📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move with only seven pieces — one knight, two chariots, one cannon, two pawns — facing twelve Black pieces with a full guard of advisors and elephants around the palace. Outnumbered almost two to one, Red is nevertheless declared the winner by Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát. The name is an immortal idiom: “Returning the Jade Intact to Zhao.” The jade of He was once priced by the King of Qin at fifteen cities, and the envoy who carried it into Qin had sworn: the jade comes back untouched, or his head stays behind. His threat to dash his own head against a pillar together with the jade is told in the anecdote below. On the board, meanwhile: can you find any path by which seven Red pieces bring down a palace guarded by the full advisor–elephant set?
一枚の玉璧に15の城――柱に頭を打ちつけると脅した使者
秦王が趙王に書を送った。有名な「和氏の璧」と15の城を交換したい、と。秦が城を渡すはずがないことは誰もが知っていた。だが断れば面子を失い、玉を送れば玉を失う。名もなき家臣が奇妙な約束とともに名乗り出た。玉は無傷で趙に戻る。さもなくば私の首を置いてくる、と。その不可能な約束を、彼はどう果たしたのか？ 『史記』（第81巻・廉頗藺相如列伝）が語る。その男は藺相如、宦官・繆賢の食客だった。章台宮で秦王は玉を廷臣や美女たちに回して鑑賞させ、15の城には一言も触れなかった。相如は「玉の瑕を示す」との口実で取り戻すと、柱際へ退き、怒りで髪が冠を持ち上げるほど逆立て、自分の頭を玉もろとも柱に打ちつけると脅し…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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