Mongolian Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
01 · Historical Records
Mongolian chess is related to the martial life of the ancient nomadic peoples of the Mongolian Plateau, and its formation is inseparable from the exchanges between the Mongol tribes and Central Asia and Persia. After the 13th century, the fourfold chess game originating in India (the ancient game of chaturanga) passed through Persia and Central Asia into the Mongolian region, where it merged with native board and bone games such as shagai (sheep knucklebones), gradually giving rise to Mongolian chess with pieces representing the prince, lion, camel, horse, cart and child.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
A representative of traditional Mongolian board-game culture, Mongolian chess has a long history and occupies an important place in the cultural treasury of the ethnic regions of the borderlands of the homeland; it is the most representative board game formed by the ancient ethnic minorities of the northern Mongolian Plateau during their long nomadic life and warfare, and it is transmitted in some townships and ethnic schools of the Alxa League. The board of Mongolian chess is an 8-by-8 grid, with the two sides designated black and white, or black and red. There are 32 pieces in all: each side has 1 prince, 1 lion, 2 camels, 2 horses, 2 carts and 8 children; in Mongolian they are called respectively 'noyan', 'buris', 'temu', 'mor', 'tereg' and 'huben'. The board, pieces and moves of Mongolian chess are broadly similar to those of international chess, differing only in minor details. The game of Mongolian chess can develop and exercise the people's wisdom and is also highly entertaining.
An eight-by-eight board and thirty-two pieces
The board is eight squares by eight in black and white or black and red, with thirty-two pieces and moves close to international chess.
The names of the pieces
Each side fields a lord, a lion, two camels, two horses, two carts and eight children, named in Mongolian as nayan, buris, teme, mori, tereg and khuben.
Books on the game
The game is loosely codified; the inheritor Narilai holds rare books on it and on Alxa's traditional board games.
Companion board and card games
More than a dozen traditional games are documented, among them bugu, jirige and the ankle-bone game shagai, with chess the most representative.
The school interest class in Alxa Left Banner
Since 1986 Narilai has run the interest class at the Alxa Left Banner Mongolian primary school, taking pupils to competitions.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Mongolian chess is mainly popular in the townships (sumu) and ethnic schools of Alxa Left Banner, Alxa Right Banner and Ejin Banner in the Alxa League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is being promoted across the whole region through the 'second classroom' of ethnic schools and grassroots competitions, with the Alxa Left Banner Cultural Center as the protecting unit. Local players have also incorporated Mongolian chess into school-based curricula, transmitting and studying it alongside other traditional board and bone games such as bugu and jirig.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Mongolian people have many kinds of traditional board and bone games. Those relatively completely collected and compiled to date number more than ten, including Mongolian chess, bugu, jirig, Tamu Yingqiaoji, Harichagai Aonisu, Zhagu Dahu, shagai and Nuoribu. Mongolian chess has no fixed standard rules and is quite flexible. At present, much of the content handed down from earlier times has gradually withdrawn from the historical stage, and its transmission is endangered and in urgent need of protection. Narilai (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Mongolian, born in October 1966, from Alxa Left Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A master of Mongolian chess. He began learning Mongolian chess at the age of 17 and comprehensively mastered the skills and rules of chess competition. He has collected precious materials such as 'The Ancestor of Board Games', 'Mongolian Chess' and 'Traditional Board Games of Alxa'. In 1986, after graduating from the Alxa League Normal School, he took on the guidance of the Mongolian chess 'second classroom' interest class at the Alxa Left Banner Mongolian Experimental Primary School. He has repeatedly organized students to enter competitions of various kinds, achieving good results, and has cooperated with and assisted relevant units in the collection, compilation, protection, transmission, promotion and display of Mongolian chess materials. He is a representative inheritor of Mongolian chess, a representative project in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Narilai 05-2542
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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