Da Yunhe: Der Grosse Kaiserkanal
Da Yunhe: Der Grosse Kaiserkanal Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Set Up
- Object of the Game and Scoring
- Sequence of Play
- Phase 1 – Choosing action cards
- Phase 2 – Performing actions
- Action card 1 – "Gain prestige"
- Action card 2 – "Remove unrest"
- Action card 3 – "Pacify the population"
- Construction
- Action card 4 – "Destroy a canal"
- Action card 5 – "Extra inspection"
- Reconstruction (b3)
- Construction inside the Forbidden City (b4)
- Action card 6 – "Tea break"
- Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator
- Phase 4 – Riots
- Phase 5 – Clean-up and change of start player
- End of the Game and Winner
- Icons
Components
Shared components:
- 1 big board, composed of 4 tiles. The big board shows North East China and the Grand Canal (of China). The Canal and surrounding territories are divided into 5 sections of 9 hex spaces each, with the areas of Beijing and Hangzhou at the northern and southern end respectively. A number of these sections equal to the number of players is used in play, starting from Beijing, plus the northern and southern yellow spaces. Depending on the number of players, the yellow hex space with the pagoda icon south of the last player's section marks the turning point of the Great Coordinator on his journeys. Next to each of these pagoda spaces is another yellow hex space. All yellow spaces are considered neutral; as such they do not belong to a player's section.
- The scoring track indicates the players' prestige at the court. The players start with 15 prestige points. It is not possible to have less than 0 prestige points. If a player reaches 100, 200 or even 300 prestige points, the player places their marker with the corresponding value next to the "0" space of the scoring track.
- 1 small board – Forbidden City. The players develop the Forbidden City. The players place canal tiles on the space of the Forbidden City corresponding to their player colour, face down. A player can place unrest tiles on other players' spaces of the Forbidden City by performing the attack action "Blacken". The numbers 0 to 4 indicate the numbers of journeys of the Great Coordinator, and thus the playing time. The first journey leads from Beijing to Hangzhou in the South (in games with less than 5 players: from Beijing to the first pagoda space south of the last player's section). The second journey leads back from there to Beijing in northern direction. The third journey will lead the Great Coordinator again to the southernmost active pagoda space, and the fourth and last journey finally leads back to Beijing in northern direction. The game ends at the end of the round in which the Great Coordinator arrives in Beijing at the end of his fourth journey.
- 1 small board – Wall of Contentment. On the Wall of Contentment, unrest tiles are placed on the spaces matching their colour, once they are removed from the big board or once they are used for attack actions. The Wall of Contentment symbolizes the increasing or decreasing discontentment of the population. At the beginning of the game, the players decide about the number of unrest tiles on the Wall of Contentment that will cause a riot: 2, 3 or 4. The default number is 3, meaning that the third unrest tile of a certain colour will cause a riot, affecting the player with that colour.
- 10 action cards. These cards will be explained under Phase 2 – Performing actions.
- 8 reference cards: two double-sided cards with a summary of the 18 action icons; one summary of the 5 phases of each game round (rear side of the action cards and phase summary).
Individual player components (in five player colours: yellow, red, green, blue, purple):
- 1 player board, with three spaces for face down draw piles on the left, and 6 storage spaces for face up canal or unrest tiles on the right.
- 20 canal tiles (with values from 1 to 3, from 5 to 9, and different number of canals – blue lines):
- 1 canal (value 1), 2 canals (value 1), 1 canal (value 1)
- 1 canal (value 2), 1 canal (value 2), 2 canals (value 2)
- 1 canal (value 3), 1 canal (value 3), 1 canal (value 3)
- 1 garden (value 5), 1 tea house (value 5), 1 temple (value 5)
- 1 water wheel (value 6), 1 dam (value 6), 1 lock (value 6)
- 1 bridge (value 7)
- 1 storage (value 8)
- 1 lighthouse (value 9)
- 10 unrest tiles (with a value of −4 each).
- 1 player marker, marking the player's canal section on the big board.
- 1 scoring marker, used for recording the player's prestige points on the scoring track.
- 1 marker 100 prestige points, 1 marker 200 prestige points, 1 marker 300 prestige points.
- 1 scoring summary card, double-sided.
Set Up
Assemble the four jigsaw tiles of the big board, placing it in the centre of the playing area. Place the two small boards of the Forbidden City and the Wall of Contentment next to the big board.
