From: Kevin Tsai <STSAI <at> HUSC <dot> BITNET>
Date: 13 feb 1994
Subject: What does the name "shogi" _mean_?

"Gi" means any game that resembles "chess." Not the Western chess
specifically, but just any strategic game that is abstracized enough
so that it resembles some sort of "chess." From here on, unless
otherwise specified, "chess" will be used to mean this generic
strategic game. "shogi" means "general's chess." "Sho" from "shogun,"
the supreme general in feudal Japan.

"Xiangqi" has a similar origin. "Qi," pronounced "chi," is the same
character as "gi." So it means "xian's chess." Now, "xian" could mean
a number of things. The character literally means "elephant."
However, it could be homonym for "miniter's chess," since the elephant
is a piece in the game for black, whose encounter part in red is the
minister. (In xiangqi, the equivalent pieces of opposite sides are
named by their homonyms, some of which mean essentially the same
thing.  An example of why Romanization of Chinese characters could
cause problems.)

"Go" is really from the Japanese "i-go." The characters are the same
as the ones in Chinese for "wei chi." (Not too sure about this. Anyone
who speaks both Japanese and Chinese out there?) Here, "chi" is the
same character as "gi" and "qi." "Wei" means "to surround."

While it is clear that go really has its origin in China, because of
the linguistic similarities, shogi is probably not a descendent of
xiangqi. Not only are the charaters different, but the rules, etc.
are not too similar either. They're probably distant cousins. Does
anyone know more about the history of these games?


Absalom on Drugs
.