📚 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?
성 열다섯 개와 맞바꿀 옥벽 하나: 기둥에 머리를 박겠다고 위협한 사신
진(秦)왕이 조(趙)왕에게 편지를 썼다. 성 열다섯 개와 유명한 화씨벽(和氏璧)을 맞바꾸자는 것이었다. 진이 성을 내줄 리 없다는 것은 누구나 알았다 — 그러나 거절하면 체면을 잃고, 옥을 보내면 옥을 잃는다. 무명의 식객 하나가 이상한 약속을 걸고 자원했다. 옥이 조로 온전히 돌아오거나, 자신의 머리가 남게 될 것이라는. 그는 어떻게 그 불가능한 약속을 지켰을까? 《사기》(81권, 염파·인상여 열전)는 이렇게 전한다. 그 남자는 환관 목현의 식객 인상여였다. 장대궁에서 진왕은 옥을 신하와 미녀들에게 돌려 감상하게 하면서도 성…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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