A Brief History of Tangrams

Legend holds that thousands of years ago, a sage in the ancient orient was
asked to transport a pane of glass. The pane was to be used in the royal palace
as the first glass window for the king and queen. In those days, panes of glass
were a prized commodity, especially one as perfectly made as this one for it was
perfectly square. So, as you can imagine, the transporting of the glass was an
awesome responsibility. To protect the glass, the sage first wrapped it with the
finest silk in the land to protect it from being scratched. He then wrapped the
package with leather that was strong to protect the glass yet soft enough as to
not break the glass. Finally, the sage wrapped the entire package in a thick layer
of canvas. This, he thought, would protect the pane of glass from all danger.
After days of travel, the sage came to the hardest part of his journey, a rocky
mountain. He ascended the mount, carefully selecting each step so as not to
accidentally trip and possibly break the glass. When at the top, after successfully
evading many potential pitfalls, he could see his destination in the valley below-the royal palace. He realized his journey was nearly over. Unfortunately, while
peering off into the distance, he didn't see the tiniest of pebbles, no bigger than
his little toe, on the ground before him. Before he knew it, he was tumbling down
the hill along with the glass! When he eventually got himself under control, he
immediately opened the package containing the glass. First he unwrapped the
canvas, then the leather, and finally the silk. To his amazement, the pane had not
shattered into a million pieces. Instead, it had broken into seven pieces. There
was one square, one parallelogram and five triangles.
The sage tried to fit the pieces back together in the shape of the original square.
At first he made a rectangle. Next he came up with a parallelogram. Finally, after
many attempts, he was able to fit the pieces into a square. He realized the infinite
amount of combinations and interesting shapes that could be made by arranging
the pieces. With this revelation, the sage wrapped the pieces back up as in the
original package and continued his trek. Upon arriving at the royal palace, the
sage presented the package to the king, but not as a simple pane of glass.
Instead, the sage proceeded to tell of the story of his trek using the pieces of
broken glass to illustrate his adventures. The king was amazed at the shapes,
and he and the people of his kingdom quickly embraced them. And so the art of
tangrams was born!
As interesting as this story may be, it is unfortunately total fiction. The actual
origin of tangrams is unknown. However, it is known that tangrams was a popular
recreation in China near the start of the nineteenth century. This was followed by
a craze in America, Europe, and Asia where it was one of the most popular
games of the nineteenth century.
The earliest recorded reference to tangrams was in 1813 in a Chinese book. The
book was most likely written during the reign of Emperor Chia Ching (1796-1820)

when tangrams was at its height of popularity in China. The word tangram was
first introduced officially by Websters Dictionary in 1864. However, the exact
origin is unknown, but many plausible explanations exist. The most widely
accepted can be found in current dictionaries. It is speculated that the word
tangram is derived from the combination of Tang from the T'ang Dynasty and the
suffix gram. Another possible explanation is that it may have been derived from
the now obsolete word trangram meaning puzzle. Finally, some consideration
can be given to it being derived from Tanka, people of southern China and Hong
Kong, who were known for exporting goods. In addition, it is known that the
Tanka also provided food, entertainment and labor for sailors. Peter Van Note, in
his introduction to The Eighth Book of Tan, Part I supplies more detail to the
above explanations.
The most entertaining explanation of the origin of the game of tangrams is by
Sam Loyd, the author of the above mentioned book. In this book, he offers not
only an origin to tangrams but uses tangrams to offer a theory on creation itself.
Obviously, this is a spoof, but it is well worth reading for those interested in
tangrams.