- Place the fist marker on the Wall of Contentment on one of the numbers 2, 3 or 4. This indicates the number of unrest tiles of a certain colour that will cause a riot during Phase 4 – Riots. It is placed on 3 by default, but may be changed by common agreement. The game will become more difficult when choosing 2, and easier when choosing 4.
- Place one ship marker on the number 4 on the Forbidden City. It indicates the remaining number of journeys of the Great Coordinator. Once the ship marker has reached the number "0", the game ends at the end of that round.
- Place the second ship marker on the city of Beijing, i.e. the most northern pagoda. The Great Coordinator starts his first journey to the south from this point.
- Proceeding around the table in clockwise order, the players place their player marker next to the section south of the previous player's section. In a game with less than 5 players the remaining southern sections will not be used. Important: In the latter case, the Great Coordinator's journey to the south does not end in Hangzhou, but on the pagoda space south of the last player's section. All sections of all players are used during game play, as well as the two yellow spaces north (Beijing) and south of the last player's section (which is Hangzhou with 5 players only).
Keep the 10 action cards and the 11 white step markers in easy reach of all players.
Each player chooses their player colour and takes all individual components of that colour. Each player puts their player board next to the big board and keeps the scoring overview in front of them. Keep the markers for 100, 200 and 300 prestige points at hand. In a game with less than 5 players, leave all components of any unused player colour in the box.
Determine a start player randomly. Give the start player marker to the start player. Then, the start player places their player marker next to the first canal section south of Beijing, indicating that this is their section of the canal.
The start player places one of their unrest tiles on the first hex space south of Beijing showing a white unrest icon. Proceeding in clockwise direction, all players place one of their unrest tiles on the next empty unrest space. Continue in this manner, placing one unrest tile at a time, until each player has placed all their 4 unrest tiles on the board. These tiles follow the former course of the old canal. The Grand Canal was destroyed by these riots. During the game you will reconstruct the canal, possibly giving it some other course.
Player setup:
a. Each player mixes their remaining 6 unrest and 20 canal tiles, face down. With these tiles, each player compiles three stacks of roughly equal height, and places them on the three left draw pile spaces of their player board. Then, the top tile of each pile is revealed. If more than one unrest tile is revealed, the player reshuffles these piles, reveals the top tiles, etc., until a maximum of one unrest tile is revealed.
b. Next, each player chooses one of their revealed tiles, and places it on one of the empty storage spaces on the right side of their player board. Subsequently, each player should have one face down draw pile, and two piles with a face up tile on top.
Each player places their scoring marker on space "15" of the prestige point track.
Object of the Game and Scoring
The object of the game is to gain as many prestige points as possible, thus having the best reputation at the Emperor's Court. The players can gain prestige points during game play, and at the end of the game.
Scoring during game play
"Constructing the Grand Canal": By placing a canal tile on the big board, thus constructing the canal, the player scores the printed number of prestige points of that canal tile immediately. Prestige points are gained for "canal construction on the big board" only, not for "stirring unrest on the big board", a "reconstruction" or for "constructing in the Forbidden City".
"Gain prestige": By choosing this action, the player gains 1 prestige point immediately.
"Intrigue": If a player attacks another player with this action, the attacked player immediately loses 8 prestige points. The attacker must place one of the two required unrest tiles at the bottom of one of their draw piles (face down), the other one on their own space on the Wall of Contentment.
"Riot": If the number of a player's unrest tiles on their space on the Wall of Contentment equals or exceeds the number shown on the fist marker, that player loses a number of prestige points due to a riot (see Phase 4 – Riots). The unrest tiles involved in the riot are placed face down under one or more draw piles of that player, of their own choice.
"Journey of the Great Coordinator": During his journeys, the Great Coordinator rewards or punishes the players, depending on the achievements. If he enters:
- a canal tile, the owner of that tile gains 2 prestige points immediately (disregarding if the canal tile is in that player's own section or not);
- a canal tile that is connected to the prior location of the Great Coordinator by canals, the owner of that canal tile gains 4 prestige points;
- an unrest tile, the owner of that section loses 4 prestige points (except on yellow spaces);
- an empty hex space, nobody receives or loses any prestige points.
Evaluation during the journeys of the Great Coordinator happens in Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator, and if the action card "Extra inspection" is played.
"Unrests": For any remaining unrest tiles (ignoring their colour) in a player's section, except on yellow spaces, and on their space in the Forbidden City, that player loses 4 prestige points.
"Canals inside the Forbidden City": The number of canal tiles on each player's space in the Forbidden City is determined, then that number is squared (x²; e.g. 2 canal tiles will result in 2² = 2x2 = 4 prestige points, 7 canal tiles will result in 7² = 7x7 = 49 prestige points).
