Chapter 20 Section 3 The Evolution and Development of Chess

Everything develops gradually from low-level to high-level, from simple to complex, from imperfect to relatively perfect. This is the objective law of the development of things.The evolution and development of chess is no exception.It has gone through a long period of time since its embryonic development to the current chess system and form through continuous reform and evolution. Liubo chess, which was popular in the Warring States Period, can be said to be the germination of ancient Chinese chess.The chess set of Liubo chess is composed of three parts: chopsticks, chess, and game. "箸 [zhuzhu]" is a six-point-long stick that resembles chopsticks and acts like a dice during a game. "Chess" is a chess piece carved with ivory, six on each side. The "game" is the chessboard.Before playing chess, you have to take turns throwing chopsticks, which is similar to throwing dice.Among the six chess pieces, one owl [xiaoxiao] is scattered, and the one who kills the opponent's owl is the winner.

Liubo chess became more popular in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and developed into big and small games in the Eastern Han Dynasty.Xiaobo's chess pieces are increased to 12 pieces.Liubo chess may have been produced before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.Because in the ancient novel "Mu Tianzi Biography", it was said that Zhou Mu Wangman in 970 BC was a Liubo chess fan. He played chess with Jing Gong for three days before deciding the winner. The face of Liubo chess is different from modern chess, and also different from ancient chess. There are no chess pieces with names such as chariot, horse, general, pawn, soldier, and elephant.But its chess pieces have six types of arms, and there are also chess pieces similar to generals or kings, and at the same time, it wins by killing chess pieces similar to generals.This point is in line with ancient chess.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Xiangxi completely replaced Liubo chess.The chessboard of Xiangxi has become a square, and there are horses, "fu" (that is, pawns in chess) and other chess pieces.The "Xiang Jing" written by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty for Xiangxi is not only a chess book, but also a military book.After the Tang Dynasty, the "Xiang Jing" written by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was lost, but Wang Bao's "Xiang Jing · Preface" and Yu Xin's "Jing Xiang Jing Fu" written for Xiang opera at the same time as Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty are still preserved. The creation of Xiangxi opera and the emphasis on object opera at that time.According to historical records, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty once summoned all officials in the imperial court to explain the "Xiang Jing".

In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty disapproved of "Xiangxi", but Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty advocated it.Tang Taizong's talented Wu Zetian was a chess fan, and she played chess with the goddess even in her dreams.Later, the great poets of the Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi (772-846 AD) and Yuan Zhen also loved playing chess.The book "Xuanguailu" written by Niu Sengru, the prime minister of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty, contains the story of Cen Shun in Runan.It is said that one night in the first year of Zong Baoying in the Tang Dynasty (762 A.D.), he dreamed that the Tianna Army and the Golden Elephant Army were fighting. After waking up, he found an ancient tomb in his house. The chess game, the chessboard is full of chess pieces of various arms, all of which are three-dimensional pictographic chess pieces made of gold and copper.So I understood that the words spoken by the military adviser in the dream were the situation of the two armies fighting in Xiangxi.The story mentions the two armies of Xiangxi in the dream. There is a king and a military adviser, and what the military adviser said is "the heavenly horse flies obliquely at three stops, the general runs across the four directions, the luggage cart goes straight in without returning, and the Liujia order does not behave well." ", indicating that there are also chess pieces of the four arms of Tianma, Admiral, Yuche, and Liujia, and their moves are equivalent to the horse, bishop, rook, and pawn in modern chess.Because the story took place in the first year of Zong Baoying in the Tang Dynasty, later generations called this kind of Xiangxi in the Tang Dynasty "Baoying Chess".In fact, there are six types of chess pieces in Baoying Chess: King, Army Division, Horse, Bishop, Rook, and Soldier. They are very similar to the popular chess now. It can be said to be ancient chess, and the chess pieces at that time were three-dimensional pictograms.Judging from the preserved brocades of Tang and Song Dynasties, the patterns of the four great Chinese arts of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are represented by a square chessboard composed of 64 small squares in black and white. It can be seen that the chessboard of the Tang Dynasty at that time is the same as the current chessboard. And the chess pieces naturally move on the grid, which is different from the current chess.This is the characteristic of chess in Tang Dynasty.

