At the turn of the 18th century, a simplified version of the butterfly tables appeared, eventually giving way to the seven piece tangram model we know today. The design was a geometrically harmonious fusion of Huang Bosi’s banquet tables (the number of tables) and Ge Shan’s butterfly tables (the shapes). In 1813, the earliest known tangram diagrams were published in a book, Complete Tangram Diagrams, by
Bi Wu Jushi. The compilation was illustrated by Sang Xia Ke.
Ge Shan’s butterfly tables
Tangram tables