Go originated in China and was written by Emperor Yao, which is recorded in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Popular in East Asian countries, it is one of the four arts of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was introduced to Japan through Korea and later spread to Europe and the United States. Go contains the rich connotation of Chinese culture, which is the embodiment of Chinese culture and civilization. Go is considered to be the most complex board game in the world, and countries such as China, Japan and South Korea have slightly different rules for competition.
Nowadays, with the development of science and technology, the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the competition between people and machines has also quietly emerged.
The previous world-renowned "man-machine war" attracted people's attention, the world's top Go masters competed with artificial intelligence programs, and finally, the intelligent program won and got a $1 million prize money. Few people know that in Chinese history, there was also an interesting Go game in Nanjing, although there was no $1 million prize in that competition, but the winner can get a building, a lake, does this prize sound more tempting? And this building is nothing else, it is the Shengqi Building that is still well preserved on the shore of Mochou Lake.
Shengqi Tower, a rare ancient building in Nanjing, is located on the shore of Mochou Lake. On the west side of the building, there is the Yujin Hall and the Water Temple, of which the predecessor of the Water Temple is the Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall, and the well-known sculpture of the Mo Shuo Female is in the Water Courtyard. Shengqi Building covers an area of 320 square meters, with a total of two floors, the whole building is 12 meters high, the top of the mountain, the whole is a brick and wood structure, sitting north and facing south. On the top of the second floor hangs the three characters "Shengqi Lou", which was written by Mei Qizhao, the leader of the Qing Dynasty.
At the entrance of the building, there is a couplet written by Zhang Zhaolu, a scholar of Changsha during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty: "The Pink Dai Jiangshan has left half a lake of smoke and rain, and the prince's career is like a chess game." On the first floor of the Shengqi Building, there are wax statues of seventeen emperors of the Ming Dynasty, including the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, as well as the Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen and the Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Qiyu, who are well known because of the popular dramas. When you come to the second floor, you will see a group of wax figures, mainly showing the scene of Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Da playing Go, and this scene is also the origin of this building.
According to experts from relevant cultural relics units, this Shengqi Tower is a municipal cultural relics protection unit in Nanjing, which can be said to be a veritable ancient building, according to records, it was built in the early Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang fixed the capital in Nanjing, he began to develop and build Mochou Lake on a large scale, and built more than a dozen pavilions on the lakeside, the Shengqi Building was one of them, but the name of this building at that time was different from now.
According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang especially liked the scenery around Mochou Lake, so he often invited Xu Da, the hero of the construction, to accompany him here, and to play chess upstairs. Xu Da's chess skills are well known, but he also knows Zhu Yuanzhang very well, and every time he accompanies him to play chess, he does not dare to offend the king, and can only use the method of deliberately losing chess to please Shengshang.
Once, the two people came upstairs to play chess again, this time, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to see Xu Da's real chess skills, so he said specifically: "This time we must play chess well, show our real chess skills, even if we win ourselves, it doesn't matter, you can't cheat." As soon as these words came out, Xu Da's ideological baggage was unloaded, and he accompanied the emperor to start playing chess.
The two of them had not even eaten lunch since morning to noon, but from the chess surface, the two men still did not distinguish between victory and defeat. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang took a breath and ate three pieces of Xu Da in a row, feeling that his victory had been decided. He said happily, "Xu Aiqing, I will definitely win this game." However, Xu Da did not show weakness and said, "Emperor, don't worry, please take a closer look at the entire chess surface." ”
Xu Da said this, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and looked at it carefully, but the result surprised him, it turned out that Xu Da used chess pieces on the chessboard to cloth out the words "long live". Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh that Xu Da's chess skills were indeed superb, and his skills were extraordinary, so he quickly conceded defeat. Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang also took advantage of his own happiness to rename this building to "Shengqi Building", and also gave the entire Mochou Lake to Xu Da.
Later generations also wrote such a couplet for this purpose: "Mo Shuo female guan flower eyebrow flying color dance, Zhu Yuanzhang played a good game of great joy."
But in fact, the matter of Zhu Yuanzhang losing chess to Xu Da is just a legend, in which, with a certain fictitious component, he uses the chess pieces to spell out the word "long live", and makes the opponent not aware of it, which is almost impossible. However, this story is not entirely empty, and you can also see the reality side from it.
On the one hand, Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed very trusting of Xu Da, and was considered one of his favorites;
On the other hand, according to relevant historical records, Mochou Lake was indeed Xu Da's family property during the Ming Dynasty, and the predecessor of the Shengqi Building was also a Ming Dynasty building. However, the Shengqi Tower, built during the Ming Dynasty, was later destroyed in the war.
Until 1817, Zeng Guofan carried out a large-scale renovation of Mochou Lake, rebuilt and sorted out the surrounding buildings, and at the same time, rebuilt the Shengqi Building, which is the ancient building we see now. Later, in the Republic of China period, the state made two more maintenances for the Shengqi Building. The current Shengqi Building recreates the scene of Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Da playing chess in that year.
Some scholars have studied the history of the Six Dynasties, and there is another classic related to playing Go in the history of Nanjing, that is, "Xie An Dongshan Game".
It is said that in the eighth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Former Qin king Jian Jian of the North led a million troops to the south to try to eliminate the Eastern Jin Dynasty and occupy its capital Nanjing. At that time, Xie An, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was sitting in Nanjing, planning and commanding the battle. He sent his brother and nephew to lead an army of 80,000 men to the battle. The two sides fought a great battle at Shuishui and succeeded in winning more victories with fewer victories, preserving the imperial power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
When the news reached Nanjing, it was just in time for Xie An to play Go with others at Dongshan Villa. Xie An, who received the report of the victory of the war, just glanced at it lightly and put it down. The guests who played chess together next to them hurriedly asked how the battle was, only to see Xie An not moving, and said lightly: "The children have already defeated Jian Jian." "Then, continue to play chess with the guests."
When the game of chess was finished and the guests were sent away, Xie An returned to his room, and he could no longer bear the happiness in his heart. Legend has it that when he crossed the threshold, he happily broke the clogs on the clogs. According to the investigation of later scholars, the place where Xie An played chess at that time was Dongshan in the current Jiangning District, commonly known as "Tushan".
Resources:
["Nanjing Shengqi Building", "Shengqi Building Yanglian", "Xie An Dongshan Game"】