I came across this poem (by Ma Rong ?-166 AD) last night and something bugged me about it:
First the four corners are occupied
To protect them and influence the sides,
Then along the sides the lines are blocked
So that the scattered stones gaze at one another from afar.
Then come knight's moves large and small,
[..]
Is this just a translation issue? I thought the term knight's move was due to the way the knight moves in Chess. Chess wasn't around in 166AD..?!
Weiqi Fu
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Re: Weiqi Fu
I think it's due to the translation.
The knight's move is called 飞 (fly) in Chinese, so we have large knight's move = large fly (大飞), small knight's move = small fly (小飞).
The translation might come from the following line in Weiqi Fu: 离离马首兮，连连雁行。
where 马 means horse, which is related to the knight. However, the original meaning might be a metaphor describing the moves in rows and moves in columns (Horses standing in rows, wild geese flying in columns)
The knight's move is called 飞 (fly) in Chinese, so we have large knight's move = large fly (大飞), small knight's move = small fly (小飞).
The translation might come from the following line in Weiqi Fu: 离离马首兮，连连雁行。
where 马 means horse, which is related to the knight. However, the original meaning might be a metaphor describing the moves in rows and moves in columns (Horses standing in rows, wild geese flying in columns)