Do both sides start with identical pieces in xiangqi?
These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws for movement, checkmate and both repetition rulings: a side that forces a repetition by perpetual check or perpetual chase loses rather than drawing. The chase half has not been validated against the official casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it before publishing.
Direct answer
Yes, completely. Red and black field identical armies, mirrored across the board on matching points. Unlike chess, where a bishop is permanently tied to light or dark squares, no xiangqi piece has any such asymmetry within its own side, and the two sides have no structural differences at all beyond who moves first.
No colour-bound pieces
Because pieces sit on intersections rather than filling coloured squares, there is nothing in xiangqi like the light-squared and dark-squared bishop pair in chess. Both elephants and both advisors in a xiangqi army do functionally the same kind of job, just from different starting points.
The only real difference between the sides
Move order. Red moves first in every standard game, which is a real advantage, but it is an advantage of tempo, not of material or piece placement. Everything else about the two armies is a mirror image.
Related questions
Are the two elephants interchangeable?
Functionally yes, though which one guards which side of the palace depends on how the game develops.
Does black get any compensation for moving second?
Not automatically. Any compensating rule is a tournament or handicap arrangement, not a standard part of the game.
.