He Yunbo: Go and the Chinese intellectual tradition

Qing Zheng Dai's "Axis of The Game"

Author: He Yunbo, head of the National Social Science Foundation project "Research on the History of Chinese Go Thought", professor of the School of Literature and Journalism of Xiangtan University

Go is a competition, a game, an art, a metaphysical instrument, and has been given the meaning of metaphysical "Tao", the so-called one yin and one yang. In the Chinese cultural tradition, all knowledge must test the legitimacy of its existence in the face of the "Tao" to prove its self-worth. Standing like Bede, the technique is advanced. Of course, this "Tao" is not only the "Tao" of Confucian benevolence, the "Tao" of Taoist nature, and the "Tao" of harmony in Chinese culture. In a sense, Go has become a specimen and a symbol of Chinese thought and culture.

Standing elephant Bede

The Argentine writer Borges wrote a poem titled "Go", saying that Go is "like a game of stars" and that "it is an invention older than the oldest texts / The chessboard is like the shape of the universe / The interlacing of black and white changes / Enough to exhaust a thousand lives".

Borges had never been to China and could not play Go, but it did not affect his whimsy about China and About Go. Writing is seen as a sign of human civilization, but before the birth of writing, human beings began a dialogue with the universe of heaven and earth in another way. The chessboard is the universe, and black and white are like yin and yang, which can deduce the infinite changes of the world. The ancient Chinese called Go the "Star Array", and the Song Dynasty's "Thirteen Chapters of the Chess Classic" said that "the number of all things, from one." Round road, three hundred and sixty has one. One, the Lord of birth numbers, according to his extremes, is also lucky. ...... White and black are half, yin and yang." Go master Wu Qingyuan believes that the origin of Go should be related to gossip divination. Before the advent of writing, people used white and sunspots on a chessboard to speculate about the changes in yin and yang.

Of course, this chess tool used for "gossip divination" is not necessarily "Go" in the true sense. Go is a game in which humans fight over living space. The Shiben Zuoshu written by the Warring States Historian is called "Yaozao Go, Danzhu Zenzhi". Zhang Hua's "Naturalist" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty further explains the motivation for inventing Go: "Yao made Go to teach his son Danzhu. Go was thus incorporated into the Confucian tradition of ethical indoctrination.

At the heart of Confucianism is benevolence and courtesy. "Benevolence" is moral cultivation, and "etiquette" is the norm of etiquette. "Art" is also incorporated into this system. The so-called "aspiration to the Tao, according to virtue, according to benevolence, swimming in art." Establish yourself with the Tao, stand up with virtue and benevolence, and travel with art. Confucius's concept of "art" also influenced his view of games such as games. The Analects of Yang Goods mentions Go: "Zi Yue: Eat all day long, have no intentions, and be difficult." There is no gamer, but it is wise. Confucius saw Go as a beneficial leisure and entertainment activity after the satisfaction of material life.

Mencius also mentioned Yi in the Mencius Confession: "The number of the present husband is the number, and the decimal number is also." If you don't concentrate, you can't either. "The six arts of Confucianism—ritual, music, archery, imperial courtesy, calligraphy, and counting—are the six skills necessary for a gentleman. Although Go is only a "decimal", after all, it is also included in the "art", and has the value and meaning of existence.

Confucian attitudes towards Go are twofold, on the one hand, they depreciate Go, the so-called "unkind" and "disrespectful and lost style" of Go, and the playthings lose their minds; on the other hand, the play of "wandering the heart" is a spiritual need of people. How can this contradiction be resolved? The best way is to associate Go with the way of the sages and with the "chengde chengren" of man, so that the "game" of chess has an extraordinary significance. Ban Gu commented on chess in the "Yi Zhi": "The game must be square, and the elephant land is also." The Word will be righteous, and so will the gods. Chess has white and black, yin and yang also. Luo Liebu, astronomy also. The four elephants are complete, the deeds are in the people, and the king is also the king. Success or failure is for benevolence, and danger is also true. There is the image of heaven and earth on the top, the rule of the emperor on the second, the power of the five hegemons, and the affairs of the Warring States below. Look at its gains and losses, ancient and modern. ”

Bangu associated Go with astronomy, yin and yang, Wang Zheng, and Rende, and opened up the "Lixiang Beide" chess tradition, thus constructing a complete set of Confucian chess discourses. The metaphysical "skill" is connected to the metaphysical "tao", which has gained a legal status for Go.

