So over dinner me and my brother saw the Armed Forces mostly as a game of Chinese Chess. This was sparked off by his friend who had commented that "at the end of the [chess] game, the pieces (both the general and the pawn) are placed back into the same box", showing his contempt for the authority high ranking officers wield in camp and how at the end of the day they are all just humans. Pre-requisite: A little background knowledge on Chinese Chess pieces is needed to understand the following. Having experienced life from a military police's point of view would help as this is written from the perspective of my brother's camp. Preclusions: Not applicable to players who only do international chess.
The soldiers, 卒/兵, are people the likes of my brother and other men who are at the lower end of the food chain. While their immediate commanders (车/車, 马/馬, 炮/砲) can “eat" them (order them around), they also have the right to do funny things to generals (将/帥) like clamping their car wheels when they park without authorization, and booking officers who are 20 odd ranks higher for bringing contraband items like mp3 players with voice recorder function to camp. In fact, their immediate superiors would be less suitable to perform the task as they have a higher tendency to fall prey to the friend-friend tactics employed by most diplomatic law-breaking high ranking officers.
Then the sergeants/ section commanders would be the 车/車 in this game, due to a real life example where a bunk mate of my brother's is always on Medical Leave to escape from camp. Apparently the section commander would drive a GP (general purpose) car to his doorstep and haul him back to camp to be assessed by the doctor. Think MID* vehicles and think 车/車 -.-!
The officers would be the 炮/砲 as they are good at deploying people in front of themselves either to deflect direct assaults or to launch long range arrows at the men, showing their indirect attacking ability.
Guess who's the 马/馬? Warrant officers of course! According to my brother and my own personal experience, these are a crafty lot who have the highest propensity to go "by left" when going through tedious administrative procedures to get things done. This parallels the way the horse in the game moves diagonally to the left or right, avoiding obstacles straight ahead. But for academic purposes now, we take it to be mostly left.
That leaves the 象/相. Doesn't it remind you of downgraded soldiers who end up as deskbound clerks. For those who are unable to even go out for dispatch service, it further shows the similarity between the elephant and the clerk as he is "unable to cross the river" which is the main gate of the camp.
Oh, almost forgot. The dismissable 士/仕 in the game who's able to slide up and down on top of the general both in times of peace and crisis. In real life, they may actually play a more significant role? Given that there are female soldiers and clerks around, looks like a threeway battle to the bitter end is inevitable (we got two 士/仕, but only one 将/帥).
This post was written all in the name of good humour and is not meant to be taken offensively amongst all ranks. I salute all of you who are still donning the uniform, be it number 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0**. Do the right thing, think the wrong thing.
* MID: Mindef vehicles have this prefix on their license plates
** 0: the set you wear when feeling kinky ie. topless, SBO, jockey cap, green socks pulled to knee height, swimming trunks, gas mask, dummy grenade in hand (those were the days)
Useless fact of the day: Linux, as with other Open Source Software (OSS), use the motto "Give a little, take a lot" (!) What seems to be derived from public domain (Red Hat and Novell) is actually charging annual fees for subscription to services. In a way we are like paying for the license to use the operating system in instalments, which is different from the upfront payment for Windows, that's all. Scary.
