Taiwan female chess player Hei Jiajia (right)
According to recent news reports, China suffered another major defeat in the China-Korea Go competition. This can't help but make people think, why, as the inventor of Go games, China has repeatedly lost in related competitions? When I was a teenager, I also watched CCTV's popular cartoon "Go Boy", which included a plot of Japanese Go players sweeping Chinese players. Go appeared in in the Spring and Autumn Period of in China. At that time, the Korean Peninsula and Japan were still in the era of savage eating raw meat and drinking blood. But today in Go games, South Korea and Japan both enjoy a high status internationally. It is really necessary for us to re-understand Go, a traditional Chinese competitive game.
1. Origin
According to the " Genealogy ", Go was created by Emperor Yao . Western Jin Zhang Hua said in " Museum Zhi ": "Yao created Go and taught his son Danzhu ." This means that Yao invented Go to train his son Danzhu's thinking. The "Qianquju Lie Book" in the Ming Dynasty said that Go was invented by Wu Cao in the late Xia Dynasty in the Xia Dynasty. In other words, in the eyes of the ancients, the game of Go appeared in the late primitive society and the early slave society . However, the above statements lack physical evidence, so they are not credible. Archaeologists found chess board patterns on late Neolithic pottery, with uniform and neat engraving lines, similar to the ancient thirteen Go boards. It can be seen that primitive society did have games similar to chess. The name of Go was first seen in Tang Dynasty . Tang Dynasty Kong Yingda's annotation to "Zuo Zhuan" said: "If you surround each other and kill each other, it is called Go." In Kong Yingda's view, Go in the Spring and Autumn Period is considered military chess, similar to today's military battle games, testing the opponent's tactics and strategies. The results and judgment methods must be determined to a certain extent based on the strength of the country represented by the chess pieces at that time. There are three types of chessboards used, including eleven, fifteen, and seventeen. For example, in "The Great Qin Empire: Fission", there is a scene where Wei Yang ( Shang Yang ) plays Go in the hotel Dongxiangchun and Jingjian . Wei Yang uses black pieces to represent Qin , and Jingjian uses white pieces to represent Wei. The way of determining the victory or defeat should be related to the national strength of Qin and Wei at that time, and the gameplay is extremely complicated.
The earliest Go chess record I saw today is the "Story of Sun Cezhao Lu Fanyi Chess" recorded in the literature, which is the nineteen chessboards used. It can be seen that at least the end of the Han Dynasty, Go has taken shape.
Sun Cezhao Lu Fan Yiqi situation
2. Standard
Ancient Go was elegantly called "Yes". It is said that the name of "Yi" comes from Warring States . A man named Yiqiu, who played Go skills all over Seven Kingdoms , and was known as "Tongguo Shanyi". Chess Saint is the highest title of Go. This title comes from Ge Hong " Baopuzi " "The invincible chess chess is called Chess Saint".
In the Jin Dynasty, Go had stricter regulations and became popular. From emperors to monks to Taoist priests and , they all like to play chess. In order to adapt to the cultural level of the people, Go deleted the complex calculation method of during the Warring States Period. At that time, Go and the nine-grade official system were linked to form a hierarchy system of players like Go and the nine-grade system. "Art Classic·Chess Products" says that Go players are divided into nine levels, namely "One enters the spirit, two sits and shines, three concrete, four secrets, five use of wisdom, six skillfulness, seven fighting power, eight seem foolish, and nine keeping clumsy." The highest level of the chess player is equivalent to the highest level of the 9th stadium of the professional Go player today. Ke Jie is the 9th stadium. In ancient times, he was "the stadium". The so-called " is unpredictable and can predict the chess skills, and can be transformed into a realm, but can defeat others without fighting. Being honest is the lowest level, similar to the first stage of today's professional Go player. At this time, the chessboard is mainly composed of the seventeenth and nineteenth routes.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Go was extremely prosperous. The Southern Dynasties In order to promote southern culture and vigorously popularize Go, the rulers of the Southern Dynasties also established a Zhongzheng official who specializes in managing Go. Zhongzheng official is responsible for assessing and evaluating the rank and promotion of chess players.The people also responded positively, "There are only literary and chess books in the world." "Southern History·Biography of Liu Hui" records Emperor Wu of Liang not only likes Buddhism, but also likes Go. He asked Liu Hui to collect ancient and modern chess scores and chess players, and determine the quality of the level, with as many as 278 people on the list.
Liang Wudi
3. Formal
By the Tang Dynasty, culture ushered in a period of great development and prosperity. The nine-grade Go system was abolished in the Tang Dynasty and the "chess and servants' edicts" was formulated, that is, chess players can enter the Hanlin Academy after layers of selection, similar to today's sports and artistic talents. Tang Xuanzong set up Hanlin attendant as a literary and artistic follower. Among these edicts, there were edicts. edicts were the best skill level in playing Go in the country at that time, so it was also called the "national player". As an official in the Hanlin system, Qi Shizhao was only at the ninth rank, but as the secretary or consultant when the emperor played games (just accompanying him), he was also very honored by his ability to contact and please the emperor. During the reign of Shunzong, Wang Shuwen started with the chess and edicts and finally became the prime minister.
