You're right, it's very difficult to make cards before paper can be made cheaply and easily - so it's not much of a shock that the earliest paper playing cards would come from the first civilization to make paper cheaply and easily: the Tang Dynasty of China as of c. mid-9th century CE. The 11th century Song Dynasty historian Ouyang Xiu wrote of Wrote in his Gui tian lu (Jottings after returning to the fields) with a preface dated 1076

The game of yezi ge (Rules of Leaves) was present after the mid Tang period […] it was popular during banquets of the scholar-officials of the Tang period. This was still so in the Five Dynasties period (907-60) and the early years of the [Song] dynasty (906 onwards), and then gradually it was put aside and not handed down. Some people may possess the rules for this game now, but no one knows how to play it.

There are even (though likely apocryphal) references to the game of leaves – or some variant thereof – being played as early as the reign of Tang Taizong (r. 627-649).

Frustratingly, while the game is referred to now and again, its actual rules of play seem to have been lost to time. As Ouyang noted, even by his own time it had fallen so far out of fashion that almost no one knew how to play anymore. It seems to have been a combination card and dice game, with a set of especially complex and perplexing rules of which we have only hints. A poem from Li Dong titled “Bureau Director Wei of Longzhou first dreamt of dice, and then later, because he played the leaf game, I humbly offer him this poem” goes (tr. By Andrew Lo):

Fragrant smoke from red candles waft toward the decorated pillars;
The plum blossoms have fallen, and the majestic building is quiet.
The brilliant round soul of the moon peeps out from the mountain, producing a chilling effect;
And the cubical ivory dice chiseled in colour are lightly cast with a flick of the wrist.
Drawing the precious token [card?], the lion marker weighs down on it;
Taken out from the golden bowl, the male and female phoenix [red dice?] tumble.
Was it a happy sign [in your dream], like Huang [Ba] called to the capital [and promoted], [or was your dream unreal like] the dream of Zhuang Zhou?
But now once again the dice form the [winning double-four combination of ‘the Prime Minister’s] seal [as in your dream].

Another hint at how the game was played comes from the Song dynasty, when Wang Pizhi writes:

Recently, Cao Gu, Director of the Ministry of War, invented a game called New Rules for Old Joys, based on the former game [of leaves], and the rules are especially detailed and tight. The rules are the following: use six flat dice, ten rhinoceros horn lions, and starting from the section [?] concerning bowl and tokens [cards?], fifteen categories are distinguished. Each category has a description, and there are altogether two hundred and twenty-seven well-known [dice?] combinations and two hundred and forty-seven special combinations, totaling four hundred and seventy-four combinations. I have the rules, but no one in the world can play it.

So at least we know that the game involved 6 dice, lion weights (to hold down the cards so they didn’t blow away), a bowl, and the token cards. It seems as though the dice were rolled by a player, and then according to the outcome, cards would be drawn from the bowl – possibly serving a similar function as modern poker chips: representing cash values to be won.

Another type of game that was very popular from the Tang onward, and utilized paper cards were drinking games, which seem to have been largely derived from a game called “Fishing for Giant Sea Turtles”. The name itself seems to come from the term used in the Tang/Song times for candidates for officialdom being accepted into the prestigious Hanlin Academy at the capital, called “getting onto the head of the giant sea turtle.” Zhang Yuan of Southern Song describes the game:

People in the Tang Dynasty had many wine games. There is the Fishing for the Giant Sea Turtle Game. A rod with a red silk thread line attached to it is held at a distance of 5 chi [~1-1.5 meters] inside the hall. A stone bowl, holding various “fish” [drawn or carved onto cards or plaques], forty kinds in total, is placed 7 chi [~2 m] away from the hall. Each fish is made in the form of a plaque with its name carved on it. There is a poem on each plaque. At one fishing, [a player] may get two plaques, but the recorder reads out one poem to carry out the drinking and the penalty. […] the poem for the Giant Sea Turtle goes:

The immortal giant sea turtles at the bottom of the sea are difficult to match,
The carry a golden peak which Yingzhou Paradise.
How did the giant from Elder Dragon Kingdom fish for turtles then?
He used a rainbow for a long rod, and the crescent moon for a hook.

[Instruction:] Please use fine wine to urge those who have passed the examination to drink a full ten units.

It seems that in the time it took for the reader to read the poem aloud, the player was to drink their whole cup – 10 units is a sizeable cup… though not the biggest… excavations have unearthed cups used to play such games as ranging from 5 up to 40 units large.

Later drinking game, like those invented during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), also used cards. Zhao Yushi explained one such game invented in the early- mid-11th century:

Paper cards (zhi tiezi) are used. On one is written ‘Examiner in Charge of Presenting Scholars’, on a second ‘Imperial Archivist’, on the third ‘Gentleman Hermit’ and the rest ‘Scholars’. Those present are asked to quietly draw one card each. The person who gets ‘Examiner in Charge of Presenting Scholars’ does exactly what the title says. The person who gets ‘Imperial Archivist’ helps the examiner to look for the Gentleman Hermit to present him to court. If he is not found, the Examiner and Archivist drink a forfeit.

Later, new rules were added. There was added an ‘Emissary of Appointment’ and a ‘Head of Academy’. If the ‘Hermit Gentleman’ is found, the two drink along with him. When the ‘Hermit Gentleman’ has been discovered, the two announce themselves, and there is no need to look for them. Before the ‘Hermit Gentleman’ has been found, they cannot announce themselves first. If they break these two rules, the wine penalties are doubled.

So it’s basically like playing a Werewolf/Mafia party game, but getting really drunk in the process.

The Yuan Dynasty also had popular card/drinking games… Played in mixed company, the player would pull a card, read a poem and follow the instructions. Such games could get pretty bawdy, for instance:

Card #7: The man from Qi begs for leftovers

Begging for leftovers is truly despicable,
Not satisfied, he goes off elsewhere.
His wife and concubine mock him in turn,
But happily he comes home still wanting to brag.

[Instructions:] He who gets this order receives an old cup of wine, drinks a little and then begs for wine and food from the guests. The he brags. If there are courtesans in the party, they pretend to be his wife and concubine and scold him. If there are not courtesans, his two neighbours act as wife and concubine.

Card #55: Lord Pingyuan and the extinguished candles

Drinking in the night, the candles suddenly went out,
And a guest pulled at the beauty’s robe.
The beauty pulled the ribbon fastner off his cap,
Then all the guests did so, and she never got to know.

[Instructions:] Extinguish the candles at the banquet. In a while, no matter if there are courtesans around or not, everyone is allowed to say a rude phrase, but they cannot take advantage of the moment to move their hands. If it is daytime and there are no candles, everyone closes his or her eyes and still has to say a dirty phrase. The person who gets this command drinks a cup secretly to apologize for pulling at the clothes of the beauty. It is not necessary for anyone to pull off his cap ribbon.

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Lo, Andrew. “The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese Playing Cards” in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 63, No. 3 (2000).

Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin. “Paper and Printing: (d) Uses of paper and paper products: (6) Papercraft and Recreaional Use of Paper” in Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part I: Paper and Printing.