kept

Usually two or more people play, and a bowl plus six dice is all that is needed. The oldest or most senior player settles who begins by rolling two dice and counting clockwise around the group until that total is reached. From there, each person in turn rolls the six dice in the bowl, and the combination decides the prize. Play moves clockwise, one throw after another, until nothing is left to win. If a die leaves the bowl or bounces out, that turn is void and the player also loses the next turn.

When and where

The game has no separate date of its own. It belongs to the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Mooncake Festival, and it is played when that festival comes round, at the gatherings and meals that go with it. The festival sets the time; the game simply follows it.

Bo Bing comes from southern Fujian, and it is best known in and around Amoy, now called Xiamen. It spread through mainland China, and it is also played in Taiwan. In the Philippines it has a strong home among Chinese Filipinos, who know it as the Mooncake Festival Dice Game or Pua Tiong Chiu.

What Bo Bing means

For the people who play it, the game carries the feeling of Mid-Autumn: being together, and remembering those who are far away. Its history is told as a story about homesick soldiers, so the dice and the shared cakes stand for company and comfort. The champion hat, and the winner's gift of next year's mooncakes, turn a lucky roll into something passed on to others.

Days Bo Bing is marked

Questions people ask about Bo Bing

See also

PunnukA tug of war in a river at harvest's end, kept by Tuwali-speaking villages in IfugaoOvooA stone cairn on a peak or pass, circled by travellers and honoured in sky worshipWater lanternSmall lamps floated on water to honour the dead and ask for good fortuneDragon danceA long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivals

Good reading and sources

• Bo Bing (game) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-11.