| The game of 16 rebel soldiers is an old Chinese game known as Shap luk kon tseung kwan or 16 pursue the general. The German scholar Himly wrote in the 1870's that the game was very popular with 'laborers and children,' the board being often scratched out in the dust of quiet roads.
One side plays the General (red stone) and the other side plays the Rebel soldiers (black stone). The General and Rebels move by shifting along a marked line to an adjacent empty position. The objective of the Rebels is to enclose the General so he can't move. The objective of the General is to capture enough Rebels so they can't enclose him, or to reach the apex of the triangle, when he wins. The triangle of four holes above the main part of the board is the General's Privy. Only the General may enter here. However, if Rebels block the three exit holes to the Privy while the General is inside, the Rebels win. The General captures through the unusual method of intervention, stepping in between two Rebels who are directly across from each other, diagonally or orthogonally, capturing them both. Capture is not mandatory. The Rebels cannot capture. |
