Fortune Telling Collection - Free divination - Where is the origin of Go?

Where is the origin of Go?

The origin of Go has always been a controversial topic. In fact, it's not just Weiqi, but the origin of any subject is a great headache, such as the origin of life, the origin of human beings, the origin of words ... And the origin of Weiqi is so old that there is a shortage of written records, so it is naturally difficult to trace its origin.

Relying on the power of archaeology is even more out of reach, because archaeology can only give circumstantial evidence and cannot determine the source.

In this case, we don't have to worry about this problem. We can relax and get to know each other. The problem of textual research still needs new people to solve.

As one of the four great ancient arts (piano, chess, books and paintings), Weiqi, like all the mysterious arts, naturally starts with the mythical version of its origin. At present, the accepted view is "Yao gave way". Textual research on the record of "Yaozaoweiqi" can be found in the Warring States literature Shiben: "Yaozaoweiqi is a good example." Zhang Hua's Natural History in the Western Jin Dynasty: "Yao made Go teach his son. Or Yunshun plays dumb with his son and pretends to teach him a lesson. " Coincidentally, there are many factors in the two books that record the origin of Go, so it is really impossible to determine their credibility. Judging from the written records here, Weiqi has been accepted as a tool of "teaching" and has the function of enlightenment.

Let's look for the exact record of Go directly in ancient books.

According to Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, "Wei Xiangong made an appointment with Ning Xiyan, preferring to promise him. Uncle Wen Zi heard about it and said ... Now Zi Ning thinks you might as well play chess, why not? The chess player is indecisive and overwhelming, but what is the situation? This is inevitable. ……'"

Here is a well-known idiom "indecision". The "chess player" in this article refers to the person who plays Go. In ancient times, "chess" specifically referred to Weiqi, and Xu Shen's "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" explained: "Chess, Weiqi also, from?, sound also." . Zuo Zhuan was written around 548 BC, and the story recorded here took place in 559 BC. For the specific story content, you can see Zuo Zhuan. It can be explained that Weiqi became a familiar thing 2,500 years ago. It is worth mentioning that the record of Go in Zuo Zhuan is the earliest written record so far.

On this basis, we can make a simple inference that it will take a relatively long time for the formation and development of Go to be well known by the public. That is to say, the origin of Go can be traced back to several years at this point in time, maybe 500 years, maybe 1000 years, which is exactly what you need to verify.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius, a great educator who had a far-reaching influence on later generations, also left a record about Go for later generations. The Analects of Confucius said, "If you eat it all day long and have no intention, why not have a player?" The "game" is Weiqi, and saints naturally use chess to reason when they are disciples. It can be seen that Go was a well-known thing in society at that time.

This is a time point that we can trace back to today, that is, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the records about Go have entered the ancient history books. If we want to explore further, we should turn to archaeology outside the text.

Although we can't find definite evidence, the legend of Yao's creation of Go has been accepted by everyone. According to this legend, the encyclopedia BIitannica thinks that Go was born around 2306 BC, while the encyclopedia Americana thinks that Go was born around 2300 BC. The accuracy of dating is surprising, but the time of origin is still a vague question.

About the origin of Go, there are different versions of legends besides "Yaozaoweiqi". For example, Song's Postscript to the History of the Road says, "Who will marry Fu Yi first?"

The surname, the queen, gave birth to Zhu Ao and Juan Ke. Brothers are arrogant and litigious, wandering around with friends, and the emperor is sad to relax in order to play chess. As Ming's Tibetan Scripture said, "Play gambling and Go. "Equal edition. But beyond that, it seems difficult to be elegant, or vague, or other meaning, which is unacceptable. In addition, Pi Rixiu's book "Primitive Elements" in the Tang Dynasty holds that "the beginning of the game must start from the Warring States period, and the disadvantages lie in fraud and struggle for falsehood. "Based on personal ideas, there is suspicion of extrapolation.

Another Japanese book, The 300-year History of Weiqi, mentioned: "Weiqi and chess have a common ancestor and are a kind of' disk play' in Central Asia. It spread into chess in the west, spread in the east and was influenced by China astronomy and other sciences, and improved into sixteen-way Go. " This view is not convincing enough. First of all, judging from the rules of Go and the national image, they have different fundamental ways of thinking. Secondly, from the origin, Weiqi was widely circulated in the Spring and Autumn Period, and had no contact with Asia, let alone spread.

There is no exact written record or detailed story about the origin of Go. However, the understanding of today's Go master Mr. Wu Qingyuan is quite interesting. He once talked about this issue with Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Yasunari Kawabata. The writer who loves Weiqi recorded Mr. Wu's conversation in Volume 25 of the Complete Works. Here it is recorded as follows: "On one occasion, Yao went to a place to inspect the political situation and met an old man named Yi Puzi. ..... He was talking to April. Supposedly, he should inherit his son Dani, but Dani is not a great tool to rule the world, and he has been worried about it. Yi Puzi once gave Yao a poem: "The original poem has been forgotten, to the effect that there is a great man living in seclusion in such a place. Marry your two daughters to that man! That man is the one who should inherit you. As soon as Yao returned to Beijing, he immediately sent someone to look for it and found the farmer. Yao married his two daughters to this farmer, who was the later sage Shun ... Yao didn't give his son Go as a game tool, but taught him Go as a tool for studying astronomy. You study astronomy! Do the work that is easy to sacrifice! This is also my imagination. I'm afraid Yao didn't play Go. Perhaps before that, it was used as a tool of astronomy and Yi. Chess is also written as Yi, with the same pronunciation as Yi and Yi, and similar to Li. In ancient times, major events were easily predicted. In Japan and ancient times, it is said that sacrifice and politics are consistent. I'm going to visit Ise Shrine. It is generally believed that people engage in political activities through theism and revelation. In ancient times, China always offered sacrifices to politics. Whether it is easy or astronomical. It has a deep relationship with God's revelation of fate. There are various methods. Burning tortoise shell bones to see the shape, and then using bamboo, I thought I would also use chessboard. Whether to use black and white chess pieces to represent yin and yang. I'm not sure ... "The content here is not an explanation of the origin of Go, and some references are only for your understanding. Later, when interviewed by Japanese reporters, Mr. Wu Qingyuan also talked about similar contents, and those who are interested can go and have a look.

There are several theories about the origin of Go in the world. One by one can explain a problem that needs no explanation, that is, Weiqi originated in China, then spread to South Korea and then to Japan. The Japanese, who act strictly, once enjoyed the insurance of 12 (1727). On the 29th of the first month, the leaders of the four major schools of Japanese Weiqi jointly wrote a letter saying: "Weiqi originated from Yao and Shun and spread by Ji".

By the way, the excavation of Go cultural relics. Here are mainly listed one or two for reference.

1On April 5, 977, an ancient tomb of Liao Dynasty was discovered in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Under the altar in the tomb, there is a square table of Go, with a height of 10 cm and a side length of 40 cm. The table is painted with white paint, and the middle is a chessboard with a width of 30 cm and a length of 13.

197 1 year, an ancient tomb of the Tang Dynasty was discovered in Xiangyin, Hunan. A celadon Weiqi board was unearthed in the tomb, which was square, with a side length of 55cm and a vertical and horizontal length of 15.

1954, a horizontal line of Weiqi stone was unearthed from the Eastern Han Tomb in Wang Du, Hebei Province.

1975, a pair of weiqi were unearthed from Liu Bao's tomb in the Western Jin Dynasty in Zou County, Shandong Province. They are made of black and white pebbles, with a total of 289 pieces. This is the number of pieces used in 17 Go.

There is also a 19 chessboard unearthed from a Tang tomb in Xinjiang, but there are no pieces on it. Eighty-three black and white chess pieces were unearthed in Danyang, Jiangsu Province, and 50 chess pieces were unearthed in Yang Cemetery of Song Dynasty in Huai 'an, but there were no chessboards. The physical objects of Weiqi unearthed from Zhu Tan's tomb are chessboard 19, black dot 175 and Bai Zi 18 1 ...

In May 2006, a chessboard was unearthed at Huang Fen Temple in Gyeongju City, Gyeongsangbuk-do. When unearthed, the brick Weiqi disk was broken into three pieces, with a small piece missing. The chessboard is 43 cm long, 42 cm wide and 7.8 cm thick, and the surface is engraved with 15 lines. According to preliminary research, this Weiqi board is a cultural relic of Silla period (AD 668-935) on the Korean peninsula.

In addition, the original pottery color map unearthed from Yuanyangchi site in Yongchang, Gansu Province is quite similar to the modern Weiqi board. The pottery jar is painted with vertical and horizontal 10 to 13 patterns similar to Go. There are similar patterns on painted pottery of Yangshao culture. Of course, the pattern is only related to speculation, indicating the possibility of budding Go in that era.

From the perspective of cultural relics excavation, the number of chessboard tracks in Go is not 19 at the beginning, but evolved from simple to complex after a long change. However, there is no detailed record about when the number of orbits is determined as 15, 17 and 19.

As for the origin of Go, I made a brief introduction as above. Interested friends can read some monographs about the origin of Go. (Author: Tang Min)

Attachment: Notes on Yi

"Yi" and "Yi" are two synonymous pictophonetic characters, the original meaning is "playing chess". This word is more common in ancient books of the pre-Qin period, such as: "Zuo Zhuan Xiang Gong Twenty-five Years", "It is better to play chess than to regard the monarch"; "The number of people playing chess today" (Mencius); "Make Yi Qiuhai two people play" (Mencius Gaozi Shang). Ancient and modern dictionaries all say reading "Yi". For example, Shuowen said: "Go is also a game and a sound. The Analects of Confucius says that there are no players. "

In fact, people say that "playing chess" means "playing chess", and no one says "playing chess"; People only say "Miao", not "Miao". However, faced with the established situation caused by dictionaries, it is of course very difficult to distinguish the pronunciation of words. However, we still have evidence to prove that "chess" or "game" is indeed the reading of "words". ..... Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty was Yi Kuang, and his eight brothers were named Yi Kuang, Yi Kuang, Yi Kuang, Yixin, Yi Xuan, Yi Kuang and Yi Kuang. Some of his cousins are Yi Wei, Yi Mo, Yi Xiang, Yi Xun, Yi Ge, Yi Hui and Yi Kuang. Only by pronouncing "Zhe" or its near sound can these "Yi" characters conform to the tribal habit of naming people.