📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move with just four fighting pieces — two chariots, a cannon, a pawn — and no advisor or elephant to screen the king. Black fields all seven piece types: advisor, elephant, knight, chariot, cannon and two pawns. The classical manual Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát (game 6) concludes: draw. Red's four pieces are like a small party crossing foreign land: unable to win, yet not easily swallowed either. 'Mịch chủ' means seeking a lord. Hearing this name, many think at once of the blood-soaked Battle of Changban, but the anecdote below suggests the name may point to a different story — an earlier, quieter one: the young Zhao Yun's journey to find a lord worth serving for life. Do you agree with that reading — and on the board, can you hold this draw?
仕えるに値する主を求めて――若き趙雲の誓い
「覓主（べきしゅ）」とは、主君を求めること。この詰めの名を聞くと、多くの人は長坂を思い浮かべる。趙雲が単騎で包囲に乗り込み、劉備の妻子を探したあの戦いだ。だがこの名が最も指し示しそうな物語は、別の話――もっと早く、はるかに静かな話かもしれない。どの話なのか？ まず明確にしておく。古い棋書は「趙雲覓主」という名を説明していない。以下の解釈は「覓主」の二文字そのものと、それに最も合う逸話に基づく。裴松之の注が引く『趙雲別伝』によれば、若い趙雲は公孫瓚に仕え、当時瓚のもとに身を寄せていた劉備と親しくなった。同郷の者たちが一人また一人と北へ帰っていくとき、なぜ帰らないのかと問われ、彼は答えた。天下は…
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