History of Go
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The game of Go originated in China. No one knows when the first game was played, but by the 6th century BC it was considered a worthy pastime for a gentleman, and described as such in the Analects of Confucius. It reached to Japan by the 7th century and long been a popular game within East Asia. It finally reached the West at the end of the 19th century.
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[edit] Origin in China
Go's early history is debated, but there are myths about its existence, one of which assumes that Go was an ancient fortune telling device used by Chinese cosmologists to simulate the universe's relationship to an individual. The earliest references of Go come from the 6th century BC (548 BC, from Zuo Zhuan).
According to legend, the game was used as a teaching tool after the ancient Chinese Emperor Yao 堯 (2337 - 2258 BC) designed it for his son, Danzhu, who he thought needed to learn discipline, concentration, and balance. Another suggested genesis for the game states that in ancient times, Chinese warlords and generals would use pieces of stone to map out attacking positions. Further and more plausible theories relate Go equipment to divination or flood control.
Recent archaeology has added concrete facts. China is the birthplace of Go (WeiQi in Chinese, meaning "surrounding game"), but an exact date for the appearance of the game is still unclear at present.
Chinese archaeologists have discovered a porcelain go board from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD) in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. This is the earliest discovery of a board unearthed in China, and suggests that people started playing go more than 2,000 years ago.
The board was found in the ruins of a watchtower at the tombs of Emperor Jingdi of the Western Han Dynasty, and his empress. The board, slightly damaged and irregular, measures 5.7 cm to 28.5 cm long, 17 cm to 19.7 cm wide and 3.6 cm thick. It is carved with 17 ordinate and 17 transversal lines, which is similar to the modern (19×19) board.
Li Gang, a research fellow with the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, said that this board might have been made from a floor tile, and that it did not belong to the royal family since the carvings are too rough. Li said the board could have been made by the tomb guards who played go to pass the time. "That proves that go was being played not only by nobles, but also by ordinary people like tomb guards, more than 2,000 years ago," Li noted.
Li said that a stone board made in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) was found in Wangdu County, north China's Hebei Province in 1954.
[edit] Growth in east Asia
Before the industrial age in China, Go was long perceived as the popular game of the elite aristocratic class while Xiangqi (Chinese chess) was perceived as the game of the masses. Go was considered one of the cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman (junzi), along with Calligraphy, Painting and playing the Guqin, known as 琴棋書畫 [1] (四艺, Pinyin: Sìyì]]), or the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.
After it was introduced from Tang, Go was played by the general public in Japan by the 13th century. The government established four go houses to teach this game.
[edit] "Go" West
The details of Go have been unknown outside of Asia for most of the game's history. Oscar Korschelt, a German engineer, is credited as being the first person to try to popularize Go in a non-Asian country. He learned about the game from Honinbo Shuho (Murase Shuho) when he worked in Japan from 1878 to 1886. Korschelt published a detailed article on Go in 1880. A few years later he published a book based on this article. He brought this game to Europe, especially to Germany and Austria, and thus became the first one who systematically described this game in a Western language. Since he learned Go in Japan, the terms of Go in Western languages come from Japanese, not Chinese, pronunciation.
The Western players did not take up the game as more than a passing interest until the 1950s. In 1978, Manfred Wimmer became the first Westerner to receive a professional player's certificate from an Asian professional Go association. It was not until 2000 that a Westerner, Michael Redmond, achieved the top rank awarded by an Asian Go association.
