What are high, low and bottom soldiers 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
Endgame writers describe a crossed soldier by how deep it has gone. A high soldier (高兵) is still up around the top of the enemy palace, a low soldier (低兵) has gone further down, and a bottom soldier (底兵, also 老兵, "old soldier") has reached the last rank. The key idea is that deeper is weaker, because a soldier can never come back up.
Why a high soldier is the best
A soldier attacks forward and sideways. Standing above the palace, it attacks points the general needs, can step sideways onto the centre file, and still has forward moves in reserve. Every step deeper uses up one of those options. Writers draw the exact boundaries between high and low a little differently, but they agree on the direction: keep a soldier high until the moment it is needed lower.
Why a bottom soldier is the weakest
On the last rank a soldier has no forward move left. It can only shuffle sideways, attacking the two points beside it. In a corner it is close to useless. That is why a common beginner habit, pushing a soldier all the way because it feels like progress, is a real mistake in the endgame. How the soldier moves covers the basics.
How the terms are used
Endgame positions are often labelled by soldier height, because it can change the result: the same material may win with a high soldier and only draw with a bottom one. When a book says a position wins "with the soldier high", that is the condition, not decoration. Soldier endgames goes through the standard cases.
Related questions
Can a bottom soldier still be useful?
Sometimes. It can still take away a point from the enemy general or act as a cannon screen, but it can never again threaten from above.
Should I push soldiers toward the centre or the edge?
Toward the centre and the palace, and not too deep too early.
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