Chapter 26 Section 9 Ancient Chess Anecdotes
Chess is also an important part of ancient Chinese culture and one of the treasures of ancient Chinese cultural heritage.Compared with Go, the number of chess lovers is larger, and there are almost all walks of life.From the emperors, generals, dignitaries, down to ordinary working people, street traffickers and pawns, all like to play chess.It can be said that chess has become a household name in my country since the Southern Song Dynasty.With the rise and development of chess in our country, there have been some anecdotes about chess in the past dynasties, which have been widely circulated among chess lovers.This book selects a few of them that are widely circulated to introduce.
In the "Xuanguailu" compiled by Xiangguo Niu Sengru in the Tang Dynasty, there is an article "Baqiongren".It is said that there is a Baqiong man who has an orange orchard at home. After the frost, the oranges were harvested, but the remaining two big oranges were not picked at that time. Later, when they were picked and cut open, there were two old people in each big orange. playing chess.This is a mythical story describing chess, but it has a strong rendering power for chess lovers, and it has been circulated among chess lovers for thousands of years.It also shows that chess had a certain influence in the Tang Dynasty.There are several stories in Niu's "Xuanguailu", which have become the themes of operas and novels written by later generations. For example, the Tangerine Elephant Opera written in "Baqiongren" is particularly moving. It is not only a novel for later generations, The theme of opera, and also the theme of many later poets and literati.For example, Wen Tianxiang’s poems in the Southern Song Dynasty have “I love like oranges in the ping-peng”, Liu Kezhuang’s five ancient Xiangyi poems in the Southern Song Dynasty have “Small arts are easy to master, and the wisdom is unsolved. You can’t get out of the game when you watch orange dramas.” Ming Ma Haolan’s poems There are sentences such as "Bayuan Juli Gambling Returns", etc., too numerous to enumerate.Later generations therefore called chess "Orange Chinese Opera".The titles of the famous ancient chess scores of the Ming Dynasty "Orange in the Secret" and "Orange in Music" should come from this.
This mythical story about chess in "Baqiongren" is similarly recorded in "You Ming Lu" of the Tang Dynasty, but it is relatively brief. The original text is as follows:
People from Bayuan harvest big oranges like three buckets of ounces, and when they are cut open, there are two people facing each other, more than ten feet long, like an opera.An old man said: "My servant is hungry, and I must eat the preserved dragon." After eating, he sprayed water on the ground for the two white dragons to go.
Here, the description of the two old men playing chess in Daju is even more vivid.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, chess was popular in southern my country.Wen Tianxiang, a national hero who was born in Ji'an, Jiangxi Province and was later famous for fighting against the Yuan Dynasty, and his comrades-in-arms Liu Zhu, Liu Cheng, Xiao Gengshan, Zhou Zishan, etc., had a hobby of chess since they were young.They often play chess games together, and their chess skills are superb.
Wen Tianxiang (AD 1236-1282), styled Lushan, named Wenshan, wrote 20 volumes of The Complete Works of Mr. Wenshan.There are many poems about chess in "Complete Works", reflecting his love for chess.Wen Tianxiang became the prime minister at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. He loved playing chess since he was a child. Even when he was swimming in the hot summer, he was also obsessed with chess. He and his comrade Zhou Zishan floated on the water without a chessboard. , and even ecstasy.Based on this, it can be said that in the history of chess development, Wen Tianxiang was the earliest founder of blindfold chess.Every birthday, Wen Tianxiang always plays chess with his friends for fun.He made this self-confession in the poem "Rhyme with Xiao Jingfu on Birthday":
Xiao Jingfu is Xiao Gengshan, his chess skills are better than Liu Zhu and Liu Cheng, but not as good as Zhou Zishan.Liu Zhu followed Wen Tianxiang to fight against the Yuan Dynasty and became the supervisor of the army.Liu Cheng is a poet, and his chess skills are comparable to Liu Zhu.Zhou Zishan has a high chess skill, but he is often defeated by Wen Tianxiang.Regarding the level of chess skills of Wen Tianxiang's four chess friends, he made a comment in the poem "Xiangyi has its own level, four best and four players compete".
