Quick Answer: What Is The King of Chess About?
The King of Chess (棋王, Qíwáng) is a 1984 novella by Ah Cheng (阿城, Ā Chéng). It follows Wang Yisheng (王一生, Wáng Yīshēng), a young man sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. His devotion to Chinese chess gives his companions a reason to reconsider what matters to him and what matters to them.
- The game: Wang plays xiangqi (象棋, xiàngqí), or Chinese chess.
- The themes: Food, friendship and the attention Wang brings to the game make up much of the story.
- The English editions: Look for W. J. F. Jenner’s The Chess Master or Bonnie S. McDougall’s translation in the collection The King of Trees.
You can read the novella without knowing the rules. The story gives you reasons to care about the people at the board before it asks you to care who wins.
A person who watches Wang Yisheng eat can see what it means to take food seriously. A person who watches him play can see the same concentration put to a different use. The two activities help explain why a story set amid material hardship can give so much room to pleasure, skill and friendship.
Wang Yisheng and the Young People Sent to the Countryside
Wang belongs to the sent-down educated youth (知青, zhīqīng), young people transferred from cities to rural areas during the Cultural Revolution. Wang and other students in the story are sent to work on farms. [3] The narrator travels with them, so his changing opinion becomes part of the story.
The opening journey establishes an important difference between them. The narrator has heard of Wang’s reputation for chess, but he has little interest in the game. Wang has already found something he wants to keep doing. Follow the narrator’s attention to see when Wang stops looking like an odd acquaintance. [6]
The story first appeared in the July 1984 issue of Shanghai Literature. The publication date places it in the period when writers were looking back on the Cultural Revolution and changing how they wrote about it. The events belong to the characters’ earlier experience. The publication date belongs to a later attempt to make sense of it. [1][2]
Why Food Matters beside the Chessboard
The young people live on meager rations and sometimes supplement their food with what they can find. They share what they prepare. Sharing a meal turns a basic need into time spent with other people. The food also makes the cost of rural life visible at the table. [6]
Food also gives the narrator a way to understand Wang. His concern with what is available to eat can seem out of proportion to someone who takes the next meal for granted. Once food is scarce, careful eating is a way of knowing what one has and what another person has gone without. That attention makes his focus at the board feel less disconnected from the rest of his life.
Watch for the change in company around a meal or a game. The work assignment determines much of the young people’s time. Eating together and seeking someone worth playing are ways they make use of time that still belongs to them.
Chinese Chess and the Search for a Way to Live
The game is Chinese chess. You can use the board and piece guide if you want to picture the moves, but the important change for a first reading is what Wang learns to notice in another player. An older man who collects discarded goods becomes one of Wang’s teachers. [6] The encounter gives expertise an unexpected source.
Wang’s concentration eventually draws people around him for a simultaneous match. Follow how the scene changes the position of a person the narrator once underestimated. The match gives his companions a chance to recognize a skill he had been practicing for himself. [6]
Critics often place the novella within root-seeking literature (寻根文学, xúngēn wénxué), a strand of 1980s writing that reconsidered local practices and inherited culture. The language around Wang’s way of playing has invited Daoist readings. It also works as a story about noticing a person’s abilities when his social position gives people little reason to look for them. This combination helps explain its place in modern Chinese literature while leaving room for different readings. [2][4][8]
Which English Edition to Read
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press published Jenner’s The Chess Master in a bilingual Chinese-English edition in 2005. Choose it if you want to consult the original wording while you read. The title differs from The King of Chess, but both name Ah Cheng’s novella. [3]
McDougall’s translation appears alongside The King of Trees and The King of Children in the 2010 New Directions volume The King of Trees. The cover title names the collection as well as one of its works. Check the contents to find The King of Chess. The other two novellas turn to schooling and the clearing of a mountain forest. [4][5]
One other title match can cause confusion. Chang Shi-Kuo’s Chess King is a separate work by another author. Search for Ah Cheng or A Cheng together with the translator’s name to locate the novella about Wang Yisheng. [7]
FAQs About The King of Chess
What kind of chess does Wang Yisheng play?
He plays xiangqi, commonly called Chinese chess. You can follow the main relationships without studying the rules first.
Is The Chess Master the same novella?
Yes. The Chess Master is the English title of W. J. F. Jenner’s translation of Ah Cheng’s Qiwang.
Is the New Directions book The King of Trees a different story?
The book is a collection with three novellas. The King of Trees is its title story, and The King of Chess appears in the same volume.
Sources
[1] China Writers Association. Ah Cheng: Modern Writers Dictionary
[2] David Der-wei Wang, Harvest via China Writers Association. Ordinary Skills: On Ah Cheng and the Novel
[3] The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. The Chess Master: Bilingual Edition
[4] New Directions Publishing. The King of Trees: Three Novellas by Ah Cheng
[5] OCLC WorldCat. The King of Trees: New Directions Edition
[6] University of Waikato Research Commons. Study of Contemporary Chinese Literature: The Chess King
[7] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Chang Shi-Kuo
[8] China Writers Association. Reconsidering the Reception of Ah Cheng’s The King of Chess