Final scoring
"Canal network": Each player scores as many points as the number of canal tiles of their own largest canal network. A canal network consists of a player's canal tiles connected with each other by uninterrupted canals. Canal tiles of other players, empty hex spaces, unrest tiles or the player's own canal tiles that are not connected to each other via canals interrupt a canal network. For example, a player's network consisting of 9 connected canal tiles is worth 9 prestige points. The numbers printed on the canal tiles are not relevant for this final scoring.
"Canals inside the Forbidden City": see above.
"Unrests": see above.
Sequence of Play
The game is played over a series of game rounds. Each game round consists of 5 phases.
| Phase | Name | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choosing action cards | Beginning with the start player and continuing in clockwise direction, each player chooses one of the available action cards. Each player keeps their card face down in front of them. |
| 2 | Performing actions | Beginning with the start player and continuing in clockwise direction, each player reveals their chosen action card and performs any actions allowed by that card. |
| 3 | Journey of the Great Coordinator | Unless someone has played the action card "Tea break", the start player moves the Great Coordinator and does the immediate scoring. |
| 4 | Riots | The start player checks if the minimum number of unrest tiles triggering a riot has been reached on one or more spaces of the Wall of Contentment, and resolves any resulting riots. |
| 5 | Clean-up and change of start player | The start player passes the start player marker, the step markers and all 10 action cards to their left neighbour. If the game has not ended, that player starts the next game round with Phase 1. If the game has come to its end, final scoring takes place instead, and the winner is determined. |
Phase 1 – Choosing action cards
Beginning with the start player and continuing in clockwise direction, each player chooses one of the available action cards. The start player takes all 10 action cards, chooses one of them, placing it face down in front of them, and passes the remaining cards to their left neighbour. That player chooses one card, placing it face down in front of them, passes the remaining cards to their left neighbour, etc.
This procedure is repeated until each player has chosen one card. Any leftover cards are put aside and are not used during this game round.
Each player keeps their card face down in front of them.
Each action card allows the player to perform various actions. These are explained in detail in the next chapter.
Phase 2 – Performing actions
Beginning with the start player and continuing in clockwise direction, each player reveals their chosen action card and performs any actions shown on that card during their turn.
The active player may perform one action, some or all of the actions, in any order, even interrupt an action and complete it later during their turn, in any given combination; however, they are limited to the actions shown on their card. No player is forced to perform an action; they may pass, though this is normally useless. All action cards and their icons are explained in detail below. If a player gains prestige points during their turn, they advance their scoring marker on the scoring track accordingly, and immediately. Once the active player has finished any actions they want to perform, it is the next player's turn.
After all players have completed their turn, this phase ends and game play proceeds with Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator.
The action cards are described below. Each card lists its icons as words: Replenishment, Construction, Reconstruction, Remove unrest, Pacify the population, Destroy a canal, Extra inspection, Tea break, Espionage, Intrigue, Blacken and Reorganize.
Action card 1 – "Gain prestige"
- Up to 3 Replenishments
- 1 Construction
- Gain 1 prestige point immediately
Replenishment: Each player's replenishments must be stored on the six storage spaces of their player board. Each storage space may hold exactly one canal or unrest tile. When performing this action, the active player may move one, two or three (as specified by the action card) canal or unrest tiles from the top of their draw piles to any empty storage space. If moving more than one tile, it is up to the player to take all tiles from only one draw pile or from different piles, and/or to take revealed tiles or unrevealed tiles. However, all tiles on the storage spaces must be face up.
Action card 2 – "Remove unrest"
- Remove 1 unrest tile of any player from the big board and place it on that player's space on the Wall of Contentment.
- Up to 2 Constructions or 1 Reconstruction
- 1 Replenishment
Placing unrest tiles onto the Wall of Contentment: By performing the actions "Construction" and "Remove unrest", unrest tiles may be moved from the big board to the Wall of Contentment board. In the example in the printed rulebook, both the red and the blue unrest tiles are moved to their corresponding spaces on the Wall of Contentment. The action "Pacify the population" allows the player to remove one unrest tile from any space (yellow, in this example) of the Wall of Contentment. The removed unrest tile is placed face down at the bottom of one of its owner's draw piles, of their own choice.
Action card 3 – "Pacify the population"
- Remove 1 unrest tile from any player's space of the Wall of Contentment. The removed unrest tile is placed face down at the bottom of one of its owner's draw piles, of their own choice.
