Many people play tangrams when they were young.
But have you ever played fifteen puzzles?
This was made more than a hundred years ago
A "super player" in Shanghai Chongming
Invented the game "Puzzle Diagram".
It was once widely popular throughout the country, with many fans,
Even Lu Xun, Puyi, Prince Gong, and Hua Luogeng
and other celebrities are its "fans",
It was a full-fledged "net red" game at the time.
Produced by Xinmin Evening News "Shanghai Moment"
However, due to years of war, this game gradually faded out of the public's sight and was almost lost. It was not until Shi Zhongjun, retired director of the Chongming District Cultural Center, "resurrected" it that it was reacquainted and became the intangible cultural heritage of Shanghai. What kind of magical game is Puzzle Map? Let's take a look at its charm.
Shi Zhongjun introduces the spelling of the "Chong" character in the work Chongming Island
Fifteen geometric puzzles, which look ordinary and unremarkable, seem to be the "upgraded version" of the tangram, but in the hands of Shi Zhongjun Laobo, a magical scene appeared, these puzzles spelled out calligraphy fonts, landscape paintings, fruits, animals, etc., not only exquisite, but also quite a traditional artistic freehand style, and even the hoe day noon, looking up at the bright moon, the bright moonlight in front of the bed and so on, this is the unique charm of the "puzzle map".
"Puzzle Map" martial arts cheats
Speaking of its story, Shi Zhongjun is like a family treasure. More than a hundred years ago in the late Qing Dynasty, Chongming produced a strange man named Tong Ye geng, who was a Qing official who was deeply loved by the people and had a very good reputation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. At the same time, he is also a "super player" who loves to invent new things. In the study of the traditional tangram, Tong Yegeng felt that although it was interesting, it was somewhat simple, and the tricks that could be spelled out were a little less, so he researched and produced an "upgraded version" of the fifteen puzzle boards, named puzzle maps.
Although only eight puzzles have been added, the playability of the Puzzle Map far exceeds that of the tangram, and text, graphics, and even small scenes can be realized. After tong Yegeng returned home, he spent a lot of time studying the gameplay of "puzzle maps", and compiled several books to introduce hundreds of thousands of ways to play, which was popular at home and abroad for a time. Down to the common people, up to the relatives of the emperor and the state, they all had a lot of fun.
The last emperor Puyi and the late Qing Dynasty minister Prince Gong Yi bi were its "enthusiasts", not only began to make a "high-end version" with ivory, but also bought back a lot of "raider" research, Prince Gong specially inscribed the four words "Cao Yao Xinge" for the "puzzle map", which is still alive today.
Entering the Republic of China period, this game is still very popular, Lu Xun once wrote in his diary, entrusting people to buy back the books of "puzzle maps" and sending puzzles, which is similar to buying game raiders and sending CDs now. Hua Luogeng, Qu Qiubai, Zhang Hexhui and other celebrities also loved it, and "puzzle maps" even became popular overseas, and an American also published books for it.
Unfortunately, with the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army bombed the Commercial Press in Shanghai, the master version of the "puzzle map" book was destroyed, the "raiders" were lost, and the war continued, and the game gradually faded out of people's sight.
The revival of the "puzzle map" was already in 2009, when the Chongming District Cultural Center received valuable materials such as the "Puzzle Map" passed down by Tong Yegeng's great-grandson, liu Cijun, a Chinese scientist in Canada. This made Shi Zhongjun, who had been obsessed with studying Chongming's intangible cultural heritage, excited. In the following two years, Shi Zhongjun began a long road of researching puzzle maps with these materials and 12 related books found in the district library.
Shi Zhongjun is fighting puzzle maps
"The previous data only had the outline of the figure, but the methods and laws of the puzzle were not recorded." Shi Zhongjun wanted to fill this part of the "blank", so studying more than 1,000 patterns on these books became his daily "homework".
Patterns can be easy and difficult. When it is easy, Shi Zhongjun can spell it out in a moment, and when it is difficult, it takes a few days or even last month. Sometimes he was lying in bed thinking. If inspiration bursts, he immediately gets out of bed to puzzle. In this way, in the day-to-day puzzle, Shi Zhongjun figured out the rules and completed the compilation.
Nowadays, the "new version of the strategy" compiled by Shi Zhongjun can be said to make the "puzzle map" more easy to get started, that is, you can complete the difficult puzzle through the outline according to the ancient method, and you can also refer to the "answer" researched by Shi Zhongjun. Shi Zhongjun said that the simpler the figure, the more difficult it is to spell, a "look up at the bright moon" may only take a few hours to spell, but an apple, a raw pear, because there is no obvious external contour features, it takes a long time to spell to complete, the most difficult one of the figures let him study for several months.
Shi Zhongjun introduces the work "Raise a Glass to invite the bright moon"
Looking at the puzzle is only part of the fun of "puzzle maps". Shi Zhongjun said that the biggest charm of this game is to study new ways to play. He once promoted intangible cultural heritage in a school in Chongming and taught children puzzles, but one student did not spell according to his teaching method, but created a new spelling method by himself, and the result was better than before. "So, there's no standard answer to the game, and everyone can spell out the infinite possibilities and express what they think, which is why it was so popular back then."
Nowadays, the "puzzle map" has become a Shanghai municipal intangible cultural heritage project, and Chongming, the hometown of its inventor, has also begun to gain attention, entering the school to open interest classes, and has been selected as a special souvenir of Chongming. But Shi Zhongjun feels that the revival of "puzzle maps" has just begun, and this game for all ages, even today, has its great value, which can not only help children develop intelligence, but also allow the elderly to exercise their brainpower to prevent dementia. "Now everyone is playing with their mobile phones down, even my children and grandchildren, I hope that this good game invented by the ancestors can be revived, in addition to inheriting intangible cultural heritage, it can make everyone's life a little more exciting."
Xinmin Eye Studio Li Yineng Sun Zhongqin
Video production | Xu Yifei
Edit | Tu Yu Gong Zijun