The Plum Flower Manual

MAI HOA PHO: THE PLUM FLOWER MANUAL

The classical Xiangqi manual of Wang Zaiyue: playable, annotated in three languages, backed by a neural network engine, entirely offline.

In the reign of Kangxi (1662 to 1722), a poor scholar named Wang Zaiyue took the opening every master called unanswerable, and answered it. No printer would touch the manuscript, and he died unread and unknown. Three centuries later, the defence he invented appears in over half the games of every serious tournament.

THE CREED HE BROKE

The preface is all we have of him: 性刚直，家贫力学，不求闻达。 Upright and unbending, poor yet studious, asking for no rank. Every player then recited the verse of the Ju Zhong Mi of 1632: set the Cannon in the central palace, and against every other formation it stands the strongest. Wang answered with two horses. His Screen Horses defence stands the knights side by side like a folding screen, refuses to trade blow for blow, and lets the attacker spend himself on a wall that will not fall. Four characters sum it up: use the soft to govern the hard. The book then waited two hundred years in hand copies, reaching print only in 1917.

WHAT IS INSIDE

Thirty one games in six volumes. Twenty eight are here, from all six.

For the second player: Screen Horses against the Central Cannon (six games, the heart of the book), then Central Cannon against the Palace Crossing Cannon and the Turning Corner Horse. For the first player: Same Direction Cannons in two volumes, then Opposite Direction Cannons.

NOT SINGLE LINES, BUT WHOLE TREES

Every game carries the full branching analysis, so when your opponent leaves the main line you still see what Wang expected.

• 1,248 half moves along the main lines.

• 431 side variations, holding a further 6,966 half moves.

• 8,214 half moves of analysed play in all.

• 385 annotated points, in the original Chinese with English and Vietnamese.

Not only Wang's notes: this is the modern annotated text, twentieth century masters arguing with the seventeenth century author in the margins.

HOW YOU STUDY IT

• Browse and replay. Four dropdowns put you on the board. Step through any game and walk into any of the 431 side branches.

• Learn. A board where nothing moves by itself. You take both sides by hand and must find the book move yourself, with optional arrows for its choices.

• Go off book. Play the move Wang did not consider, explore, then return to the point of departure with one button.

• Ask the engine. A full strength NNUE neural network engine runs on your device, so any idea is tested in seconds.

THREE LANGUAGES, AND A BOARD YOU SET UP YOUR OWN WAY

• Language. One setting chooses English, Vietnamese or Chinese, running through the volume titles, the game titles and all 385 annotations. Untranslated passages fall back to the original rather than a blank.

• Board size. Thirteen sizes for the replay board, from 1.0x (500 by 350) to 2.2x (1100 by 770).

• Board themes. Thirty five, from bright and papery to deeply dark: Serenity Sands, Copper Sunset, Midnight Azure, Plum Dusk and more.

• The study board. Six themes of its own in vector art, plus five highlight colours you set by hand.

• Board fonts. Five faces for the piece characters.

• Light or dark interface, remembered between sessions.

WHO THIS IS FOR

If you play the Screen Horses, this is the source. If you play the Central Cannon, this is the book you are up against: Wang wrote down exactly how your attack is supposed to fail. If you simply love the game, this is one of its two great classics.

PRIVACY

Genuinely offline. No account, no ads, no tracking, no analytics. The released build requests no permissions.

Recent changes:

First release.

- 28 games from the Plum Flower Manual, with the full variation tree (431 side lines, 8,214 half moves).
- 385 annotated points in Chinese, English and Vietnamese.
- Replay, Learn and off-book modes.
- Built-in NNUE engine, runs on your device.
- 35 board themes, 13 board sizes, light or dark interface.
- Fully offline: no account, no ads, no tracking, no permissions.