The story of the jigsaw puzzle
The history of the jigsaw puzzle may be traced back to the ancient book "Zhou Bi Suan Jing" in my country's pre-Qin Dynasty, which contains the square cutting technique and proved the Pythagorean theorem. At that time, the large square was cut into four identical triangles and one small square, and it was not a tangram. The current jigsaw puzzle has gone through a period of historical evolution. It developed from the Yanji diagram in the Song Dynasty to the butterfly diagram in the Ming Dynasty, and then evolved into the jigsaw puzzle in the early Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 2,500 years. .
In the Song Dynasty, there was a man named Huang Bosi who was very knowledgeable about geometric figures. He was very hospitable and invented a "banquet table" composed of 6 small tables - a small table for entertaining guests. Later, someone improved it into a banquet table consisting of 7 tables. The tables can be assembled into different shapes according to the number of people eating, such as 3 people forming a triangle, 4 people forming a square, 6 people forming a hexagon... …This makes dining convenient for everyone and creating a better atmosphere. Later, some people reduced the banquet table to only seven boards, used it to puzzle, and evolved into a toy. Because it is very clever and fun, people call it "tangram". At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, people in the palace often used it to celebrate festivals and entertainment, and formed various auspicious patterns and words. The Palace Museum still preserves the jigsaw puzzle from that time! (Taobao.com welcomes you to buy jigsaw puzzles)
In his novel, the Dutch writer Gaulopet wrote about a mute boy who used jigsaw puzzles to spell out words to supplement his gestures. It is said that after the French Napoleon was exiled, he often played jigsaw puzzles to kill time.
The jigsaw puzzle was introduced to Europe and remains popular to this day. In 1978, the Dutchman Joosf Elffers wrote a book about jigsaw puzzles. The book collected 1,600 kinds of graphics and was translated into many languages ??and published. Today, there is almost no one in the world who does not know the tangram and the tangram. It is called "Tangram" abroad, which means a puzzle from China (it is not a figure invented in the Tang Dynasty).
In the 18th century, the jigsaw puzzle spread abroad and immediately aroused great interest. Some foreigners played it all night long and called it "Tangtu", which means "jigsaw puzzle from China". In Europe, "New Chinese Children's Puzzles" published around 1805 contained 24 jigsaw puzzles and a wooden jigsaw puzzle. Subsequently, books about the tangram were published in France in 1810, Germany and the United States in 1818, and the book published in Italy also introduced the history of China. In the preface of these books, it is said: This is a pastime game suitable for men, women, young and old, nobles and ordinary people, and it does not make you lose money like other gambling equipment.