The meaning of naming after an elephant

Xiangqi is named after "Xiang" and has the animal elephant as a unit. Does this mean that Xiangqi means chess with Xiang? Wrong. The "elephant" in chess is by no means an animal. In fact, until the reform of Xiang Opera in the Song Dynasty, except for the elephant opera, there was no word "xiang" in Liubo, Sai Opera, Northern Zhou Xiang Opera, Tang Dynasty Xiang Opera, Qiguo Xiang Opera, Guangxiang Opera, and Xiaoxiang Opera. If a military type is named "Xiangqi" just because there is an animal "elephant" as a military type, then, by analogy, chess can also be named "Rook Chess" or "Horse Chess" ", "cannon chess" or even "pawn chess". In fact, the "elephant" in chess should have two meanings, so which two meanings are they? Listen to the editor slowly!

chess

01

"Xiang" is "symbol" and image, which means war.

Since ancient times, elephant opera has been a game that symbolizes war and military system. As the ancestor of Xiang Opera, Liubo chess game has six chess pieces, "one owl and five scattered", which symbolizes the military system of five people plus one chief officer in the Spring and Autumn Period. The Xiang Opera of the Tang Dynasty, symbolized by "Baoying Xiangqi", recorded the dark battle scenes between the Golden Elephant Army and the Tianna Kingdom. After the Song Dynasty chess was finalized, it retained many imprints of the Chu-Han War, which was "as powerful as Liu Xiang".

02

Xiang is a hexagram and omen, and it is the Book of Changes that establishes the intention.

Whether it was Bian Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty who promoted Sai Opera, or Wang Bao and Yu Xin who praised Xiang Opera of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, they all used celestial phenomena, seasons, yin and yang, and hexagram theory to explain the meaning and essence of Xiang Opera; before Xiangqi was finalized, black and white The two-color chess pieces that allude to yin and yang, the 8×8 sixty-four squares, and the chessboard that matches the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes all indicate that chess has an inseparable origin from the Book of Changes.

The most profound and exciting explanation of the relationship between chess and the Book of Changes is none other than Lu Huai, an acting scholar of the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Huai, also known as Ru De and Jin Shi, was a famous Neo-Confucian during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. He is not only proficient in Yi studies, but also loves chess. In a letter to his friend Zhan Mengren, he wrote:

A secret metaphor is used to describe it: the Eight Diagrams drawn by Xi are the final result of the chessboard; the Eight Diagrams of King Wen also tell a walking route, the car is going straight, the horse is walking by the day, like a field trip; the sixty-four hexagrams of "Book of Changes" are like pairs When playing chess in a game, you also tell the change of the chess position. At this time, you should act like this, at that time, and at that time, you should act like that. "Miscellaneous Hexagrams" discovered that the hexagram changes in "Zhouyi" are just a way of survival and advancement, which is why the sixty-four hexagrams are also called the thirty-two hexagrams. There are good and bad, some fade and some grow, some continue to exist, some recede and perish, so there are all kinds of differences in hardness and softness, sorrow and joy, pursuits, mixed views, beginnings and endings, rise and fall, etc., and they are one closed and one open, one is closed and the other is opened. The past and present are nothing more than changes in the Tao. Master observes the time and changes, and he has already thought about it half way through the Book of Changes.

This letter uses chess as a metaphor for hexagram theory and illustrates the similarities between chess theory and Yili. He compared Fuxi's Bagua to a chess board; King Wen's Bagua to the moves of chess pieces; he compared the sixty hexagrams of the Zhouyi to a game of chess, in which one should judge the situation and make corresponding moves; and secretly compared the thirty-two hexagrams to chess. Thirty-Two Zi, pointed out that both contain "good and bad luck, growth and decline, advance and retreat", and finally concluded that the theory of chess and the theory of changes are intertwined and "nothing more than changes in the Tao". Lu Huai's popular metaphor deeply reveals the relationship between Yili and chess theory, and vividly interprets the meaning of the hexagrams of chess elephants.

In a sense, when we play chess with our hands and talk about chess with our hands, we are not only entertaining a game, but also comprehending a philosophy, savoring a piece of history, and appreciating a culture. This is the secret of the enduring pleasure that chess can bring to people.