From: Sam Sloan BEST COM> Date: 13 jan 1997 Subject: References to Chess in Ancient Chinese literature There are two references to chess in ancient Chinese literature. The first was from a collection of poems known as "Chu Chi". The author was named Chii Yuan. He was the most famous writer in the Chou Dynasty (1046 - 255 BC). He killed himself by jumping into a lake. The second is from a famous book of philosophy known as "Shuo Yuan" which cited Chu Chi. It is from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 221 AD). Both are well known to any student of Chinese literature. Exact quotations from these works, in their original Chinese characters, can be found in my book "Chinese chess for Beginners", page 145. A more recent reference to chess came from the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD). There was a famous poet named Li Ching Zhou. She wrote a book entitled "Hitting Horse Picture". By that time, the pieces had the same names as now. Sam Sloan