Text | Yang Ziqiang
The middle of the Qing Dynasty was the heyday of Chinese Go history. The hallmarks of this period are the twin constellations of Li Bai and Du Fu, known as the Go world, Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia, and their "Ten Danghu Games".
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Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia rose in the Yongzheng period, and the two dominated the chess world side by side for decades, not only the geniuses of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, but also the pinnacle of ancient Chinese Go. Incredibly, Fan and Shi were both born in a small town called Guodian (now Yanguan Town, Haining City), which is extremely rare in the history of chess.
Fan Xiping (1709-?) ), also known as Fan Xiping, named Shixun, Fan Xiping's father is also a chess fan, because of good chess and not production, even to the family down, still infatuated, but unfortunately chess skills are never high. Fan Xiping has been exposed to it since he was a child, and when he was three years old, he watched his father play chess with others, and he often pointed dumbly and dumbly beside him, which seemed to have an understanding. The guests were all amazed and said, "This place will definitely be famous in the world in the future!" ”
When he was a little older, his father took him to worship the famous hand in the township as a teacher, and when he was seven or eight years old, he was able to compete with the master of Haining, and his father sent him to Shaoxing, where he worshiped under the door of the "first master in the south of the Yangtze River". Fan Xiping got the guidance of a famous teacher, and his chess skills made great progress. Yu Changhou took him to travel all over the south of the Yangtze River, and ran against Wei Jin and other national players, and got the guidance of famous experts, and his skills improved by leaps and bounds. Craftsman. Xiang Changhou knew that he was not the enemy of this high apprentice, and he no longer played chess between master and apprentice, so he had "ten years in the world."
During the Qianjia period, "the court and the noble prevailed in the art of playing, so that the Quartet is good at playing the soldiers, and the Xianji Beijing teacher", Fan Xiping also came to the capital at the age of 223 to roam the rivers and lakes, and a number of national players Liang Weijin, Cheng Lanru, Han Xuezhi, Huang and his couple competed for hegemony, and after a few years, they surrendered to Qunwei one by one, and everyone was happy and convinced, "with Haining Fan Xiping Shixun as a giant."
In the capital for several years, Fan Xiping achieved the status of the first country, and then in Pinghu, Zhejiang, and Shi Xiangxia came out of the "Danghu Shitong", after this battle, the two deservedly became the two peaks in the chess world. After that, Fan Xiping traveled all over the world, meeting the world's masters, and his chess skills became more profound.
Fan Xiping in his later years, the main activities in Yangzhou, Suzhou, Taicang, Songjiang and other places, in Taicang, later famous ministers, university scholar Bi Yuan had followed Fan Xiping to learn Go, the two also had a lot of contacts in the future, Fan Xiping was 42 years old, Bi Yuan made "Qiutang Game Song for Fan Shishi Xiping" to give, in the preface of this poem, Bi Yuan has a expressive description of Fan Xiping's game style: "Every game, the state is good at playing all the best, looking around like a wall, you don't think much, the layout of the cast, the beginning is like a hasty, inadvertent, and the siege of robbery, At the time of death, in the midst of the fall, the rubble, insects and sand turned into storms, thunder and lightning, and the overall victory was achieved. The crowd cheered, the colors were terrifying, and they were called immortals. The money obtained is not calculated, and it is scattered at will, leaving no money in the pocket. There is also such a sentence in this poem: "Jun Jinhai pushes the chess saint." Fan Xiping can already be called "holy", which is a supreme title in ancient society.
Roughly after the age of 40, Fan Xiping settled in Yangzhou, there are very few records about Fan Xiping in this period, perhaps because he lived a semi-secluded life after Jiangning, and the scope of activities is basically not out of southern Jiangsu.
Fan Xiping crisscrossed the chess world, swept thousands of armies like a sweep, the chess edge pointed everywhere, invincible, the only one who could compete with it at that time was only his Haining fellow villager Shi Xiangxia, the so-called "Fan Shi Chi is famous in Yongqian, such as the sun and the moon are full." The chess saint is the first in ancient and modern times, and there is no one who comes after and no one who has gone before" ([Qing] Deng Yuanzong's "Theory of Game").
