How did I use books to introduce Chinese chess divination early on?

Books were an important way I introduced Chinese chess divination in the early years. Few people knew the method then, and someone helped give me a publishing opportunity so more could encounter it. I have remained grateful.

I remember a colleague originally using Tarot later reading chess. His explanations on a program resembled my book’s, making me feel it had reached colleagues too. This did not establish his complete learning history, but wider transmission made me happy.

As I remember, that book preceded another senior practitioner’s by about half a year. I felt fortunate and thought it might be Taiwan’s first chess-divination book. This is publishing recollection, not a complete publishing-history study.

For my first book, I hoped more people would notice and useful knowledge would spread. With my children I visited bookstores and moved my book into a more visible position, wondering whether someone would see it. The memory is amusing and recalls early hopes. Yet publication still required continued accumulation and time.

Later, discussing the early book Secrets of Chinese Chess Divination, I shared plans for revision and online learning. At the fifteenth anniversary we edited a new edition, described as its “2.0 version,” bringing useful learned and practiced content together with designed chess cards and representative figures. We happily viewed it as a gift to ourselves and everyone.

I later explained that the early material had been reorganized with further learning into the revised Chinese Chess Divination Secrets. From preparation and editing to the finished book, the method continued developing through actual learning and use. References in old programs to “recently,” preorders and release had their own context. Current publishing, purchasing and learning arrangements require present information, rather than treating old news as an ongoing activity.