Chinese Deck

About the Chinese Deck

The complete 78-card Tarot pack is divided into two sections: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. The Major Arcana are allegorical cards and are also known as the Triumphs, the Greater Arcana, the Higher Arcana and the Atouts.

The Minor Arcana are divided into four suits: swords, staves, cups, and coins. In each suit, are four court cards: King, Queen, Knight and Page; and ten numbered cards. Today’s ordinary playing cards descend from the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. The knight and page were combined to form the jack of the 52-card deck and swords became Spades; Staves, Clubs; Cups, Hearts and Coins, Diamonds.

Transliteration of Chinese to English spelling varies according to source, and was reformed in the early 1980s. For example, the city name of Beijing was formerly spelled Peking. The spelling used here for Chinese names is that most commonly found in published sources, the transliteration used before the reform.