Shi Xiangxia (1710-1770), known as Shao Ge, the word Xiangxia, and the number Dingan, is a Go master on a par with Fan Xiping. Shi Xiangxia was born in a scholarly family, quiet and intelligent, and learned qin and chess under the guidance of his father since he was a child, but his talent in chess was far better than that of qin, so he devoted himself to Go. Around the time when Fan Xiping came to prominence, Shi Xiangxia also came to Shaoxing to worship Yu Changhou as a teacher, and he was also better than the blue.
Shi Xiangxia recalled: "Tongli Fan Xiping was one year old, from Yue County Yu Changhou Fuzi You, 12 years old and the same name as the teacher, because of Mu and also from the study, the first teacher to teach the third son, the next year and Fan to compete for the first. During this period, he met Xu Xingyou, who had dominated the chess world for decades and had the reputation of "surrendering without fighting". Xu Xingyou gave Shi Xiangxia's third son a game of chess, and was deeply surprised by the young Shi Xiangxia's chess talent, thinking that he would become a great weapon one day. He took out the famous Go book "Kanzantang Game Score" that he had just completed and gave it away. Shi Xiangxia was like a treasure, devoted himself to study, and gradually stepped into the ranks of first-class masters.
Shi Xiangxia's chess skills were completed when he was 23 years old, and he and Liang Weijin traveled to Huzhou's Da Xian Mountain. Liang Weijin pointed to the spring water and said to Shi Xiangxia: "The work of the son, what does the heart of the child care about?" Shi Xiangxia said sincerely, please give me advice. Liang Weijin said: "The line should be done, the stop should be stopped, let it be natural, and there is no competition with things, it is the way to play." The son is determined to ask deeply, but it is too late, so he has not taken off a first ear for three years. Shi Xiangxia listened, pondered for a long time, suddenly enlightened, and comprehended the truth that "the machine is popular, there is no sign, all kinds of work is made, and the salt is natural, then the chess stops at Zhongzheng, and the piano stops at the light and elegant". The style of chess has changed, and it has entered the ranks of first-class national players.
When Fan Xiping killed the Quartet in the capital, Shi Xiangxia also followed his senior brother to the capital, Shiguo, but unfortunately, in addition to the "Danghu Ten Games" in this period, most of his chess games also had contacts due to the rebellion. After Shi Xiangxia was 50 years old, he traveled back and forth to Yangzhou, Wuxi, Songjiang, Suzhou and other places, and began to write. In Yangzhou, Shi Xiangxia wrote two books, "Benli Zhigui" and "Benli Zhigui Continuation", which became theoretical masterpieces in the history of Chinese Go.
Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia are like peerless double pride, and at the same time dominate the world, "Fan and Shi Yipin, like twin peaks side by side, each has its own profundity, and it is difficult to achieve it at the beginning." The Yi family said that Fan is like a dragon change, unpredictable; Shi is like an old man, without losing his size, which can be described as a knowledgeable word" ([Qing] Yi Zongkui, "New World Theory"). However, it is a pity that the chess scores of Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia have rarely been handed down, and only these two people played the "Ten Danghu Games" under Pinghu in Zhejiang in the fourth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1739). "Danghu Ten Games" was not only unanimously respected by the Go community at that time, but also is still regarded as a model in the ancient spectrum of the mainland, representing the highest level of Go in the Qing Dynasty and even in ancient China.
In the fourth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1739), Zhang Yongnian, a Go family in Pinghu (also known as Danghu), invited Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia to teach chess at home. Fan and Shi gave a lot of guidance to the Zhang family and Zhang's father and son, and later Zhang Yongnian selected 28 games from them and compiled them into the book "Three Sheets". At the same time, Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia also played 13 games of chess in Pinghu, and there are 11 games that have been handed down, which is the famous "Danghu Ten Games" ("Ten Rounds" should be an approximation).
