Yì jīng 藝經
Classic of the Arts by 邯鄲淳 (Hándān Chún, c. 132 – after 221, 漢-魏, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A short treatise on early Chinese games and game-rules — liùbó 六博, tóuhú 投壺, wéiqí 圍棋, tánqí 彈碁, jī rǎng 擊壤, mǎ shè 馬射, and several lost board-games — composed by the great Late-Hàn / CáoWèi wénshì and calligrapher Hándān Chún 邯鄲淳 (zì Zǐshū 子叔, c. 132 – after 221). The original Yì jīng was probably a substantial work of several juàn in its complete HànWèi form, but it was already lost as a unitary text by the Suí, and the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì records no Yì jīng under Hándān Chún’s name. The present Kanripo recension is a Sòng-or-later philological reconstruction: each section is a citation-fragment from one of the early Chinese encyclopaedias (Tàipíng yùlǎn, Wénxuǎn commentary, Hòu Hàn shū with the Crown-Prince Zhāng Huái 章懷 commentary, Yìwén lèijù, Shùshù shíyí jì 術數拾遺記) — making the Yì jīng the principal preserved repository of Late-Hàn-period rules-knowledge for Chinese parlour-games.
Abstract
The Yì jīng is preserved as a sequence of short rules-fragments, each prefaced by a game-name and followed by a citation of its source. The fragments transmitted in the Kanripo recension include:
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Yuānmèn 悁悶 (also written Juānmèn): a board-game-with-divination attributed by tradition to the Duke of Zhōu. Twelve zodiacal time-marks are arranged on the board “in succession”; the wén (game-text) is a rhymed verse of zodiacal substitutions (“the same writing-pattern, the tiger is inferior to the dragon; what is the pig doing — coming into the rabbit’s palace? The royal grandson goes out to divine, and so makes the Yellow Bell; the dog goes to the horse-stable — the unlike following each other; the sheep dashes to the snake’s hole, the ox enters the chicken-cage”). Xú Yuán 徐援 is quoted: “Yuānmèn is the art of qí liǎng (odd-twos) — the first move is odd-one, and the qí liǎng is the doubt-element.” Cited from Tàipíng yùlǎn 755.
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Sān bù bǐ liǎng 三不比兩: a board-game attributed to Confucius. Ten-thousand counters are placed in the four squares; the wùjǐ 戊己 corner is the south-west; the game-text is “Fire is for wood to be born; Jiǎ calls Dīng husband-and-wife joined by yì; Jǐ follows Rén, guìyí then ranks; Xīn takes part in the south-side Bǐng wife who must guard; Yǐ after fire-Wùzǐ; Heaven-Guǐ approaches Gēng.” A divination-table game related to liùrén 六壬. Cited from Shùshù shíyí jì.
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Sì wéi 四維: a board-game attributed to Dōngláizǐ 東萊子. The twelve hours are placed at the four cardinal points; the game-text is “Tiānxíng xīngjì, shí suí lóng yuān; fēng chuī yáng quān, tiānmén dì lián; tù jū shé xué, mǎ dào hóu biān; jī fēi zhū xiāng, niú rù shǔ chán.” Cited from the same.
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Mǎ shè 馬射 (mounted archery): “On the left side there are two yuèzhī (moon-branches) and three mǎtí (horse-hooves).” A brief technical note. Cited from Lǐ Shàn’s 李善 Wénxuǎn commentary on Cáo Zhí’s Báimǎ piān 白馬篇 and on Yán Yánzhī’s 顏延之 Zhěbáimǎ fù 赭白馬賦.
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Tánqí 彈碁: “Qí-true-flicking-method: two players face each other, six white and six black stones each, first arranged in opposition. Each player in turn ‘controls’ (kòng 控); if three flicks fail, each remove a ‘control’; one stone supplies the corner first; the board is of stone.” Cited from Wénxuǎn (Wèi Wéndì Yǔ Cháogēlìng Wú Zhì shū 與朝歌令吳質書 commentary), with parallel citation in Hòu Hàn shū (Liáng Jì biography, Zhāng Huái Crown-Prince commentary).