Technique is in the way

If Confucianism provides a set of measures for value judgment for Go, Taoism is more related to the life pursuit and chess art realm of chess players.

Go developed greatly during the Wei and Jin dynasties. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, people pursued human consciousness and spiritual self-consciousness, and drama and art thus gained the value of independent existence. And Go has also gradually been spiritualized and aestheticized. During this period, a series of other names appeared in Go: hand talk, sitting in hiding, forgetting worries, and rotten Ke. In the "New Language of the World", it is said: "Wang Zhonglang uses Go as a hidden place, and Zhigong uses Go as a hand to talk." With "hand talk" instead of Qing talk, how to relieve worries, the only way to play chess. The so-called big hidden in the morning market, hidden in the garden, small hidden in the mountains and forests. In a courtyard, a game of chess, a cup of tea, you can keep the heart quiet. And "Rotten Ke" comes from the Southern Dynasty Liang Dynasty Ren Fang's "Narrative of Differences": "ShimuShan, Xin'an County, the king of the Jin Dynasty, cut wood into the mountain, saw the two boys play chess, and the quality of a thing, such as jujube cores, food is not hungry, with the axe held to sit and watch, the game is not over, the boy refers to the name: 'Ru axe rotten Ke Yi!' Returned to his hometown, he was a hundred years old, and there was no one to return to his time. ”

It's only been a game in the mountains, and the world has been around for a hundred years. Happy times are always short-lived, Go is a game that brings infinite spiritual happiness to people, and chess has become a way of spiritual existence. By the Tang Dynasty, chess officially became one of the four arts of piano, chess, books and painting.

Go is both a skill and a way. In Lao Tzu's view, the "Tao" is the origin of all things in the world, the so-called "Tao gives birth to one, one life two, two births to three, and three births to all things." This is also the general law or law of the development and change of all things in the world. The so-called "Tao, the mystery of all things." The Tao exists in the form of "nothingness," invisible, unspeakable, but wandering in heaven and earth and all things. The Tao is natural, and all things have a "Tao" in it.

The Confucian way is more focused on personnel affairs; the Taoist way is more embodied in the natural way of heaven and earth. Therefore, Confucianism emphasizes "carrying the Tao with art", and "art" is the carrier of "Tao" and a technical means to embody "Dao" and realize "Tao". Taoists pay more attention to the "Tao" as the ontology and content of "art", "art" is the perceptual manifestation of "Tao", and the highest artistic realm is the realm of Dao. Therefore, techniques can also enter the Tao, and techniques and arts that reach a certain realm are "Tao".

In terms of Go, it is a "skill", and in order to win, it has a specific set of rules and tactics. And when chess reaches a certain realm, it is connected with the realm of art and the realm of Tao. The so-called skill is the Tao, and chess is not just a matter of victory and defeat.

Shi Ding'an's "Yi Li Zhi Gui" talks about the several levels of the yi: "There is no need to argue about the choice of battle, into the chest, holding up the touch of the machine, and will be far away from the heart." The benevolent see the benevolent, and the knower sees the knowledge. Those who receive eight or nine sons can get their steps; and if they think carefully, they will gradually reach six or seven or more; they will be able to take shape; four or five or more, they will be proud; two or three or more, and gradually they will meet the gods; first or more, they will enter the room without difficulty. This is all right. "The steps to get the form - to be proud - to meet the gods, not only represent the difference in the "quality" of the player, but also the process of chess skills from shallow to fine, skill into the Tao.