This year, Fan Xiping was 31 years old, and Shi Xiangxia was 30 years old, both in terms of chess skills, energy, and mentality, they were at their peak. The two people with the highest chess skills in the world are here to discuss the sword, and the two of them have shown their lives and thousands of weather, ups and downs, and wonderful things. Especially when the two sides are entangled in several pieces of chess, it is even more thrilling and magical, giving full play to the charm of traditional Chinese Go, and the strong and resolute, brave and enterprising chess style embodied in the chess game is also breathtaking.
Game 1 White: Shi Xiangxia; Black: Fan Xiping; A total of 260 hands, black wins seven sons. (Fan Xi Pingsheng)
Game 2 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 290 hands, black wins fifteen and a half. (Shi Xiang Xia Sheng)
Game 3 White: Shi Xiangxia; Black: Fan Xiping; A total of 232 hands, black wins fourteen sons. (Fan Xi Pingsheng)
Game 4 White: Shi Xiangxia; Black: Fan Xiping; A total of 233 hands, white wins seven and a half sons. (Shi Xiang Xia Sheng)
Game 5 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 287 hands, Bai won fourteen and a half sons. (Fan Xi Pingsheng)
Game 6 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 274 hands, black wins nine and a half sons. (Shi Xiang Xia Sheng)
Game 7 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 298 hands, white wins. (Fan Xi Pingsheng)
Game 8 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 223 hands, Bai won six and a half sons. (Fan Xi Pingsheng)
Game 9 White: Shi Xiangxia; Black: Fan Xiping; A total of 251 hands, white wins four and a half sons. (Shi Xiang Xia Sheng)
Game 10 White: Fan Xiping; Black: Shi Xiangxia; A total of 341 hands, black wins two and a half sons. (Shi Xiang Xia Sheng)
Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia can be said to be equal, and they are good at winning.
Zhang Yongnian's descendant, Zhang Jinqi, later recorded the grand occasion at that time in a poem "Sitting in Seclusion and Talking about Yili": "In the season of Qianlong, Shi Fan Ming, the organization has always been a great achievement. The Earth Spirit Master Sect Alliance is amazing. Ever-changing fighting ingenuity, faster than Hawkeye Eagle Claw. In order to solve the wonders of the expedition, who knows who is the robbery, sometimes the tiger is mighty, sometimes the rabbit is cunning, three rivers and two Zhejiang dozens of states, the southeast is open. Who is the best to cut the pass and seize the pass, one has not reached Hu Tietou. When the lake guest house thirteen bureaus, the bystanders as a lantern record. Reciting my ancestors' good chess, the chess is taught and seen. ”
As soon as the "Ten Rounds of Danghu" was circulated, it was regarded as a guideline by chess players and studied with great concentration. During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a chess lover of Daguan Junyi, who respected the "Ten Rounds of Danghu" and studied it attentively for several years, but was unable to comprehend the mystery because of the limited chess strength.
So, Fang Junyi invited Zhou Xiaosong, the first master at that time, and asked him to explain the "Ten Rounds of Danghu". Zhou Xiaosong lived alone upstairs, painstakingly and solitaryly, carefully figuring it out, and a few days later, the other party Junyi said: "When the Ten Lakes Bureau has profound intentions, I can't fully understand many places, and I dare not make arbitrary comments and deceive myself." ”
And when someone asked Zhou Xiaosong to evaluate the senior chess players, Zhou Xiaosong replied: "Only Fan and Shi can't be defeated, and the rest can compete." It can be seen that the level of "Danghu Ten Bureaus" is very high.
Qian Baotang's "Fan Shi Ten Rounds - Preface" cloud: "In the past, "Hug Puzi" said that those who are good at Go are known as chess saints in the world. If there are two gentlemen, it is really worthy of the name of the chess saint, although there are only ten games, it is wonderful. ”
The saying of "wonderful and ancient" may be a bit absolute, but "Danghu Ten Games", as the pinnacle of ancient Go in the mainland, embodies the wisdom and talent, realm and charm of the game, and is a valuable asset in the history of Chinese culture.
[From the memory of the literature and history of the hometown. Jiaxing volume】
--to be continued