Why is Go an art? How did it become an elite culture?

Why is Go an art? How did it become an elite culture?

Chongdao Go Su Yonghua

In ancient times, the word "chess" specifically referred to people with learned status, who used Go to cultivate their minds, increase their strategies, and at the same time entertain themselves. It was not until later that it was extended to playing chess.

From the appearance, Weiqi has a noble and elite atmosphere, which gives people a natural feeling. Westerners especially recognize and admire Weiqi, believing that Weiqi is the true representative of oriental civilization. Some westerners even joked seriously that the wisdom of people on earth is not enough to invent Go, which may have been invented by aliens. It is unknown whether Go was invented by aliens, which is obviously boring. It is natural to laugh off such a compliment joke. Instead, we should think about why people who like to play Weiqi in western countries are still elites in the upper class, such as professors, business leaders and parliamentarians.

According to American and British encyclopedias, Go was invented in China in 2300 BC and 2356 BC respectively. It is not clear how it originated, who invented it and how. There are many theories about the origin of Go in China, but most of them are far-fetched and attached to power. Now, many books are based on an unconfirmed legend. Yao created Weiqi and is good at Weiqi ... Ah bah!

I despise the idea that children tend to take romance seriously. I can't tell the children an unconfirmed legend. When I give lectures to students, the answers are always fans! If we insist on how it was invented, I firmly believe that the theory of the universe with astrology as its origin is perfect from generation to generation.

Judging from the fact that the ancients listed Weiqi as one of the four arts, Weiqi, a pure entertainment toy, was endowed with a high status by the ancients. This also shows that our ancestors recognized Go quite well and even regarded it as a learning tool. Of course, it also shows that our ancestors should have a deep understanding of art.

Why is Go an art? This topic has been asked by many people, and no one has given me a satisfactory answer. I once asked a national player, who was speechless and said that Go is a game. And some of the players with higher national level looked at each other, even bored and disdainful.

I'm just ignorant. I really don't know if there is any qualitative difference between the ancient people's understanding of art and our understanding now. If not, how did the ancients define it? If there is a definition or explanation, why is our concept of art still too broad and inaccurate, or even unclear? If the ancients listed Go as one of the four arts, as I said earlier, I should have a deep understanding of art, so if there is anything that needs textual research and annotation, it is beyond my ability. What I can do now is to redefine art fearlessly.

In my opinion, the essence of art is an orphan, and its concrete form is an amazing display of personalized beauty. This is also the main reason why his works appreciated immediately after the death of the master artist. Because this is the thick, unique and stunning beauty of his own personal color, he can only imitate it and can't regenerate it. Technology must be repeatable, not repeatable. Definitely not technology. This is just the opposite of art. ..

In class, I often ask my children what is art? The children replied that they were unique. I blurted out that the shit you pulled out was unique. Is he a work of art? The children burst out laughing. I went on to say that the essence of art is orphan, that is, your answer now is unique, right! But also have a sense of beauty, stunning to suffocation. Without complete beauty, it is definitely not art. Because there are so many things that can be unique. This pure beauty must also be a reflection of his personality. But it's really useful to treat shit as art. In the past, some artists in China actually painted with shit ... It's disgusting. People who write with their bodies are also useful in literature. Although it is human nature, it is disgusting to vent too much. What do these phenomena mean? These scum, who have no real artistic skills, can only attract attention by nausea. What exactly is body writing? Go back and ask your father, not your mother. Then I deliberately asked a question that the child couldn't answer. What is the soul of art? I just want to see if the children dare to imagine boldly and freely and guide them down by the way. Seeing that the child can't answer, I will tell the child, feeling! I said that the soul of art is feeling, and the skill supports this feeling. This feeling is not imaginary, but comes from the intuitive thinking of hard work and hard practice. This intuitive thinking is also in rational thinking. Strictly speaking, it is not emotional thinking. What I want to explain is that the soul of art is feeling this problem, and I think it is best to explain it through Go.

Now we know that Weiqi has changed more than the atoms in the universe. If you take a computer that performs hundreds of millions of operations a second, the number of changes in this chessboard for hundreds of years can't be counted, which can be said to be endless. That's why I summed up a sentence for Go: There is no same chess through the ages. Since the changes of Go are endless, and the computer can't complete the calculation, how can the human brain calculate clearly? This requires feeling, which will tell you where there is a breakthrough in the direction, and then you will narrow it from a large scale to a range that is easy to grasp and calculate, and then complete the work in a more specific, smaller and more detailed way. When we read and appreciate the works, it is also because of some inexplicable feelings that our eyes shine and our hearts beat faster.

All these are clear, and why Go is an art will be immediately understood. The essence of art is an orphan. Go has not exactly the same chess game since ancient times, which conforms to the orphan nature of art. After mastering certain skills and having a certain level, you can express your ideological realm through skills. It can be said that every chess game is a painstaking work, which is undoubtedly very beautiful, so it is well-deserved that Go is a flowing artistic pearl.

There are many famous figures in our history who can play Go. You can even literally grab one and come down. Look at this series of shining names, Confucius, Mencius, Ban Gu, Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Cao Cao, Sun Ce, Guan Yu, Zeng Guofan, Su Dongpo, Bai Juyi, Ouyang Xiu, Du Fu, Du Mu, Wang Anshi, Tang Xuanzong, Song Huizong, Xie An in the Battle of Feishui, and my favorite late Tang people. In my impression, it seems that the founding emperors of the Han nationality all played Go.

Weiqi has always been popular among the two elite groups, emperors, generals and scholars, and seems to have gone to two opposite extremes with chess. Go is a popular culture, and chess is a popular culture of Xialiba people. Although their basic rule is the inevitable law of the jungle, chess is more like the inevitable killing in feudal society. I can live on the basis of your death, otherwise it can only be me, which seems to represent barbarism. Go is very different. Only when the contradictions between the two sides intensify to irreconcilable, is it a life-and-death situation. He is mainly the result of compromise, just like entering a civilized society with political negotiations as the mainstay and less bloodshed.

I've always had a rather strange question. Why does Go just stay in the upper class and seem to have become an insurmountable and unique elite culture, and it is not as popular as chess? Is it complicated and takes up a lot of time? In other words, Weiqi really has extraordinary educational effects, and to get its meaning, you must need an old gentleman with ideological realm to guide it. Such an old gentleman must be rare? I think there should be some reasons for this, but it is not the main one. It should be caused by the lack of aristocratic leisure in ordinary people's bones.

In ancient times, all well-born families gave their children a good education, such as playing chess, calligraphy and painting. Under the influence of such a family atmosphere, it is not surprising that children are born with an unusual agility in the inheritance of dragons from generation to generation, so that they have the ability to like the complicated and changeable Go and make Go only an elite culture. It takes three generations for a generation of nobles to come into being. He is a systems engineering. But we ordinary people don't realize the importance of culture and art to spiritual cultivation. They think it's just a game and we can't eat it as food. It is also very likely that I am tired of playing things, which restricts the popularity of Go from the consciousness. I think playing is the main thing in life. Just play hard. I think the answer should be these, although I am still a little skeptical.

Weiqi, which integrates competitive culture and art, is a unique and perfect masterpiece on our planet. Learning Go will make people look at the world rationally from a higher strategic height. Now we all know that if we want to be an elite, we must have rational thinking and not lose emotional thinking. The heroes who led people to revolt in history all infected people through their emotional catharsis in art, and they were often masterpieces of high emotional intelligence under the consciousness of rational thinking. I think this is one of the reasons why almost all the founding emperors knew and liked to play Go! Therefore, there is no doubt that the founding emperors all had emotional thinking and rational thinking, that is, high emotional intelligence and high IQ, and the heavy Go just gave them a good foundation.