📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move. Just four pieces remain: Red has a lone Rook; Black has a Cannon and two Pawns. Red's Rook waits in ambush while Black's Cannon and Pawns must come to it — and the classical manual Thích Tình Nhã Thú (No. 527) concludes: draw. This position has not been verified by engine; the result follows the old book. The name is Hàn Phi Tử's fable of the farmer who, after a hare killed itself against his tree stump, abandoned his plough to wait for a second one — and became the laughing stock of the state of Song. The story is told in this page's Anecdotes section. But on this board, 'waiting by the stump' is exactly the right way to play Red's Rook. In your view, what separates active waiting from passive waiting in this endgame?
兎が切り株に激突して死んだ――農夫は畑を捨て、二匹目を待った
兎が慌てて走り、畑の真ん中の切り株に激突し、首を折って死んだ。農夫は一滴の汗もかかずに食事を拾った――その日から彼は鋤を置き、切り株の傍らに座って二匹目を待った。 畑は雑草に覆われた。二匹目は二度と来なかった。そして彼は、韓非子が「五蠹」の章に書いた通り、「宋国中すべての笑いもの」となった。 「株を守って兎を待つ」という寓話は『韓非子』で最も有名なものの一つであり、中国とベトナム両方の子どもたちに親しまれている。しかし韓非子の論点は農業の教訓より鋭かった。彼は、古代の政策をそのまま現代に当てはめようとする為政者を嘲るためにこの話を語った――そのような者は「すべて株を守る者だ」と。一度の幸運は方…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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