In 1276, Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, fell, and the supreme ruler of the Southern Song Dynasty surrendered to the Yuan army.However, Wen Tianxiang and other main fighters led the rebel army to fight against the Yuan army in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, and was finally defeated. Wen Tianxiang was captured by the Yuan army. However, when he was imprisoned by the Yuan army in Beijing, he wrote patriotic poems and created chess layouts. Struggle with the enemy, the indomitable and moving deeds have been passed down through the ages.
The poem "Song of Righteousness" he wrote in prison shows his great national integrity.He also created chess layouts in prison. According to Zhu Guozhen's "Yongzhu Pieces", the layouts Wen Tianxiang created in prison are named after those who win the situation with danger and the situation is extraordinary. See captives", a total of 40 rounds.Yuyu is the name of the mountain where Wen Tianxiang lives.Seeing captives alone is his self-expression of the chess game, reflecting his national integrity of bravery, tenacity, and fear of violence.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, agriculture and handicrafts were full of vitality, commerce flourished, and science and culture developed accordingly. Li Shizhen’s, Xu Guangqi’s "Nongzheng Quanshu", Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" and so on, which marked the development of this era, followed one after another. come out.At that time, chess also entered a new period of development. According to the records of "Pu Shuang·Shu Hou" written by the famous artist Tang Yin (1470-1533 A.D.), it is said that both Azalea and Playing Chess have been lost. Although ancient games such as Hanguanyi and Wumu have been handed down, not many people liked them at that time, and few people advocated them. Only two kinds of chess games, Xiangqi and Shuanglu, were popular.Famous scholars of the Ming Dynasty, such as Yang Shen, Zhu Jinzhen, Xie Zaihang, Li Kaixian, etc. who were contemporary with Tang Yin or later, all mentioned chess in their works.Some famous chess books, such as "Dream into the Magic Machine", "Invincible Hand from the Cave", "The Secret of Jinpeng", "Eighteen Changes of Jinpeng" and so on, also came out during this period.Famous bibliophiles at that time, such as Gao Ru, Zhao Yongxian, Zhao Qimei, etc., still regarded it as fashionable to collect chess records.All this shows the prosperity of chess at that time.
It is especially worth mentioning that women's chess also had new developments in the Ming Dynasty. In the novel "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua", there are many interesting storylines that reflect women's love of chess and Shuanglu at that time.
What is even more gratifying is that chess began to spread widely in the countryside. Li Kaixian, a famous scholar and chess master, wrote in his poem "Village Man":
This poem fully reflects the hobby of ordinary farmers and fishermen in the countryside at that time.
The popularity of chess has naturally brought some chess fans.Although the level of chess skills of these chess fans is not necessarily very high, but because they love chess, they sometimes make jokes and become people's funny talk.According to Ming Fubai's master "Laughing Forest", there were two people playing chess somewhere, and the bystanders relieved their hands outside. I found it in the corner of the door, and found that the two were trying to grab the car.This joke about seizing the rook behind the door is vivid and has a great influence among chess lovers.By the time of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there were similar records in Ji Yun's book.It is said that there is a Taoist in Jingcheng, because he loves chess very much, people call him a chess Taoist, but his real name and surname have not been handed down.One day, when playing against others, there was a chess game on the chess table, but there were only 31 pieces, and the chess master and his opponent disappeared.Suddenly, there was a gasp outside the window. When someone came to see, he found that the Taoist priest and his opponent were holding each other, grabbing a chess piece, shouting hoarsely and refusing to give in to each other.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the development of chess declined significantly compared to that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but chess was still more popular in the court and government.Yao Xueyin's "Li Zicheng" describes the story that Emperor Chongzhen's first assistant wins the disciples with horses and Emperor Chongzhen plays chess with his concubine, which is not completely fictional.According to historical records, Concubine Tian Gui, who was loved by Chongzhen, played chess very well.