- Up to 2 Constructions or 1 Reconstruction
- 1 Replenishment
Construction
There are four options to perform the Construction action:
- Construction of canal tiles on the big board (b1),
- Stirring unrest on the big board (b2),
- Reconstruction of canal tiles (b3),
- Construction of canal tiles inside the Forbidden City (b4).
Construction on the big board (b1): Each construction icon allows the active player to place 1 canal tile on any empty hex space or any hex space occupied by an unrest tile, either in their own section or in the section of any other player, or on any yellow (eligible) hex space. The player chooses the construction space and the alignment of the canal tile. Even the current location of the Great Coordinator is considered empty if there is no canal tile yet, thus construction is allowed on that space as well. If the construction space is occupied by an unrest tile, that unrest tile is removed to be placed on its matching space on the Wall of Contentment.
With the construction action no existing canal tile may be overbuilt, removed or destroyed, no matter whom it belongs to. The player immediately gains as many prestige points as printed on the constructed canal tile(s), advancing their scoring marker on the prestige point track accordingly.
Stirring unrest (b2): Each construction icon allows the active player to place 1 unrest tile on any empty hex space, either in their own section or in the section of any other player, or on any yellow hex space. No existing canal or unrest tile may be overbuilt, removed or destroyed, no matter whom it belongs to. By placing an unrest tile no player gains or loses any prestige points. An unrest tile may be placed even at the current location of the Great Coordinator if there is no canal or unrest tile yet.
Action card 4 – "Destroy a canal"
- 1 Construction
- Up to 2 Replenishments
With this action, the active player attacks an existing canal tile of any player (even their own) on the big board with 2 unrest tiles from their storage. They place one unrest tile on their own space on the Wall of Contentment, and the second one at the bottom of one of their own draw piles, face down. The destroyed canal tile is returned face down at the bottom of one of its owner's draw piles, of the attacker's choice.
Action card 5 – "Extra inspection"
- 1 Construction
- Up to 2 Replenishments
- Move the Great Coordinator up to 3 spaces
The active player may move the Great Coordinator immediately up to 3 spaces of their own choice, obeying the general movement rules (see Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator). The Great Coordinator stops if he enters an unrest tile or a hex space with a pagoda (outside of any player's section). Scoring takes place immediately, if applicable, and a change in direction occurs if he entered a pagoda space.
Reconstruction (b3)
Instead of using two construction icons to place canal and/or unrest tiles (b1, b2), the active player may reconstruct existing canal tiles. The player must choose one out of three options:
- They may swap the location of any two of their own canal tiles, realigning them if they wish to do so, or
- they may realign any one (1) of their own canal tiles without changing its location, or
- they may move any one (1) of their own canal tiles from its current location to any empty hex space, realigning it at the new location.
Instead of reconstructing their own canal tile(s), the player may apply one of these three options to any other player's canal tile(s), under the condition that these tiles are in the active player's section and remain there.
No existing canal or unrest tile may be overbuilt or destroyed by this action, nor does any player gain or lose any prestige points. Even the location of the Great Coordinator may be the subject of the reconstruction action.
Construction inside the Forbidden City (b4)
Each construction icon allows the active player to place 1 canal tile face down on their own space inside the Forbidden City. Any existing unrest tiles on that space are not removed.
The number of a player's canal tiles on their space inside the Forbidden City is limited to the number of their canal tiles on the big board. Any unrest tiles, both inside the Forbidden City and on the big board, do not count against this limit. Any destroyed canal tiles on the big board do not affect the canal tiles inside the Forbidden City; however, no more canal tiles may be added to the Forbidden City until the number of the player's canal tiles on the big board again exceeds the number of their canal tiles inside the Forbidden City.
The canal tiles inside the Forbidden City are evaluated only at the end of the game, see "Final scoring" above.
Action card 6 – "Tea break"
- 1 Construction
- Up to 2 Replenishments
This action works like an attack, but instead of destroying a canal tile it forces the Great Coordinator to interrupt his journey for a tea break. Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator is skipped completely if this card is played during this game round. As a reminder, put his ship marker on its side, and turn it upright again only in Phase 5 – Clean-up. However, he will do the "Extra inspection", if any player happens to play that card.
The active player takes 2 unrest tiles from their storage, then places one unrest tile on their own space on the Wall of Contentment, and the second one at the bottom of one of their own draw piles, face down.
Action card 7 – "Espionage"
- Up to 2 Constructions or 1 Reconstruction
- 1 Replenishment
With this action, the active player may reveal up to three face down tiles on top of their draw piles (without moving them).
