<P> Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology and there were 30 cards in a deck . The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th - century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang , written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang , daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang , playing the `` leaf game '' in 868 with members of the clan of Wei Baoheng , the family of the princess ' husband . The first known book on the `` leaf '' game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman . It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties . The Song dynasty ( 960 -- 1279 ) scholar Ouyang Xiu ( 1007 -- 1072 ) asserts that the `` leaf '' game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium . However , Ouyang also claims that the `` leaves '' were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice , and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067 . </P>
<P> Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology and there were 30 cards in a deck . The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th - century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang , written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang , daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang , playing the `` leaf game '' in 868 with members of the clan of Wei Baoheng , the family of the princess ' husband . The first known book on the `` leaf '' game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman . It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties . The Song dynasty ( 960 -- 1279 ) scholar Ouyang Xiu ( 1007 -- 1072 ) asserts that the `` leaf '' game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium . However , Ouyang also claims that the `` leaves '' were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice , and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067 . </P>
when was the first pack of cards made
when was the first pack of cards made
around the 9th century AD
around the 9th century AD