Weiqi in Ancient China The earliest mentioning of Weiqi in history can be found in '25th Year of Xiang Gong in Zuo Zhuan'. In 559 B.C. (during Dongzhou Dynasty), official Shu Yi used an analog of Weiqi to describe a person who cannot make up his mind. The phrase, 'Ju Qi Bu Ding' has become a famous idiom or proverb. (Note: Ju Qi Bu Ding means a person who picks up a stone and is undecided as where to make a move.)
In 'Gao Zi of Meng Zi', it recorded a story about Yi Qiu, the best Weiqi player in Zhan Guo, who taught his two students to play Weiqi. One of them paid great attention and the other daydreamt and imagined a condor flying by the window and he was shooting at it with a bow and arrows. Although both of them have the same teacher, their progress in learning differed greatly. This has nothing to do with one's intelligence Meng Zi explained, 'Even a simple game like Weiqi demands one's full attention.'
Weiqi During the Han Dynasty During the Xihan Dynasty, the popularity of Weiqi continued. The founder of Xihan, Emperor Liu Bang was described as playing Weiqi and admiring flowers with his concubine Qi in 'Xi Jing Za Ji'. Unfortunately, there is only a handful of such stories in history. Most upper class people at the time criticized Weiqi as being addictive. For example, in 'Han Shu', Jia Yi described Weiqi as a disgrace because of it's addictive nature. Shi You of 'Ji Ju Pian' also criticized Weiqi and Liubo players as being frivolous. In 'San Pu Huang Tu', it was recorded that Weiqi was played in the Han Palace as fortune telling, with the winner being healthy and prosperous the entire year and the loser gets sick and poor. Basically, during the Xihan Dynasty, most people still grouped Weiqi as in the same category as Liubo, a game of luck and gamble. This greatly harmed the image of Weiqi for years.
Scholars in the Donghan Dynasty tried to give Weiqi a good name by emphasizing on its theory and strategy. One example is Ban Gu's 'Yi Zhi', which first stated the basics of Weiqi, followed by the differences between Weiqi and Liubo, Weiqi's variations, and how it conforms to the teachings of Confucius. According to ancient Chinese tradition, everything has to conform to the teaching of Dao or it is wrong. With 'Yi Zhi' trying to correct the image of Weiqi, the game became even more popular. Both 'Xin Lun' (by Hen Tan) and 'Jing Zhi Zi' of 'Sui Su' went one step further and attested Weiqi as a game of military stratagem. Ma Yong, also pointed out in 'Weiqi Fu', 'Weiqi is a game of military deployment, with the three feet table as the battle field.' This helped to raise the social status of Weiqi, stressing the scientific and practicality aspects of the game. It is noteworthy to point out a passage in 'Xin Lun' on Weiqi theory. It says, 'A topnotch player takes control of the whole board and wins without a fight; a so-so player cuts and attacks making it difficult to tell the outcome; a low level player defends the corner and sides and tries to make life passively.' These Weiqi concepts are quite applicable even after 2000 years.
One of the reasons why scholars of Donghan rejected Weiqi was because the game was perceived as cunning (tricking the opponent to claim victory). This opposed the teaching of Confucius, requiring one to work hard the old fashion way. Huang Xian wrote in 'Ji Lun', 'The secret of winning Weiqi is trickery, the side that fails to trick the opponent losestrickery in Weiqi is not to let the opponent know one's real planEverything in this world is trickery!' Trickery requires wit and that's the main difference between Weiqi and Liubo (which requires luck). Huang laid the foundation which eventually led to the awareness of the difference between Weiqi and Liubo.
Between Donghan and the Three Kingdoms, the popularity of Weiqi grew by leaps and bounce. Weiqi seemed to have finally shed its bad image and became a game of military stratagem. The world is a chaotic Weiqi game, and there are countless games that took place on the board. A number of such events are recorded in history.
Weiqi During the Three Kingdoms
The Wei Kingdom- Cao Cao was a great Weiqi player during the Three Kingdom Period, and was evenly matched with great players like Shan Zidao, Guo Kai, and Wang Jiuzhen. Recently, the tomb of Cao Cao's grandfather, Cao Teng was excavated, finding a set of pebble Weiqi stones. From this, one can see that Cao's family had a long history of playing Weiqi. Cao Cao had 25 sons and among them, Cao Pi and Cao Zhang were known to play Weiqi with the former killing the latter in a game.
