The Ancient Asian Origins of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’

Lance Geiger of The History Guy explained the ancient Asian origins behind the original zero-sum hand game “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, noting how it first started in China.

The earliest known mention of a rock paper scissors like game comes from a 17th century Ming Dynasty book from China the author refers to the game as Ishin, meaning hand commanding and claims that the game dated to the Han Dynasty in the 3rd Century. 

The rules were simple.

In the Chinese game, three gestures included extending a thumb, representing a frog, a venomous centipede was represented by a pinky and a snake was represented by extending the index finger. That may seem strange to a modern audience, but there is a traditional Chinese belief that the centipede kills the snake by digging into its brain the snake bites the frog and the frog eats the centipede. 

It then moved across Asia, showing up in Japan as the same game with a different name.

The game spread from there to Japan, where it became known under an umbrella term meaning first games of the three who are afraid of one another, meaning a game where A beats B, B beats C and C, beats A.

Asian immigration brought the game to Europe, where it became known as Ro-sham-bo, and the New World, where it landed on Rock, Paper, Scissors.

There is an enduring battle over the order of the words in the name across the world some call It “Rock Paper Scissors”,  while others say “Scissors Paper Rock”, and others use stone in place of rock and another commonly used name is Ro-sham-bo, a traditional story connects it to Count Rochambeau, a Frenchman who commanded the French forces at the Battle of Yorktown.