In "Xuanguailu", Niu Sengru also wrote a magical story about Tangerine Chinese Opera.It is said that there was a man from Baqiong [Qiong Poor] whose family had an orange orchard. After harvesting the oranges, there were two big oranges left on the tree.Take it off and cut it open, and you can see that there are two old people playing chess in each orange.Although this is a fairy tale fabricated by Niu Sengru, it also confirms the existence of chess in the Tang Dynasty and its influence among the folks and literati at that time. Since when did chess include the cannon in the composition of chess pieces?This has always been a question studied by chess historians.According to the "Tibetan Scriptures: General Records of Buddhas" written by the monk Nianchang in the Yuan Dynasty, in ancient times, Shennong used the sun, moon and stars as images, and Tang Xiangguo's cattle, monks and children used chariots, horses, soldiers, soldiers and guns to create chess. This is a game that simulates military aircraft.This proves that adding cannons to chess pieces was an invention of Niu Sengru.At the same time, he also pointed out that Niu Sengru added cannons to the chess pieces, just as Shennong used the sun, moon and stars as images in ancient times to study the objective laws of weather to guide agricultural cultivation.

The period from the end of Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty was a period of great change in chess.During this period, Sima Guang's "Seven Kingdoms Chess", "Guangxiang Opera" and "Elephant Opera" popular among the people appeared.Whether it is a chessboard or a chess piece, there are larger and more reforms.Chess pieces are changed from three-dimensional pictographs to plane figures or plane fonts, or plane chess pieces with characters on one side and graphics on the other side.A new type of cannon has been added to the composition of chess pieces.The chessboard no longer uses a square chessboard with 64 small squares in black and white.Chess pieces are changed into activities on the intersection of vertical and horizontal lines by activities on the grid of the chessboard.At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were 16 chess pieces on both sides. The chessboard had 10 vertical lines and nine horizontal lines. the setting period.This point can be confirmed from the existing historical materials of the Northern Song Dynasty.

For example, Cheng Hao (1032-1085 A.D.), a famous Neo-Confucianist in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem "Ying Xiangxi" that can reflect a certain form of chess in the Northern Song Dynasty.His poem "Ode to the Elephant" is as follows: From Cheng Hao's poem, we can know that the chess he saw at that time had six kinds of chess pieces: rook, horse, general, soldier, elephant, and pawn. The vertical eight-way of the generation chess is extended to the vertical nine-way, and the general is in the middle.There is no mention of the type of cannon in the chess pieces, but this does not mean that there were no cannons in other kinds of chess popular among the people at that time.

Chao Buzhi (1053-1110 AD), who was born 20 years later than Cheng Hao, was fond of chess when he was a child.In his book "Guangxiang Opera Picture", he mentioned that the popular "elephant opera" at that time was 11 vertical and horizontal chess pieces, with a total of 32 chess pieces, and the two sides faced each other.Chao Buzhi believed that "Da Xiang Xi" had a small board, few chess pieces, and a bitter and narrow meaning. He tried to change it to 19 vertical and horizontal lines with 98 chess pieces, and expanded it into "Guang Xiang Xi" by using the Go board.

Regardless of the "Elephant Opera" or "Guangxiang Opera", cannons were added to the chess pieces at that time, and the chess pieces were changed to online activities. A little later, by the time of Song Huizong, the chessboard and chess pieces were completely changed to be exactly the same as modern chess.Song Huizong once wrote the names of the bronze chess pieces made in the Northern Song Dynasty in his own hand, leaving behind authentic calligraphy in thin gold script. Li Qingzhao, a female poet at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, included a chessboard diagram in the "Da Ma Tu Jing Preface", which can prove the above. statement.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, chess was even more widely known. At that time, there was an official position in the Imperial Academy of "Chess Waiting for Edict". "Chess waiting for edict", as the name suggests, means waiting for the emperor to come to edict to play chess.They were all chess players at the time. At that time, chess had been completely finalized as the chess system of modern chess.This can be confirmed from Liu Kezhuang's (AD 1187-1269) poem "Xiang Yi".In the poem are: