Go (Weiqi)
01 · Historical Records
Weiqi (the game of go) originated in China; the “qi” in the “four arts of the scholar” — qin, qi, shu, hua — refers precisely to weiqi. Zhang Hua of the Jin dynasty wrote in the Bowuzhi: “Yao created weiqi in order to teach his son Danzhu, so that he might give his feelings leisure. In the mid-1980s, under vigorous support from the state, the study of Chinese weiqi culture once reached its peak.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
”That is to say, Yao invented weiqi in order to educate his son. The Analects also refers to the game of weiqi, calling it “boyi,” and the Mencius records the weiqi expert Yi Qiu. As a traditional game of intellectual skill and competition, weiqi has a history of more than four thousand years to this day. The weiqi board consists of 19 equally spaced, mutually perpendicular lines in each direction, intersecting to form 361 crossing points, commonly called “points.” Nine small dots are also marked on the board; these are called “stars,” and the central star is known as “tengen.” Stones are divided into black and white and are shaped as flattened discs. In official competition the number of stones is 180 black and 180 white. The two players each take one color, the game opens on an empty board, black playing first and white second, and they alternately place one stone on the points of the board. Once a stone has been placed, it is not moved to any other point. Alternating moves are the right of both sides, but either side is allowed to give up the right to place a stone and to use a “null move” instead. For a stone on the board, the empty points directly adjacent to it in a straight line are that stone's “liberties.” If stones of the same color occupy points directly adjacent in a straight line, these stones are joined together into a single indivisible whole. If stones of the opposite color occupy points directly adjacent in a straight line, then no liberty exists there. If a stone loses all of its liberties, it can no longer exist on the board. Weiqi is structurally simple, yet its content is extremely complex; the principles of the game are broad and profound, its cultural meaning is deep, and it is full of dialectical thinking. Weiqi begins on an empty board, and the course of play goes from the simple to the complex and from the shallow to the profound, through countless transformations; once the game is over the board is empty again, waiting for the next player. This capacity for existence that goes from nothing to something, from empty to full, endlessly recurring and infinitely varied, gives rise to countless combinations of strategy and tactics, and has earned weiqi the reputation that “no two games in a thousand ages are the same.” Weiqi is not only an interesting competitive sport but also a higher order of mental activity; its broad and profound content has already formed a distinctive cultural form. Weiqi culture takes the study of technique as its trunk and methodology as its soul, and in play, psychology, player ethics, literary expression, and politics and economics alike it displays a rich and deep foundation, embodying the breadth and profundity of Eastern culture.
361 points and 180 stones each
Flat round stones come black and white, one hundred and eighty of each in formal play, with either player free to pass.
Player ethics and the psychology of play
The culture of go rests on technique and method, extending into psychology, player ethics, literature and politics.
Go in the classical canon
The Analects calls the game bo-yi and Mencius records the master player Yi Qiu, showing go in pre-Qin discourse.
Go academies and ranking
Modern centres such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu run academies that train competitors and administer the dan and kyu ranks.
Journals and the study of go culture
With state backing in the mid-1980s the study of go culture peaked, supported by journals, game records and professional institutes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The protecting unit of this item is the Beijing Chess Academy (Beijing Municipal Chess and Card Sports Management Center). Beijing was one of the main sources of the weiqi boom that followed the China-Japan Go Supermatch of the 1980s, and chess academies, chess clubs, dojos and chess courses in primary and secondary schools together form an inheritance network in which competitive play and popularization advance together.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Go (Weiqi).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, facing the impact of the modern economy and of foreign cultures, the environment for studying traditional weiqi culture, which grew out of folk practice, is deteriorating rapidly, and effective measures urgently need to be taken by the state to rescue and protect it.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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