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Qí jú 碁局 (Go-board dimensions): “The Go board is seventeen dào (lines) crossing seventeen dào, totalling 289 dào; the white and black stones are one hundred and fifty each.” Cited from Wénxuǎn 52 commentary on Wéi Hóngsì 韋弘嗣 (Wéi Zhāo) Yì lùn 奕論. This is the canonical Late-Hàn / Wèi statement on early Chinese Go-board dimensions — the 17×17 = 289-point board with 150 stones per side, which was the standard format from the Hàn through the Táng before the transition to the modern 19×19 board.
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Tóuhú 投壺: “Tóuhú method: twelve shòu (longevity-pieces) to symbolise the count of the twelve months.” Cited from Tàipíng yùlǎn 753.
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Jī rǎng 擊壤: an ancient game; the rǎng is made of wood, broad in front and pointed behind, one chǐ four cùn long, three cùn wide, shaped like a shoe. Before play one rǎng is set on the ground, and from three or four tens of paces away the player strikes it with another rǎng held in the hand; the highest hit wins. Cited from Tàipíng yùlǎn 755 and Guǎng yùn commentary.
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Jiā shí 夾食: two players, yellow and black, seventeen pieces each, ranged on the fourth row in front; alternately A and B push; two pieces sandwiching one constitute an “eaten” stone; one cannot eat two, one cannot eat from the side; if one moves without a pathway, one moves once; eight sandwiches do not take a stone; one stone is a tally; gambling-tallies are arbitrary by player. Cited from the same.
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Bǒzǐ 簸子: the player’s count of pieces depends on his clarity-of-counting; in playing, the rule is — at the first throw, ten counters contend, and many-falling is unsubtle.
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Zhì zhuān 擲塼: as in KR3h0102, the brick-throwing parlour-game; two bricks set thirty paces apart as marks; each side throws a brick a chǐ square; A throws first and if it breaks (hits the mark) takes B’s tally; if B breaks after, B takes A’s. From the same.
Authenticity. The Yì jīng is universally accepted as having been composed by Hándān Chún (or originally compiled under his name), although the present transmitted form is a Sòng or later philological reconstruction from citations. Hándān Chún was a major CáoWèi literary figure who served Cáo Cāo and his sons; the Sānguózhì commentary by Péi Sōngzhī 裴松之 records him as a calligrapher and lettrist who entertained Cáo Zhí 曹植 (the Cáo Pī-circle xiǎoshuō anecdote of “displaying jìjié and reciting fù and xiǎoshuō”). The catalog meta of the Kanripo project, however, gives 邯鄲淳’s dynasty as “後魏” (Northern Wèi) — a clear clerical error: the standard biographical sources place him in the Late Hàn / CáoWèi, and CBDB id 511858 confirms this. The composition window 200–221 reflects Hándān Chún’s late-Late-Hàn / early-Wèi mature career.
Translations and research
- Yáng Yìn-shēn 楊蔭深. Zhōng-guó yóu-xì yán-jiū 中國游戲研究. Shanghai: Shàng-zá-zhì gōng-sī, 1946 (rep. Shanghai: Shàng-hǎi shū-diàn, 1986). [The standard modern Chinese reference; treats the Yì jīng as the principal early source on Hàn-Wèi parlour-games.]
- Needham, Joseph, with Lu Gwei-djen. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, part 1 (Physics and Physical Technology). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. [The 17×17 Go-board passage is the canonical citation for the early Chinese Go-board.]
- Brown, John Pemberton. “The Yi Jing of Handan Chun and the Reconstruction of Early Chinese Game-rules.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 95 (1975): 234–250.
- Lien, Tsung-han 連宗翰. Wéi-qí gǔ-pǔ kǎo 圍棋古譜考. Beijing: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1987.
- Iwamoto Kaoru 岩本薫 et al. (eds.). Igo no rekishi 囲碁の歴史. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2004.
Other points of interest
The Yì jīng is the locus classicus for the 17×17 / 289-point Go-board with 150 stones per side as the standard pre-Táng Chinese Go-board: this passage is invariably cited in modern Go-historical scholarship. Combined with the Hàn-period Lèlàng 樂浪 archaeological finds of inscribed game-boards and the Dūnhuáng qíjīng manuscripts, the Yì jīng establishes the basic technical chronology of Chinese Go before the great TángSòng expansion to 19×19. The Yì jīng is also one of the few preserved early Chinese sources to record the existence of Sān bù bǐ liǎng, Sì wéi, and Yuānmèn — a cluster of Late-Hàn divination-board-games which would otherwise be completely unknown.