📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move with exactly three fighting pieces: one knight, one chariot, one cannon — no advisor, no elephant, not a single pawn. Black has everything: the advisor–elephant pair around the palace, a chariot and three pawns. On a count of pieces Red looks like a fugitive in a dead end; yet the classical manual Thích Tình Nhã Thú (game 239) concludes: draw — three pieces are enough to hold out. Not machine-verified; the result follows the book. The name tells of Wu Zixu at Zhaoguan Pass — the life-or-death barrier on his flight from Chu, where one night of dread turned his hair white, and that white hair carried him through the pass next morning. What happened that fateful night is told in the anecdote below. And you, holding Red's three pieces inside the ring: can you make it 'through the pass'?
Hair Turned White Overnight: Wu Zixu and the Life-or-Death Zhaoguan Pass
The most wanted man in Chu stood at the last pass on his escape route to Wu. Through the pass meant life; recognised meant death. The next morning, the guards looked at the white-haired man before them... and let him pass. What had happened that fateful night? Wu Zixu (also Wu Yuan) was the son of…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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