Ô ăn quan (Vietnamese Traditional Stone Game, Quan Capture Game, or Vietnamese Mancala) is a traditional

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

children's

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

. This game is valuable for enhancing calculating and strategical ability.

Board, pieces, and players

* A rectangle which is divided into ten squares (5x2) with two semicircles at each end is drawn on the floor or the yard. The ten squares are called "rice field square", "fish pond square" or "citizen square" and the two semicircles are called "Mandarin squares". * Pieces may be stones, fruit seeds or any other small things. * Two players or two teams sit in two sides of the board. Each controls one side of the board.

History

The game's origin is unknown, as it has been played for many years. Many people say that Vietnamese ancestors were inspired by green rice fields to invent a game that could be played in those huge fields. At first, the game had become quite popular throughout the country. However, as time passed Vietnamese children no longer had the same passion for the game like those in the past. For this reason, the

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (; ) is a museum in Hanoi, Vietnam, which focuses on the 54 officially recognised ethnic groups in Vietnam. It is located on a property in the Cầu Giấy District, about 8 km from the city center. The m ...

is exhibiting the game with fully explained instructions with the aim of keeping the game alive among children nowadays. According to many researchers, Ô Ăn Quan belongs to the

Mancala Mancala ( ''manqalah'') is a family of two-player Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games, turn-based Strategy game, strategy board games played with small stones, beans, marbles or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board ...

family of games that has its origin rooted in Naqala (means movement). Through time, this game got popularized to other countries through culture and religion.

Rules

Setup

Each player places one big stone or ten small stones (called the "Mandarin piece") in the Mandarin square as well as five small stones (called "citizen pieces") in each of the rice field squares.

Objective

The game ends when all the pieces are captured. If both Mandarin pieces are captured, the remaining citizen pieces belong to the player controlling the side that these pieces are on. There is a Vietnamese saying to express this situation: "''hết quan, tàn dân, thu quân, bán ruộng''" (literally: "Mandarin is gone, citizen dismisses, take back the army, selling the rice field") or "''hết quan, tàn dân, thu quân, kéo về''" (literally: "Mandarin is gone, citizen dismisses, take back the army, retreat") Whichever player has more pieces is the winner (a Mandarin piece is equal to ten or five citizen pieces).

Scattering

Players play

rock paper scissors Rock, Paper, Scissors (also known by #Names, several other names and word orders) is an Intransitive game, intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstret ...

to determine the first player. The first player takes up all the pieces of any rice field square on their side of the board and distributes (Vietnamese: ''rải'': literally: scatter) one piece per square, starting at the next square in either direction. When all pieces are distributed, the player repeats by taking up the pieces of the following square and distributing them. If their side of the board is empty, they must use five previously-won pieces to place one piece in each square on their side before repeating the distribution. (If they do not possess any pieces, they must borrow a piece from the other player and return it when counting the points at the end of the game.)

Capturing

When the next square to be distributed is empty, the player wins all the pieces in the square after that. A square that contains a lot of pieces is the ''nhà giàu'' square (literally: rich square). When the next square is an empty Mandarin square, or the next two squares are empty, it becomes the other player's turn. In some game variations, the Mandarin square can contain little citizen pieces called ''quan non'' (literally - : Mandarin; : young or unripened) which may not be captured.

Song

The children song (Vietnamese: ''đồng dao'') is used when playing this game: :Hàng trầu hàng cau ''The

betel Betel (''Piper betle'') is a species of flowering plant in the pepper family Piperaceae, native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious vine, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plants are cultivated for their lea ...

stall, the

areca nut The areca nut ( or ) or betel nut () is the fruit of the areca palm (''Areca catechu''). The palm is originally native to the Philippines, but was carried widely through the tropics by the Austronesian migrations and trade since at least 15 ...

stall'' :Là hàng con gái ''Be stalls of girls'' :Hàng bánh hàng trái ''The cake stall, the fruit stall'' :Là hàng bà già ''Be stalls of old women'' :Hàng hương hàng hoa ''The

incense Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

stall, the flower stall'' :Là hàng cúng Phật. ''Be stalls for offering the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

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In science

Mạc Hiển Tích Mạc (chữ Hán: 莫) is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Ma or Mo in Chinese and Mua in Hmong language. It is unrelated to the "Mac" prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages. Mac / Mc is an anglicised variation ...

invented ''số ẩn'' (negative numbers) from the rules of this game.

In literature

* Saying: "Một đập ăn quan" - literally: "one move captures Mandarin piece": expressing a successful result getting from a simple act.

Variant

A variation of this game exists for two, three and four players.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:O An quAn Children's board games Traditional mancala games Traditional board games Culture of Vietnam