Xiangqi's Obsession

Obsession with Xiangqi

The years are long and interminable, who can draw a square circle with Xiangqi? How many times have you won or lost a game of chess? Alas, success is in such a hurry, defeat is also in such a hurry.

Xiangqi is not a simple game, but an all-encompassing art and science. "The heart is like a spider silk swimming in the heaven's blue, and the body is like a cicada's envelop turning into a withered branch" is a silent beauty belonging to the chess player. "Winning brings in happiness, losing also can give us some thrill" is an open-minded elegance belonging to a player. "The world is like a game of chess, each of the game is not the same" is a profound perception belonging to the individual player.

It is said that life is like chess, but I think chess is chess, life is life, and there are differences and similarities between the two. Chess is chess, but not always so, it can be played, but it cannot be always played. There is never an absolute standard of right and wrong. The saddest thing may not be to lose a game of chess, but to "play chess without knowing how the world changes", and the most gratifying thing may not be defeating the opponent, but to realize the true meaning of "harmony is among the most precious things in the world".

Every chess piece can be transformed into some sort of light and energy of the soul, for the chess lovers, they not only loved these pieces, they are also deeply dependent on them, chess playing has long become an indispensable habit in their life. The image of the chess pieces merges with the player's flowing blood and the pale bones inside the body. There is no end and there is no limit.

Chess is elusive. The chess score is as vast as the sea. No matter how hard I try to look, to touch, and to perceive the chess pieces, I can't stop the passage of time which runs like clear water, and I can't really understand the chess that are as subtle as the mysticism of Zen, as elegant and graceful as the poetry, and as strong and swift as a sword, and all kinds of mysterious beauty contained in the game, I can only tasted a little bit, an insignificance bit.

I used to naively think that I was a master, and that such an elevated feeling was hard to express, but when I finally felt the ethereal nature of chess again and again, I began to feel deeply my own insignificance and inconsequence.

I am much happy for the game, yet I have never been able to step out of the world of chess. I know that the charm of chess is not entirely in chess itself. When you play chess, you play your feeling, your emotion, the mood, the atmosphere.

Chess has its winning moves as well as its losing moves, and people have their own successes and their failures. Giving up or to hang on is sometimes a choice that you can't really control at all. In this world which blows hot and cold, who can explain why there are winnings and gains, why there are mistakes and failures? There are some chess games played that I know I don't fully understand, but I have a soft spot for them, so really I'm not a great player, and sometimes, I'm just a complete outsider.

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Source : 蝴蝶飞的博客
Dated : 2014-August-1st