When did playing cards appear? Who invented it? These two issues have caused controversy abroad. The Italian said: The first person who invented playing cards in the world was the Venetian. Ancient Venetian merchants went out to do business and invented playing cards to calculate the date and amuse themselves. The Frenchman said: Poker was designed by a scholar in 1392 to entertain the mentally ill French emperor charles vi. The Belgian said: As early as 1379, playing cards appeared in Belgium. However, there is a document of a Swiss monk in the British Museum, which records that playing cards were spread to Switzerland in 1377.
Some people abroad think that playing cards should be invented by China people. Because in the Song Dynasty in China, a kind of "Ye Zi Xi" brand (called "Ye Zi Brand") was popular among the people, and its size was two fingers. The "leaf card" with a length of 8 cm and a width of 2.5 cm is made of silk and paper, and the pattern is printed by woodcut. They believe that this kind of playing cards was spread abroad by businessmen and missionaries in the Ming Dynasty or the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Inspired by this, it was transformed into a popular playing card in the west.