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Chapter 25 Section 8 Ancient Chess Poems and Paintings

Ancient Chinese Chess 徐家亮 1393Words 2018-03-20

Modern chess was finalized in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it became widely known after the Southern Song Dynasty. Compared with Go, the number of fans is relatively much larger, and most of them are close to the lower class.But among the upper classes, there have also been some literati, poets and poets in history who love to play chess.They used to recite poems and paint paintings with the theme of chess, which was handed down to later generations.These poems and paintings of chess handed down from ancient times praised and elucidated chess, promoted and developed chess, and wrote a glorious chapter for the development history of chess in our country. Literati Yin Zhu, Mei Yaochen, Sima Guang, Cheng Hao and Chao Buzhi in the Northern Song Dynasty all wrote poems and essays on chess. In Mei Yaochen's "Elephant Opera" poem, "Elephant opera is based on the game of chess, the back of the harem and other human feelings... Who can win in the hall? Gambling wine in the bottle makes people do it. Directly driving fierce beasts is like looking for a city, how can it be like Shengping There are sentences such as "No soldiers" and other sentences in Cheng Hao's "Yong Xiang Xi" poem, "The chariots and horses still exist in the Zhou Dynasty's warfare, and they also have the names of Han officials. The popular chess system at that time. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Kezhuang had a five-character verse poem "Xiangyi" chanting chess, which was given to Ye Qianzhong, a chess friend.This "Xiangqi" poem has been excerpted and introduced in the section on the evolution and development of chess.The original poem has 48 sentences and a total of 240 characters.Here, in the form of poetry, Liu Kezhuang completely described the modern chess board, the form of the chess pieces and the moves of the chess pieces that were popular in the Southern Song Dynasty and have remained unchanged until now. theoretical principles. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, chess had a greater development, and the chess style was very popular, not only among the people, but also in the court. There are many fans.During the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the large-scale encyclopedia "Yongle Dadian" compiled according to the emperor's will included a volume of "Chess".Zhu Quan, the son of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, loved playing chess very much and compiled chess records.This shows that chess has gradually flourished in the court.When Zhu Gaochi, the grandson of Ming Taizu, was the prince, he not only liked to watch his servants play chess, but also liked to play chess himself.What's interesting is that whenever he was interested in playing chess, he ordered the number one scholar Zeng Ziqi (qi Qi) to compose poems to add to the fun.Zeng Ziqi's poem says: Zeng's poems aroused the prince's enthusiasm for chess and poetry even more, so the prince also wrote a poem:

Later, Mao Bowen, a poet in Zhengde, also wrote a poem with the same rhyme:

The above three poems chanting chess reflect that Ming Prince Zhu Gaochi and others all have a certain level of chess skills. Yuan Mei, a Jinshi and a great talent in the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, loved playing chess very much, especially watching people play chess.He served as a county magistrate for several years, and retired at the age of 40. In the "Suiyuan" at the foot of Xiaocang Mountain in Nanjing today, some famous literati gathered together to compose poems and play chess, and he died at the age of 82.He once chanted a poem about watching chess.Although there are only four short sentences, it is very interesting to write.

The four lines of poems vividly and vividly describe Yuan Mei's psychological and emotional changes as a chess fan.The last two sentences describe the ups and downs of emotions when watching chess, sometimes very happy, sometimes very angry.This kind of psychology is incomprehensible to those who do not know how to play chess. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was also a Jinshi named Liu Yong who was also very fond of chess. He wrote good calligraphy and was a famous calligrapher all over the world at that time.He has a poem "Ode to Chess":

The eight-line poem clearly describes the performance of chess pieces of different arms in chess. Among the paintings with the theme of chess, "Zhongxing Ruiying Picture" created by Daizhao Xiaozhao of the Southern Song Dynasty is the most famous in history.Song Gaozong, in order to show that he was the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty was "anomaly in Ruibu Zhaoying", and he was God's will, so he specially ordered the painting of the Imperial Academy to wait for Xiao Zhao to make this painting.This set of paintings, also known as Zhenying pictures or Shengying pictures, is a series of historical paintings, which were frequently recorded in Ming and Qing Dynasties.According to Bian Yongyu's "Review of Painting and Calligraphy in Shigutang" in the early Qing Dynasty (see Volume 14 of "Painting Test" in the review), this set of paintings is on silk, four feet six feet six inches long and one foot one inch high. It was praised by Cao Xun. lead.There are a total of 12 pictures in the whole set, coloring.Among them, the seventh painting is the scene of Song Huizong's Empress Xianren using chess for divination: a palace is in the middle, Zhu Bikun (hun) is shining, Empress Xianren is throwing chess pieces on the plate, surrounded by seven concubines.There is one on the left side of the palace, shaded by trees, and separated by bamboo fences in the middle. "Zhongxing Ruiying Picture" is painted in the current situation of a powerful enemy, which has the function of whitewashing peace from the standpoint of the ruling class, and deliberately covers up the shameful behavior of the imperial court for peace.Among them, the piece of divination by chess unintentionally preserves the social style of entertainment activities at that time.It can be said to be the oldest piece of precious artwork related to chess that has been handed down so far.

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