 Jungle or Dou Shou Qi is a traditional Chinese
board game. It is a two player, abstract strategy game played on a 7x9 board. In
many ways, the game resembles the western game Stratego, which may have its
origin in Jungle. The major difference between the two games is that in Jungle
the pieces are not hidden from the opponent and initial setup is fixed.
Rules
Objective: The goal of the game is to move a piece onto a special square, the
den, on the opponent's side of the board.
Board
The Jungle game board consists of seven columns and nine rows of squares. Pieces
move on the square spaces as in international chess, not on the lines as in
xiangqi. Pictures of eight animals and their names appear on each side of the
board to indicate initial placement of the game pieces. Other than initial
setup, these animal spaces have no use in game play.
There are several special squares and areas of the Jungle board: The Den is
located in the center of the first row or rank of the board, and is labeled as
such in Chinese. Traps are located to each side and in front of the Den, and are
also labeled in Chinese. Two water areas or Rivers are located in the center of
the Jungle board. Each is comprised of six squares in a 2x3 rectangle, and
labeled with the Chinese characters for "river". There are single columns or
files of ordinary land squares on the edges of the board, and down the middle
between the rivers.
Pieces
Each side has 8 pieces representing different animals, each with a different
rank. Higher ranking pieces can capture all weaker ranking pieces. (The Mouse
may attack the Elephant under certain conditions.) The animal ranking, from
strongest to weakest, is:
- 8 - Elephant
- 7 - Lion
- 6 - Tiger
- 5 - Leopard
- 4 - Dog
- 3 - Wolf
- 2 - Cat
- 1 - Mouse
Pieces are placed onto the corresponding pictures of the animals which are
invariably shown on the Jungle board.
Movement
Players alternate moves with White moving first. During their turn, a player
must move. Each piece moves one square horizontally or vertically (not
diagonally). A piece may not move to its own den.
There are special rules related to the water squares:
- The Mouse is the only animal that is allowed to go onto a water square.
- The Mouse may not capture the Elephant directly from a water square.
- The Mouse may attack the opponent Mouse in the water.
- The Lion and Tiger pieces may jump over a river by moving horizontally or
vertically. They move from a square on one edge of the river to the next
non-water square on the other side. Such a move is not allowed if there is a
Mouse on any of the intervening water squares. The Lion and Tiger are allowed
to capture enemy pieces by such jumping moves.
Capturing
Animals capture the opponent pieces by "eating" them. A piece can capture any
enemy piece which has the same or lower rank, with the following exceptions:
- The Mouse may kill (capture) the Elephant. Many published versions of the
game say this is done by the Mouse crawling in the Elephant's ear and gnawing
at his brains. As stated above, the Mouse may not capture the Elephant from a
water square. The Elephant can capture the Mouse during an attack. The powers
of the Mouse resemble those of the Spy in Stratego.
- The player may capture any enemy piece in one of the player's trap squares
regardless of rank.
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