How does the elephant move in xiangqi?
These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws and is regression-tested against the official 110-diagram repetition casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it against the engine before publishing.
Direct answer
Exactly two points diagonally, in any of the four directions. It is blocked by a piece on the midpoint of that diagonal (the 象眼, elephant's eye), and it may never cross the river. Those limits leave it just seven reachable points for the entire game.
Purely defensive, by construction
Because it cannot cross the river, an elephant can never attack anything. Its whole job is to cover the points a horse wants to land on and to block diagonal approaches to the palace. A pair of mutually defending elephants is very hard to break.
Moving one gains nothing
An elephant move wins no ground — it cannot advance past the river no matter what. All it does is change what is defended, and usually for the worse, since the point it leaves was presumably covering something.
There is one common exception: moving an elephant deliberately to remove a screen an enemy cannon is using.
Related questions
How many points can an elephant reach?
Seven, all on its own side of the river.
What blocks an elephant?
Any piece, of either colour, on the midpoint of its two-step diagonal.
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