Madiao

Madiao (Chinese: 買道, 馬弔) is an old Chinese four-player trick‑taking gambling card game. It first appears in Ming dynasty sources (c.1588) and remained popular through the Qing era. Madiao is played with a 40‑card “money‑suit” deck (suits of cash/coins, strings, myriads and tens‑of‑myriad), with each suit containing ranks 1–9 (plus half‑cash and zero‑cash in Coins). The high cards (tens‑of‑myriad, zero‑cash, etc.) are often illustrated with heroes from the Water Margin novel, and the decks were even nicknamed “Water Margin cards” or “Madiao cards” after the game. In gameplay one banker faces three players in a “high‑card wins” trick-taking contest (the banker must win at least two tricks to break even). Known also as the “paper tiger” game (紙老虎), Madiao represents a key link in Chinese card history – descending from earlier Ming “leaf-card” (葉子戲) traditions and foreshadowing later games like Mahjong.