Where did China Chess come from?

Chess has a long history in China. During the Warring States period, there have been official records about chess, such as: "Chu Ci evokes the soul" contains "six volumes of chess; Go hand in hand with Cao and push each other; " If you become an owl, be specific. "..." Shuo Yuan "contains: Yong Men Zizhou Qin Yi met Meng Changjun and said," The first step is Wang Qian, and ... Yan Douqi dances Zheng Nv. Therefore, as early as the Warring States period, chess became popular among nobles. During the Three Kingdoms period, the shape of chess was constantly changing, and it had a communication relationship with India. By the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Wudi (reigned in 56 1 ~ 578) wrote Xiang Jing, while Wang Bao wrote Xiang Xu and Xiang Jing Fu, marking the completion of the second major reform of chess. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, chess activities developed steadily and were frequently recorded in history books. After nearly a hundred years of practice, chess was shaped into a modern model at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty: 32 pieces, a chessboard with a river boundary, and so on. During the Southern Song Dynasty, chess became a very popular chess activity. China chess is a treasure of thousands of years' history and culture in China with a long history. It has a long history and is profound. Chess combines the thoughts and consciousness of ancient war and peace. In addition to appealing to both refined and popular tastes, chess also has the functions of sports competition and artistic appreciation. It can be said that chess is a highly concentrated crystallization of China's ancient history and culture. It embodies the wisdom of our people. Therefore, chess has been deeply loved by the working people in China for thousands of years. After thousands of years of ups and downs, chess in China is still thriving. Especially under the advocacy and development after the founding of New China, the ancient chess has been further developed. As early as last century 1956, the then state sports commission listed chess as a competitive sport, which made the ancient culture and art of chess develop unprecedentedly. China's older generation and young players, as well as countless chess fans, have made painstaking efforts to make the art of chess go to the world as soon as possible. The further development of chess is unified with competitiveness and artistry, and many players at home and abroad are obsessed with it. 2 1 century, the ancient chess has gained a broad space for rapid development. According to statistics, China Chess is the most popular cultural and sports activity in China, with nearly 300 million fans, which is probably unmatched by any other sports. There are different opinions about the origin of chess so far, and it is difficult to draw a conclusion. Some say that Yu Shun plays chess with both teachers and businessmen, while others say that Han Xin plays chess to entertain soldiers when he leads troops. It is true that the emergence of chess has a long history, and there is no conclusion at present. However, how the "cannon" in chess pieces evolved and developed in the history of chess needs to be carefully studied and discussed. The most representative view is that the origin of chess is earlier than that of Song Dynasty, because gunpowder, one of the four great inventions in China, was invented in the late Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty. After being used for military purposes for a long time, a special weapon "cannon" appeared in the war. Therefore, it is believed that the "cannon" in chess pieces determines the origin of China chess. At first glance, this argument is more logical. At that time, it was a wrong view that we didn't actually understand the history and national culture of chess. You know, among the Chinese characters in China, the earliest way to write the word "cannon" is the ancient traditional Chinese character "Ma Shijiao" (a compound word, in which the word "horse" is a traditional Chinese character and the sound of "cannon" is four tones). "Stone horse's foot" is one of the early weapons in China, and it is called "trebuchet" in ancient art books. It uses mechanical power to throw stones and other materials similar to shells to attack the enemy. In Sun Tzu's Art of War, written by Zhang Yan in the Records of the Western Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, Fan Li said: "The flying stone weighs 20 Jin, and the machine takes 300 steps." I'm afraid it is the earliest explanation of "trebuchet" recorded in China's history books. In the early history books of our country, the weapon of "cannon stone" and the arms of "gunner" have been recorded for a long time. As a force of military strategists, it is impossible not to reflect the "friendship between stone and horse" in early China chess, which symbolizes war. Another "Continued Tibetan Scripture" records that "Shennong takes the sun, moon and stars as an image, and Tang Niu Zengru takes chariots and horses as foot soldiers, adding guns instead of" machines ". It can be seen that chess at that time formed a basic system and sub-force configuration consistent with today. " Gun is a long-armed unit, known as "God of War". In the sub-force configuration of chess, the gun belongs to the eldest son behind the car, and because of its remote control and strong maneuverability, it can only be large in its own position, quick in action and flexible in advance and retreat. In short, "when the various arms cooperate with each other, they can often strike each other with lightning speed, making it impossible for opponents to prevent." Therefore, the "gun" has won the unique favor of chess players in past dynasties with its light, elegant and unpredictable performance. The "cannon" can be attacked when it enters, such as thunder and thunder, and it can be defended when it retreats, such as golden soup as a rock. Even the original position of the "cannon" on the chessboard is well known and not imagined. This position is called "battery". In the modern history of China, the famous batteries in China are Humen battery in the Pearl River, Wusongkou battery in the Yangtze River, Dagu battery, Lushun battery, etc. In particular, the great lethality of the single-handed guns of ethnic players in past dynasties has written countless wonderful historical famous games, which has amazed future generations. Those famous tactical offensives, such as "boring the palace", "iron bars", "Monday morning quarterback" and "heavy artillery", all embody the characteristics of "cannon" with strong remote control, great power, strong maneuverability and easy to become powerful. In addition, in the last century, among the bronze chess pieces unearthed in Kaifeng, China, the chess piece "cannon" was written like this, which is the word "stone bag" in ancient Chinese characters. From the above arguments, we can see that there was a "cannon" in the early days of chess in China, but in the process of continuous development and perfection, it gradually evolved from the "stone-horse interaction" of the "trebuchet" to the "stone bag" and then evolved into the "cannon" seen by everyone in modern times. Therefore, all kinds of strategies and tactics in the early stage of China's chess opening are mostly formulated and developed around how to attack with "cannon" in the first hand or how to defend with "cannon" in the subsequent hand. For example, China's ancient chess book "Eighteen Changes of Jin Peng" and "The Secret Story of Orange Island" written in Ming Dynasty were mainly recorded by the artillery bureau, in which various overall tactics of attacking or defending with artillery bureau, such as "pushing guns" and "lining guns", were discussed in detail. Wang Zaiyue, an expert in Qing Dynasty, independently researched and published Plum Blossom Spectrum, which fired the first shot for the powerful enemy and elaborated the deployment of defensive horses in detail, thus creating an endless struggle for hegemony in China for hundreds of years. Of course, from the evolution of the "cannon" in the history of chess, we can see that the emergence and development of chess in China is closely related to the history of production, military and cultural development in China. Fortunately, during its long historical development, China Chess has basically maintained its original features and characteristics, which is the source of its super vitality. It can be believed that with the unremitting efforts of people with lofty ideals who love chess, chess will definitely go to the world and become the cultural wealth of human beings on earth.