![]() A river is supposed to separate the two armies having thirty two squares on each side. These sets of men are arranged opposite to each other, and attack, defend, and capture like hostile armies. "The game is played upon an oblong board marked out into sixty four divisions there are two sets of pieces of opposite colours, sixteen men each, and of various powers. On the topic of Xiangqi, JD Vaughan wrote: Vaughan went and stayed in Singapore in 1856. He wrote a short book called The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements which was published in 1879. He was a policeman who later became a practicing lawyer and was the police superintendent in Penang in the 1850s. Jonas Daniel Vaughan (1825-1891AD) lived in Malaya for nearly 40 years. Second of all, as in International Chess, there can be more than one way of naming objects, as evidenced by the name of Xiangqi and Chinese chess et cetera. The pronunciations varied because they used different Chinese dialects to read the words! This concept may be incomprehensible, but the author has found a light-hearted video to explain why. ![]() The author has combined these two introductions under one section for a few reasons.įirst of all, neither men were wrong about their descriptions of the pieces. In his article, he also denounced the names and introductions that Eyles Irwin had. (8)Ī few years later, in 1799AD, Captain Hiram Cox, stationed in Burma, wrote a lengthy article pushing forward his hypothesis about the origins of chess. Ercole Dal Rio copied his entire passage in The Incomparable Game of Chess. It was quoted in several sources and later historians who refuted his hypotheses. Eyles Irwin was also the first person in the West to openly voice the hypothesis that chess was first invented in China by General Han Xin. (7)Įyles Irwin's hypothesis had much impact on later historians and western chess lovers alike. A young mandarin brought him a set and proceeded to introduce him to the game. In 1793AD, Eyles Irwin wrote about his encounters with Xiangqi when he travelled to China. However, this is perhaps the earliest description of Xiangqi and its pieces. There are apparent inadequacies as not all the pieces were mentioned, and the special rule of the kings not being to face each other was not mentioned, et cetera. The author has not been able to find the original writings and suspect that the translations may have been not only once. The kingpiece has three ways of avoiding a checkmate by moving aside into the next space, by taking the piece holding him in check, or by sacrificing a protecting piece. This powder-bowl unit moves in about the same manner as our Castle but does not seek to disturb the opposing King unless a piece belonging to the opposition is between it and the King in question. They have two rather novel pieces, which they call gunpowder bowls or cartridges, which are placed before the knights and behind two pawns placed one space in advance of the regular line of pawns. In their game, the kingpiece does not go beyond the four spaces contiguous to his original position and neither do the pieces corresponding to our bishops. “ The method of playing, however, is decidedly different. The translator was Gallagher, Louis J, and the book was published in 1953. ![]() The author found an English version of the original work published in 1953 called China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1610. The Chinese name for the book would be 《利玛窦中国札记》(Lì Mǎ Dòu Zhōng Guó Zhá Jì). It was a collection of Ricci's travels as a Jesuit priest into China. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610AD, aka 利玛窦(Lì Mǎ Dòu)) wrote De Christiana Expeditione apvd Sinas, which was later translated into Latin by Nicholas Trigault (1577-1628AD). Why understanding the early translations is importantġ613-1636AD Alvaro Semedo and his travelsġ793AD Eyles Irwin description of the pieces and 1799AD Hiram Cox's translationsġ866 Augustus Lindley's description of Xiangqiġ879AD JD Vaughan's detailed description of Xiangqi The article has been divided into two parts as the amount of material that the author has found was slightly overwhelming. ![]() ![]() The author has spent years tracking down possible mention of Xiangqi in the early literature, and the following is a summary of how the early Western scholars translated the pieces. While some of the translations were entirely accurate, there were other more interesting and sometimes hilarious translations. More Western scholars, travelers, explorers, merchants, politicians, envoys, et cetera have mentioned Xiangqi in their works.įaced with a new object, these early writers used their understanding and interpretations to translate the game in their writings. Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) was mentioned by Western scholars as early as 1583-1610AD by Matteo Ricci, who went to China as part of evangelism. ![]()
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