Chess was popular in the court of the Qing Dynasty, and Emperor Qianlong liked to play chess besides calligraphy.At that time, there were five ministers in the court who were all good at chess. Qianlong summoned them to the palace to test their chess skills, watched chess for six months, and finally asked them to compile the "Five Ministers Chess Manual".The chessboard on which eunuchs and ministers played chess in the court at that time is still preserved in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Empress Dowager Cixi also liked chess in the late Qing Dynasty, but her chess skills were poor and her chess skills were extremely bad.According to Aixinjueluo Puyi's records, once, the Empress Dowager Cixi played chess with a small eunuch, and when the two sides fought each other in the middle game, the little eunuch joked with the Queen Mother: "The slave killed the ancestor's horse." Unexpectedly, Cixi suddenly became angry from embarrassment, and unconsciously blurted out: "The ancestor killed your family." The little eunuch's words caused a catastrophe, and the guards around him pulled him out and beat him to death.
In the city of Marostica, Italy, every second Saturday and Sunday in September every biennium, a traditional live chess match is held in the square of the city.According to legend, this living chess game originated in the Middle Ages.The two young men of noble birth fell in love with the daughter of the lord of Marostika Castle at the same time, and they proposed marriage to her together.The benevolent and generous monarch decided to replace this bloody battle with more wisdom. He asked the two young men to form a formation in the square for a living chess match, and then the winner married his eldest daughter.After the chess game, the monarch betrothed the youngest daughter to the loser.In order to review this beautiful historical story of turning rivals into relatives, this traditional chess game is held every year, and the citizens come to watch the game.Coincidentally, in the village of Strebeck in the Magdeburg district of Germany, the villagers often wear logo-marked clothing, pretend to be living chess pieces, and stand on a huge chessboard to walk back and forth for competitions.
Regarding the living chess game, it is said that in the early years of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty, Tang Minghuang Li Longji and his concubine Yang Yuhuan played chess in the palace. They used 32 court ladies as chess pieces, and the tube tops were decorated with the names of the chess pieces. Chess, so there are names of chess pieces such as "Xiangche", "Guima", "Silver General", "Golden General" and "Jade General". This is the earliest human chess game in legend.After this chess was introduced to Japan, it was transformed into the popular "shogi" in Japan today.But there is no historical record of this legend, not to mention the shape and structure of chess in Tang Dynasty is also different from modern chess.
The earliest record of living human chess games in Chinese ancient books is "Novel Cong Kao" by Qian Jingfang in Ming Dynasty.It is uploaded with:
"Colorful Yu" is a drama with a lot of facts.Yan Shifan painted lichens into a chessboard, and ordered 32 beauties to form a chessboard, facing his wife. This incident was seen in "Mei Xin".It is said that the lichen and 32 beauties were presented by Wang Tianhua.
In Volume 4 of Zhao Shanzheng's "Bin Tui Lu", there is a record of Yan Shifan's living in Shuanglu:
There is a story about Dong Mou giving Yan Shifan two people, weaving purple velvet [Ji Ji] as a bureau, decorating thirty girls, and giving out bonuses and fifteen white embroidered shirts each. Embrace the woman who eats and is out.
Yan Shifan was the son of Yan Song (1480-1569 A.D.), the minister of power during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.His living chess and living Shuanglu match can be confirmed by each other.This is of course the hedonistic life of feudal landlords and bureaucrats, but it is a living chess game that has been recorded in Chinese history.
