The 15-Tangram Book & Puzzle: 460 Puzzles of Ancient Chinese Wisdom (Includes a 15-Piece Wooden Tangram Set and Answer Keys)
Mixed media product (Trade paperback US) | Dec 2017 | Better Link Press | 9781602206083 | 256pp | 241x171mm | GEN | AUD$34.99
The tangram has a very long history. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a puzzle game whose idea derived from the Banquet Table Diagrams (Yanji Tu) of the Song Dynasty and Butterfly Table Diagrams (Dieji Tu) of the Ming Dynasty, capturing the wisdom of the ancients. From literati to businessmen, even the royal family, they all fell in love with this brain game, also known as the "Fifteen-Piece Tangram Puzzle."
As the name suggests, the fifteen-piece tangram puzzle consists of fifteen pieces. They are different from the regular seven-piece tangram puzzle in terms of shapes and number of pieces. The regular seven-piece tangram puzzle is made up of five triangles, one square, and one parallelogram. The fifteen-piece tangram puzzle is also dissected from a square but composed of more shapes: four triangles, two trapezoids, one parallelogram, two L-shapes, two semi-circles, and four arch-shapes. A wider range of shapes and pieces allows more flexibility and creates more vivid configurations such as animals, birds, flowers, fruits, figures, objects, or even landscapes. Every single puzzle in this book is full of imagination, supplemented with poems and phrases, which can both be a feast to the eye and delightful experience for your mind.
Did you have a difficult time to start in the beginning? Don't worry! The first chapter in this book illustrates various geometries that can be formed by the fifteen pieces. After learning the basics, you can then go into the advanced chapters to get the key to all the puzzles. If you still can't solve them after racking your brain, don't feel too bad as we have answers for all of them. These magical pieces can certainly create a limitless world!