Action card 8 – "Intrigue"
- Up to 2 Constructions or 1 Reconstruction
- 1 Replenishment
With this action, the active player attacks another player with 2 unrest tiles taken from their storage. The attacked player loses 8 prestige points immediately. The active player places one unrest tile on their own space on the Wall of Contentment, and the second one at the bottom of one of their own draw piles, face down.
Action card 9 – "Blacken"
- 1 Construction
- Up to 2 Replenishments
With this action, the active player blackens another player at the court with 2 unrest tiles from their storage. The active player places one unrest tile on the attacked player's space inside the Forbidden City, and the second one at the bottom of one of their own draw piles, face down. During "Final scoring", each player loses 4 prestige points for each unrest tile on their space in the Forbidden City.
Action card 10 – "Reorganize"
- 1 Construction
- Up to 2 Replenishments
This action allows the active player to reshuffle up to three of their draw piles. Then, they redistribute the reshuffled tiles on as many face down draw piles of preferably equal height as were shuffled.
Phase 3 – Journey of the Great Coordinator
Unless someone has played the action card "Tea break", the start player moves the Great Coordinator and does the immediate scoring.
The Great Coordinator takes a certain number of steps in his current direction. The number of steps depends on the number of players, and does not change during the course of the game.
| Number of players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of steps | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
The Great Coordinator uses his steps as follows:
- For each step the Great Coordinator takes, he moves to one adjacent hex space, no matter if it is empty or occupied by a tile.
- The Great Coordinator never enters a space twice during the same game round.
- The Great Coordinator travels south during his first and third journey, and travels north during his second and fourth journey.
- The Great Coordinator forfeits any remaining steps as soon as he enters the first pagoda space outside the players' sections. At this point, the ship marker inside the Forbidden City is moved to the space with the next lower number. Once it has reached the "0" space, the game will end at the end of that game round.
- The Great Coordinator enters only adjacent spaces in the current direction of his journey or in eastern or western direction. He never turns back to the opposite direction of his current journey.
- The Great Coordinator prefers to travel along existing, connected canals. Canals are connected if their tiles are connected and the water (blue lines) can flow uninterrupted.
- This preference leads to the following priorities, depending on the number of canal tiles adjacent to his current location (remember: he never turns back):
- a) If there is only one canal tile, the Great Coordinator MUST enter that canal tile;
- b) if there is more than one canal tile, the Great Coordinator enters that canal tile or one of those canal tiles that is connected to his current location;
- c) if none of the canal tiles are connected to the current Great Coordinator's location, he enters one of these tiles.
- If there are no adjacent canal tiles, the Great Coordinator enters an adjacent empty space or an adjacent unrest tile. However, he MUST enter the space or tile that is closest to the nearest canal tile. If there is no more canal tile he could head to, he moves straight ahead to the next eligible pagoda space in his current direction.
- In any case, if there is more than one eligible space, the current start player chooses the space where the Great Coordinator moves to. This means that the start player has a certain influence on the Great Coordinator's movements and will try to use it for their own benefit.
- If he enters an empty space, nothing happens.
- If he enters an unrest tile, the player whose section the unrest tile is located in loses 4 prestige points.
- If he enters a canal tile not connected to his former location, the owner of the tile gains 2 prestige points.
- If he enters a canal tile via a connected canal, the owner of the tile gains 4 prestige points.
Example of a journey of the Great Coordinator (4 players)
Movement
a. Starting position of the Great Coordinator.
- Yellow is the start player, moving the Great Coordinator. She must choose the shortest way to the nearest canal tile (4). There is only one eligible space, the empty space adjacent to (a). She places a step marker on that space (she will do so step by step, not mentioned anymore).
- Now, she moves the Great Coordinator to the adjacent empty space. She could have moved to the unrest tile as well, but that would have been detrimental to her because this is her own section.
- Yellow has the choice between two canal tiles now, none of which is connected (by a canal) to the Great Coordinator's current location. She chooses the one that grants her more points.
- Next, there is no choice. There is only one adjacent canal tile (which is connected as well).
- Yellow must choose the shortest way to the next canal tile (6). She moves to the empty space.
- Yellow must enter the adjacent canal tile. Then, she follows the canal onto the next tile in the journey's direction.
- Since there are no more canal tiles the Great Coordinator could head to, Yellow moves towards the most southern pagoda. She can enter an empty space or an unrest tile. Since the unrest tile is located in another player's section, Yellow moves the Great Coordinator onto that unrest tile.