Song Dynasty continued the chess edict system. By the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers were not good at playing chess, so the chess edict was destroyed. Go began to revive in the Ming Dynasty, and folk Go became active, but the official Go system was no longer there. During the period of Zhengde and Jiajing , folk Go had already formed schools including the Yongjia School of Scholars in Jiangnan, the Xin'an School of Scholars in Anhui, and the Beijing School of Scholars in Beijing.
Chinese Go in the Qing Dynasty entered its last golden and peak moment. Because the rulers carried out literary inquisition , many intellectuals did not dare to write and could only focus on the entertainment industry, so countless chess masters appeared. During the Qianlong period, there were four great masters including Shi Xiangxia , Fan Xiping , Liang Weijin, Cheng Lanru, etc., especially Shi Xiangxia and Fan Xiping, who were known as the "chess saint".
Ming Dynasty Chess Academy
4. Outside the story
With the backwardness of modern China, Chinese Go has begun to weaken rapidly just like entering the feudal system in its late twilight years. On the contrary, Japanese and Korean Go has developed rapidly.
Korean Peninsula and Japan were both Go learned from China in ancient times. The peninsula was close to China, so Go first bloomed on the peninsula. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, the peninsula was also in a state of division between the Three Kingdoms. Go had been introduced to the peninsula and became a competitive event for the upper class of the peninsula, and the lower class almost did not. The Go that Koreans play today was brought over after Japan destroyed South Korea.
Korean modern Go was created by a man named Zhao Nanzhe . However, South Korea's Go rose in 1988. In the Yingshi Cup World Professional Go Championship held in Beijing that year, Korean player Cao Xunhyun won the championship. Since then, South Korea has entered the stage of national fanaticism. South Korea has become an important force in the world Go and replaced Japan as China's strongest opponent.
Cao Xunhyun
Japanese Go was brought back to Japan by the Tang Dynasty envoy Jibei Zhenbei during the Tang Dynasty, and then became Japan's "national skills". It was a symbol of Japanese aristocrats, just like drinking tea and arranging flowers. Modern Japanese Go is the world overlord. In the English world, there is a way to pronounce Go called GO, which originates from Japanese Go いご, pronounced as igo, which shows the international influence of modern Japanese Go. At that time, it was generally believed that China's first-class Go masters during the Republic of China were just the level of third-rate Japanese chess players, so there was a case where the "Go prodigy" that was famous in Beijing in the early years, Wu Qingyuan later debuted in the professional competition in Japan and finally became a Japanese nationality.
Japanese Go
Wu Qingyuan is a Fujian native and the most famous chess player in modern East Asia. In 1933, Wu Qingyuan defeated the famous chess player Honinbo Hideya, who was known as "eight-year-old chess" in Japan at the age of 19. However, in modern times, Chinese warlords were separatist, and Japan's invasion of China was fierce. It is said that in order to focus on chess, he resolutely abandoned the national hatred and family hatred, and knelt down twice to naturalize Japan, and finally became a "pride and envious" subject of the Japanese imperial court.Wu Qingyuan's achievement was that he sublimated the artistic nature of Go in Japan, so he was called the "Showa Chess Saint".
1934, Wu Qingyuan entered the "Pussy Manchukuo" as a Chinese player to participate in the "Japanese-Manchuria Friendship Competition" and played chess with the "Emperor" Puyi . In 1941, Wu Qingyuan, who was already Taijun , established a "chess and Servant Congress" in Japan, and made a special trip to condolences to the wounded Japanese soldiers of the invading China. In the autumn of 1942, Wu Qingyuan came to China to condolences the Japanese invaders at the invitation of the Wang puppet government.
Wu Qingyuan
Wenshijun said
For any competitive project, no opponent is the most terrifying thing. In terms of game competition, South Korea is a world power. Whether it is dota, LOL, or Go, South Korea is a strong opponent of China. So what is the gap between us and our opponents? The good game of Korean Go is because there are many fans. According to statistics in 1997, the population of South Korea was only more than 40 million, and the number of people who could play Go was as high as 10 million, which shows how high the proportion was. Korean capitalists are also willing to invest in Go players. They set up various competitions to provide generous bonuses and provide professional Go players with good logistics. Korean schools also popularize Go clubs to help students improve their interest in Go and improve their Go skills. Under this national attention, Korean Go naturally developed strongly. In China, Wenshijun is not familiar with the situation in other cities, but in the city where Wenshijun is located, it is rare to hear anyone playing Go, and the atmosphere of Go is almost impossible to feel. It can be seen that we are not defeated by our opponents, but by ourselves.
References
Zhang Dongpeng: "Chinese Philosophy and the Way of Go", PhD thesis of Shandong University, 2012.
Yu Mingsong: "Cultural Soft Power and National Image Shaping", "Democracy and Science" Issue 06, 2012.
(Author: Haoran Literature and History·Ziju)
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