A secret ancient Xiangqi manual 200 years ago

A secret ancient Xiangqi manual 200 years ago

自出洞来无敌手 - In English called "The Invincible XiangQi Manual" was an ancient manual that was supposedly authored by a Taoist priest called Priest Chunyang. Chunyang in Chinese meant “pure sun”. When the manual was published is not known, however believed was published more than 200 years ago. The manual was basically copied by hand and handed down generation by generation and only a handful few was still in circulation during the Qing dynasty.

The entire manual consist of seven chapters. Each chapter contained five games. All the thirty five games did not show any variations these was easier for the readers to study.

Each chapter was represented by a single Chinese character. Each single Chinese character would represent a particular Xiangqi variation. Below shown the link within each Chinese character and its Xiangqi opening.

The Chinese character “自” - Same Direction Cannons with Ranked Chariot vs File Chariot

The Chinese character “出” - Opposite Direction Cannons with Big Variation

The Chinese character “洞” - Central Cannon vs Single Horse Defense

The Chinese character “来” - Same Direction Cannons with Centroid Cannons vs Filed Chariot with Palcorner Cannon

The Chinese character “无” - Screen Horses vs Central Cannon

The Chinese character “敌” - Same Direction Cannons with Filed Chariot vs Ranked Chariot

The Chinese character “手” - Same Direction Cannons with Ranked Chariot vs Filed Chariot

Combination for all these seven Chinese characters would formed the title of the ancient manual - 自出洞来无敌手.

According to China folktale, the title of the book actually came from a Taoist priest call Priest Shanqi. In Chinese, Shanqi meant good in Xiangqi.

自出洞来无敌手 if translated directly means that after intensive training in a cave, you come out invincible. 自= can be translated as “ since” in this context,出and来 = “ coming out or going out” in this context, 洞= “cave" in this context, 无敌 = "invincible"手= "opponent" in this context.

By translated the seven Chinese characters directly:

The Chinese character “自”- "Since"

The Chinese character “出”- "Out"

The Chinese character “洞”- "Cave"

The Chinese character “来”- "Come"

The Chinese character “无”- "No"

The Chinese character “敌”- "Enemy"

The Chinese character “手”- "Hand"

There was a folktale mentioned during Song dynasty (960-1279 AD) related to this manual. A Taoist priest who excellence in Xiangqi was unparalleled in his time. He lived and died in Baoxin City and always play Black. Before he died, he requested an old village man to organize the funeral. After few years, the old village man had to relocate the grave to another location. After opening the coffin, the body of the priest was missing, and only left were the cloths.



If you would like to buy the full version of "The XiangQi Master From The Cave", please visit https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HQIVENU