- The same situation as above, and again Yellow decides for the unrest tile.
- Finally, Yellow places the ship marker on this location. This is the starting point of the Great Coordinator's next journey.
Scoring along the way
During this journey, spaces are scored as follows:
- Yellow section – empty space: 0 prestige points.
- Yellow section – empty space: 0 prestige points.
- Yellow's canal tile, not connected: 2 prestige points for Yellow.
- Yellow's canal tile, connected: 4 prestige points for Yellow.
- Yellow section – empty space: 0 prestige points.
- Red's canal tile, not connected: 2 prestige points for Red.
- Red's canal tile, connected: 4 prestige points for Red.
- Unrest tile in Red's section: Red loses 4 prestige points.
- Unrest tile in Red's section: Red loses 4 prestige points (though the unrest tile belongs to Green, it is in Red's section. Therefore, Red loses the prestige points.)
In total, Yellow gains 6 prestige points during the journey of the Great Coordinator, whereas Red loses 2 prestige points.
Phase 4 – Riots
Unrest tiles that have been removed from the big board or have been used for attack actions were placed on the Wall of Contentment. If the minimum number of unrest tiles to trigger a riot is reached on one or more spaces, one or more riots break out in this phase. Skip this phase if no space holds that minimum number of tiles.
The owner of the unrest tiles that triggered the riot loses four prestige points for each of their involved unrest tiles, i.e. 8, 12 or 16 prestige points, depending on the minimum number of tiles fixed at the beginning of the game. Only the unrest tiles actually involved are placed face down at the bottom of one or more of the owner's draw piles, of their own choice. Any surplus tiles remain on the Wall of Contentment. It may happen that a player is affected by more than one riot.
Example: The players had agreed that a riot is triggered by two unrest tiles. During this phase, there are 5 unrest tiles on Blue's space on the Wall of Contentment. Blue suffers from two riots, losing a total of 16 prestige points. He returns 4 unrest tiles to the bottom of his draw piles, and one of his unrest tiles remains on the Wall of Contentment.
Note: By performing the action "Pacify the population", players may remove unrest tiles from the Wall of Contentment, thus avoiding or delaying riots.
After all riots have been resolved, if any, the game round ends with the next phase.
Phase 5 – Clean-up and change of start player
The start player collects all 10 action cards, and passes them to their left neighbour, together with the start player marker. That player is the start player of the next game round, if the game has not ended yet. The ship marker of the Great Coordinator is put upright, if it is lying on its side.
The next game round starts with Phase 1.
End of the Game and Winner
The game ends at the end of the game round during which the ship marker in the Forbidden City has reached the "0" space. All phases of that game round are completed except Phase 5 – Clean-up.
Now, the final scoring takes place. Each player determines their largest network of canals and scores 1 prestige point for each canal tile of that network.
For each unrest tile in a player's own section (ignoring the colour) the player loses 4 prestige points.
For each unrest tile in a player's space in the Forbidden City (ignoring the colour) the player loses 4 prestige points.
Each player's number of canal tiles on their space inside the Forbidden City is squared, and the player gains that many prestige points.
The player with the most prestige points is the winner of the game. In case of a tie for the most prestige points, the tied player owning the most canal tiles inside the Forbidden City is the winner. If the tie still persists, the player with the most tiles in their canal network is the winner. If a winner cannot be determined after all, the tied players share the victory.
The winner is awarded with the title of Jìnshì Zhuàngyuán (First professor). The runner-up is awarded with the title Jìnshì Bǎngyǎn (Second professor), followed by the third player with the title of Jìnshì Tanhua (Third professor), followed by the Jǔrén (Master), and finally by the Xiùcaí (Talent).
Icons
- Gain 1 prestige point immediately (pages 6, 8)
- Another player loses 8 prestige points immediately (pages 6, 11)
- Construction (pages 6, 8, 9, 10)
- Reconstruction (page 9)
- Unrest tiles (pages 8, 9, 10, 11)
- Remove any 1 unrest tile from the big board (page 8)
- Place an unrest tile on the Wall of Contentment (page 8)
- Place an unrest tile in the Forbidden City (pages 7, 11)
- Remove any 1 unrest tile from the Wall of Contentment (page 8)
- Put an unrest tile (face down) at the bottom of one of the owner's draw piles (pages 9, 10, 11)
- Destroy a canal tile (page 9)
- Move the Great Coordinator up to three spaces (page 10)
- Tea break (page 10)
- Replenishment (page 8)