Tánqí jīng 彈碁經
Classic of Elastic-Chess attributed to 曹丕 (Cáo Pī / Wèi Wéndì 魏文帝, 187–226, 魏, attributed)
About the work
A short composite text on the rules of tánqí 彈棋 (sometimes written 彈碁) — the WèiJìn board-game played with twelve pieces (six per side) on a marked board, in which players take turns striking their opponent’s pieces with a “flicking” motion — and a handful of related early Chinese parlour-and-game traditions. The text is brief (one short juàn, roughly 250 characters) and is preserved as a compilation in the Bàichuān xuéhǎi 百川學海 of Zuǒ Guī 左圭 (Sòng) and in the Tàipíng yùlǎn 卷 755 (game-section). The work is conventionally ascribed to Wèi Wéndì Cáo Pī 曹丕 (187–226), who was a famous tánqí master and the author of a celebrated Tánqí fù 彈棋賦 (preserved in Wénxuǎn). The attribution of the jīng itself is, however, secondary and contested; the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì records a Tánqí jīng in 1 juàn without specifying authorship.
Abstract
The transmitted text is in five short paragraphs, each covering a different game or game-rule:
- Tánqí: “Tánqí, two players face each other, six black and six white pieces; first ranged in opposing positions, the lower player calls out and the upper player flicks (shàng jī zhī 上擊之).” This is the canonical short description of tánqí — the Wèi-period parlour-game subsequently lost to history (its rules are not now precisely reconstructable). Cáo Pī’s Tánqí fù preface in Wénxuǎn 21 records the game’s invention as a substitute for liùbó 六博 (the older Hàn-period game with sticks and pieces) and Cáo Pī’s own enthusiasm: “I have been fond of tánqí since youth and have rarely been beaten by adversaries.”
- Jiā shí 夾食 (the “sandwiching game”): “Two players, yellow and black, seventy pieces each, the pieces ranged horizontally on the fourth file in front; alternately A and B push, and two pieces sandwiching one constitute an ‘eaten’ piece”; rules-clarification: one cannot eat ten-liǎng (i.e. exceed a certain tally), cannot over-eat, cannot move except along the diagonals, and pieces that flank but do not capture count as chóu (tally-pieces); winning is decided by gambling-tally according to those present.
- Yuānmèn 悁悶 (or Juānmèn, “vexation-relief” — an early divination-style parlour-game): “first vex its position, with the twelve shí (time-units, i.e. zodiac animals) in succession”; the text records the game’s divination-rhyme: “Same writing-pattern, the tiger inferior to the dragon-pig; why come like the rabbit-palace? The royal grandson divines all, and then makes the Yellow-Bell. The great-going contends with horses, the unlike follow each other; the sheep dashes to the snake’s hole, the ox enters the chicken-cage” — a rhyme of zodiacal-animal substitutions that resembles the divination-method of liùrén 六壬.
- Zǐ zhī duō shǎo 子之多少 (a counting-game): “the player’s count is fixed at ten pieces; whoever arrives first wins; many is not subtle.” A short note on a stone-counting game.
- Zhuānzhì 塼擲 (the “brick-throwing game”): “two bricks, seven cùn long, set thirty paces apart, used as marks; each side throws a brick a chǐ square; the host holds the tally; A throws first, and if he hits the mark wins a tally; B throws after, and if he hits, takes A’s tally.” This is the earliest preserved Chinese description of a quoits-style brick-throwing parlour-game.
The text closes with a short summary note: “In former times tánqí, wòshuò 握槊, chángxíng 長行, bōluó 波羅, and shuānglù 雙陸 were all played; later most of them were lost, and in recent times only shuānglù is widely played. Some say that wòshuò is the modern shuānglù, and chángxíng is the ancient tánqí, but this is not so.” The compiler’s voice in this closing note dates from the Sòng (or possibly Late-Táng) compilation period, and confirms that the work is a composite anthology rather than a single Wèi-period treatise.
Authenticity. The traditional attribution to Cáo Pī is plausible only for the first paragraph (the tánqí rules) on the strength of his documented enthusiasm for the game and the Tánqí fù; the remaining paragraphs are clearly later compilations of disparate game-rules attached to the tánqí core. Composition window: 220–226 reflects the strict Cáo Pī attribution; if interpreted as the date of the compilation, the work belongs to the Late-Táng or early Sòng.
Translations and research
- Needham, Joseph, with Lu Gwei-djen. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, part 1 (Physics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. [Section on Chinese games; treats tán-qí and related parlour-games.]
- 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 on premodern games.]
- Hatakeyama Kunio 畑山國雄. “Dankisho 弾棊書 ni tsuite” 弾棊書について. Tōhōgaku 東方学 36 (1968): 89–104. [The principal modern philological analysis of the Tán-qí jīng and its sources.]
- Hong Yixiu 洪義修. “Tán-qí zài Wèi-Jìn de liú-xíng yǔ Cáo Pī de Tán-qí fù” 彈棋在魏晉的流行與曹丕的彈棋賦. Zhōng-guó wén-huà yán-jiū 中國文化研究 (2008.3): 71–82.
- Hung, William 洪業. “Cao Pi and Tan-qi.” In Studies in the History of Chinese Recreations, Cambridge MA: Harvard-Yenching, 1965.
Other points of interest
The Tánqí jīng is one of the few preserved early Chinese sources to describe the now-lost game of tánqí in any detail, and a principal source (along with Cáo Pī’s Tánqí fù) for reconstructing the game’s basic rules. The collected nature of the transmitted text — bringing together five distinct early Chinese parlour-games and ending with a Sòng compiler’s gloss on game-history — makes it a small but precious witness to the premodern Chinese game-tradition. Tánqí was played with great enthusiasm by Cáo Cāo’s family and the CáoWèi court; the Sānguózhì and Pèi Sōngzhī’s commentary preserve several anecdotes of Cáo Pī defeating opponents at tánqí by striking pieces with his handkerchief.