In the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years of the late Qing Dynasty, there was another story in the history of chess that was surprisingly similar to Yan Shifan's playing human chess.According to Li Boyuan's "Notes on Nanting", Hu Xueyan, a giant merchant in Zhejiang, a feudal landlord and bureaucrat at that time, lived an extremely luxurious life. Serve him in bed."All his wives and concubines are proficient in chess.Once, Hu Xueyan asked the concubines to compete in red and blue clothes, and to write chariots, horses and cannons. There was one that was one foot high and painted as a chessboard.But Hu and his wife stood high on the railings and directed the concubines to play chess with poles, which is called playing live chess, which can be described as unique.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jinzhen was the first chess player.Zhu Jinzhen, whose name is Jinzhi, was born in Donghai, Jiangsu during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty.The "Orange in the Secret" edited by him is an important handed down work in the history of Chinese chess and a famous ancient chess score.Zhu Jinzhen has four brothers, and he is the fourth eldest.He has an elder brother, Zhu Tai, who claims to be a non-resident layman, and is also good at playing chess.He once wrote the preface to Zhu Jinzhen's "Orange in the Secret".In the preface, it is said that Zhu Tai himself traveled extensively in China and abroad in the past years, and often stayed with his fourth brother Jinzhi.Every time "seeing his aspirations come to an end, thinking into the insignificant, bonfire night, there are other thoughts" ("Orange in the Secret·Xu"), he worked hard for the imperial examination.Later, because of "the tiredness of the family, the lack of ambition", he "was involved in carvings and insects, knowing how to build them, and in elephant opera, especially Samadhi, that is, people with discerning eyes rarely hold back their hands and call them invincible." "Secret·Syria").Zhu Jinzhen summarized the actual combat experience and research results of almost all masters from before the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, and added his own carefully researched changes, and compiled it into four volumes of "Orange in the Secret".Zhu Tai said in "The Secret of Tangerine" that he himself was ordered to serve as the governor of Yunnan during the Tianqi reign of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, and put down the mutiny launched by the ethnic minorities in Yunnan, "conquering them with elephants".Later, in the second year of Chongzhen, he was stationed at Ning'anmen (now Guang'anmen) in Beijing to resist the army of Empress Jinhuang Taiji.Later, Zhu Taixiu spent his free time in Linquan, and his younger brother Zhu Jinzhen showed him with his compilation "Orange in the Secret".After reading it, he felt that the spectrum reflected his fourth brother's "many inventions, embellished with new ideas, and full of inspiration", and he was deeply impressed.Imagine that if Zhu Tai hadn't played chess, he would never have made such an assertion. The score of "Orange in the Secret" was reviewed by Zhu Jinzhen's nephews Zhu Erye and Zhu Jingxiao.It can be seen from this that Zhu Jinzhen's family can be called the chess family in the late Ming Dynasty.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were many famous chess players, such as Li Rong from Panyu, Chen Sheng from Wenzhou, Silly Beizi from Beijing, Suowannian from Yangzhou, Yang Jianting, Bajiren from Zhenjiang, etc.There are many stories about chess masters from all over the world among chess lovers.Among them, the most interesting is the story of Silly Beizi.
Silly Beizi, Qing clan, whose real name is not known, people call him Silly Beizi.His family lives in Huangzhuang, Haidian, west of Beijing. Instead of doing production, he devotes himself to the study of chess, and travels all over the world with chess.
At that time, there was a monk named Qingran in Xishan, Beijing, who was very good at chess.There was an internal eunuch, Li Er, who found out that Silly Beizi was good at chess, so he invited him to compete with Monk Liaoran in Xishan.At the beginning, the monk, relying on his strong chess skills, insisted on giving silly Beizi a horse, but silly Beizi disagreed, and after an agreement between the two parties, Liaoran let silly Beizi go first.At the beginning of the game, Monk Liao had the upper hand, and it seemed that if he walked a few more steps, Silly Beizi would hand in his gun and surrender.Unexpectedly, the silly Beizi was so confident that he walked all the way and hid his car behind him.The monk didn't know his plan, thought it was all idle, and took care of his generals. Unexpectedly, the foolish Beizi dodged his generals, abandoned both cannons, two soldiers, one phase, one soldier, and one horse.At the end, the chariot hidden behind the pawns came out and went into battle. The monk couldn't resist, so he had to admit defeat.In the second round, in order to regain the lost ground, the monk did not show any humility. He went first and immediately set up the front gun, and then attacked fiercely with the horse behind the head, but Silly Beizi defended tightly and stabilized his position. After 30 rounds, the monk's offensive gradually weakened, and the silly Beizi dealt with Yuru.At this time, the monk once had the opportunity to exchange one horse for two elephants, which seemed to be the first.Unexpectedly, the silly Beizi crossed the river with two cannons, which numb all the disciples in the monk's nine palaces, and the two horses retreated to the corner.After walking for more than 10 moves, the monk lost again.Monk Liaoran lived in Xishan, he used to dominate chess for decades, he never lost a single game, now he lost twice, he was so ashamed that he couldn't bear it, he quietly left Beijing the next day.