With Cao Cao being a Weiqi fan, it's not surprising that his followers also liked the game. Among the Seven Scholars of Jiangan, Ying Yi (or Ying Yang) wrote Yi Shi, and Wang Can wrote Weiqi Fu Xu. Wang Can was also known for his great memory on moves. The Tale of the Red Mansion mentioned that Xi Chun studied Kong Rong's games. In reality, there is no support to claim that Kong Rong played Weiqi. However, his two sons were said to be playing Weiqi, when Cao Cao arrested them.
The Shu Kingdom- Among the three blood brothers, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Guan was known to play Weiqi during an arm surgery. General Fei Wei, Zhuge Liang's appointed successor for himself used Weiqi to deploy his army. Whether Zhuge Kong Ming himself played Weiqi has been a question of great interest. There is no indication in history pointing one way or the other. Allegedly, there are carvings of boards on rocks, left behind by him in Chengdu of Sichuan, Jiangling of Hubei, and Shaoyang of Hunan. The author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms created a poem and accredited that to Zhuge Liang, 'The round (bowl) lid is like the sky and the board the land. The world is in black and white fighting over glory and name.'
The Wu Kingdom- Weiqi was very active in the Wu Kingdom with Yan Wu being known as one of the eight greatest players in Wu. He was known as the 'Qi Saint' together with Ma Suiming. The earliest Weiqi game record came from Wu and was known as the Wu Diagram, as mentioned in Du Mu's poem (Tang Dynasty). This game played between Sun Ce and Lu Fan, was recorded in Wang You Qing Yue Ji of the Song Dynasty. Because the board size is 19x19, a lot of people doubt its authenticity. Regardless whether it was played between Sun Ce and Lu Fan, it is the oldest Weiqi record in the world. Lu Sun of the Wu Kingdom was known as to trick the Wei Army With Weiqi.
One literature of the Wu Kingdom worth mentioning is Wei Yao's Bo Yi Lun, which recorded Prince Sun He as criticizing Weiqi as a bad influence within the palace. He said, 'In search of Weiqi as a war stratagem, it is not as profound as that of the Wu Kingdom; In examining Weiqi as a theory of Dao, it is not in same the class as Confucianism; Labeling the game as trickery, it is not what a trustworthy perso would do . Labeling the game as ko (original Chinese word for ko means to rob), it is not what a righteous person would do.' From his criticism, we can imagine the popularity of Weiqi in the Wu Kingdom.
Weiqi During the Jin Dynasties:
We know that the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan, was a great Weiqi fan. This helps to shed light on the popularity of Weiqi during this period. There are two incidences about him in history. The first one happened in 279 AD when General Du Yu came to see Sima Yan urging him to attack the Wu Kingdom. Sima Yan was playing Weiqi with Zhang Hua at the time and Du illustrated on the board how a fast pace attack could bring a swift end to Wu. As a result, the Wu kingdom was eliminated. The second incidence happened right at the heels of the first with Sun Hao, the king of Wu brought in front of Sima Yan, who was playing Weiqi with his son-in-law Wang Ji. Wang Ji tried to mock Sun Hao by asking why he liked to skin people alive. Sun replied, 'Those who has no respect for the king, deserve to be skinned' (implying that Wang Ji showed no respect to him). Wang was stunned and for a long time could not make a move on the Weiqi board. Unfortunately, Sima Yan's son Jin Hui Di was a dumb king and he almost gave up the kingdom that his father had established. The Jin Dynasty never did recover from this.
There were two famous families in Weiqi during the Jin Dynasty, the Wangs and the Xies. Wang Dao was a high ranking official and had a prominent position (next to the king) in the administration of Dong Jin. He loved to play Weiqi with his oldest son Wang Yue, who was known for his piety and was approved by his father. However, Wang Yue became dead serious while playing Weiqi. One time, Wang Yue grabbed his father's hand and won't let him make a move during an argument over the game. Wang Dao was amused by his son's serious attitude and began to laugh, saying, 'Good thing I am your father. I hate to imagine what will happen if we were strangers.' Wang Yue's little brother, Wang Tian, was considered as one of the best players at the time. Wang Dao once played a game with Jiang Ban, who had the same reputation as Wang Tian. From this, one can conclude that Wang Dao was quite a player himself.
As far as the Xie family is concerned, Xie An was the most famous. During the Battle of Fei Shui, Xie An bet his villa on a game of Weiqi against his nephew Xian Zuan, to illustrate that if one is determined one can overcome a stronger opponent. As a result, although they were outnumbered by the Qin army, they won the battle. This story was recorded in Xie An Zhuan of Jin Shu....
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