Victories All The Way

We think it is helpful and are going to post from time to time Game No.1 to Game No.35 of the Xiangqi classic work, today we re-publish the Preface of Lai's translation.

自出洞来无敌手 （"Victories All The Way"）

First of all, a bit of history. In the ancient hand copied versions, some mentioned Chunyang Daoren as the name of the author, while other(s) mentioned the name as Qi Daoren.


Preface

This is my fourth book, two of them are translations. "Victories All The Way" is a book unlike the others. Its existence can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty (1364-1644). For this book to have survived all these centuries is really a miracle, as many of its contemporaries have perished in the mist of time, due to wars, natural calamities, etc. Even during the Ming Dynasty, the book was already classified as rare, with only limited copies printed occasionally. When circumstances allowed, people copied the book by hand, laboriously and painstakingly, to say the least, and thanks to this process, it met with a better outcome.

With Xiangqi becoming more and more popular in the West as a kind of background, this book will be widely welcome and cherished by players of all abilities, in the years to come, that I am sure. To improve your playing standard, you need to have a good foundation in the endgame technique, undisputedly, but above all, you need a good and solid opening repertoire. This book can answer your prayer.

Dedicating my translation work to the Chinese people, who have invented this wonderful game of Xiangqi a long long time ago...

"Victories All The Way" is a limited numbered souvenir edition (No.1 to No.500), with each copy bearing my own personal seal.

This book bears the number ___

C. K. Lai
Mid-Autumn Festival
September 1991, London