Taoists emphasize Taoism and nature. Shi Ding'an once talked about his experience of "chess enlightenment" in the preface to "Yi Li Zhi Gui". Once Shi Ding'an and Liang Weijin were traveling together on Da Nang Mountain, Liang pointed to the meandering spring water under the mountain and said to Shi: "Zi Zhi Yi Gong, will You be concerned about this?" Doing what should be done, stopping at the right time, letting it be natural and not competing with things is also the way of play. Zi Rui asked deeply, but it was too late, so he still did not take off one ear for three years. "Ding'an thus gained enlightenment" is popular, there is no sign, a hundred works of extremes, salty out of nature. Then the chess ends in Zhongzheng, and the Yuqin stops at Tanyaya." The chess skills have advanced greatly, and they will eventually become a generation of national players.

Chess should be like the flow of clouds, the line of the line, the end of the stop, plain and natural, this is the realm of heaven and earth, but also the realm of aesthetics.

The Way of Harmony

The little black and white child carries the wisdom of the East. The original rules of Go are actually very simple, there are three main ones: first, one person takes one hand, takes turns to play, and the first mover sticks to the eye, which follows the principle of fairness. Second, the two eyes of live chess, chess with anger, qi to kill. As a law of life, it embodies the traditional Chinese view of life based on qi. Third, the short is the victory, and all tactics revolve around eating and encircling the air. The victory of the multitude of people is the reproduction of the survival law of the primitive era.

Black and white, nineteen vertical and horizontal grids, the formal elements of Go are simplified to the extreme, and contain infinitely rich variations. The complexity of simplicity is also a major feature of Chinese art and culture. As Professor Meng Ze of Central South University said in the preface to the "History of Chinese Weiqi Thought": In the long inheritance and interpretation, Weiqi has been deeply involved in the daily life of Chinese, influencing and even shaping the personality and spirit of Chinese. Or rather, it is in a sense a carrier of the spiritual world of Chinese, a metaphor, an outlet. Therefore, with regard to Go, the words "Tao", the "skill", the "vast" and the "subtle", all have enough materials and credentials, it has accepted the energy, intelligence and imagination of countless addicts, comforted and digested their subtle thoughts, vast feelings and vicissitudes.

The sky is round, and people live in it. The Confucian way of ethics, the Taoist way of heaven and earth and nature, all point to a harmonious way. The Confucian qualities, zhizhi, righteousness, sincerity, self-cultivation, qi family, governance of the country, and peace in the world constitute the way of the inner saint and the outer king of the gentleman, and the ultimate purpose is to "peace", the so-called "noble monk". Confucius advocated "the use of etiquette, harmony is precious", and the Analects also mentioned many times "to neutralize", "too much to be too late", "gentlemen are not in dispute", and so on. The highest realms of Confucian harmony are the "ideal of great harmony" and the "way of moderation." "Datong" is a social ideal, and "moderation" is the way for people to deal with the world. If Confucianism pursues harmony in the sense of man and man, man and society, Taoism is committed to constructing a harmonious world between man and self, man and nature. The Taoist law is natural, keeping the female and keeping the soft, the void is quiet, and the flowing water does not compete for the lead, which constitutes the Taoist "peace" path.

However, Go was originally a way of "fighting", it reflected the struggle between human beings for living space, and the ancient Chinese also devalued Go as a "harmful, deceitful, contentious, and pseudo" thing. So, how can we reconcile the relationship between "contention" and "middle" and "harmony"? Chinese tradition often incorporates "what is won" into the Confucian system of "harmony", on the one hand, it dilutes the winning and losing side of chess, the so-called "don't disturb the drama with the truth, and you can win with the fate", "victory is happy, defeat can also be happy"; on the other hand, the so-called "encircling the heavens and the earth, the square is the law", "the game is quiet, the chess circle moves", one yin and one yang is said to be the Tao. The yin and yang of heaven and earth are born and merge, and everything in the universe is reincarnated. "The one who is in the middle, the great foundation of the world; and the one who is also the one who reaches the way of the world." To neutralize, heaven to the heavens, and all things to nurture. "This is the way of cosmic harmony, and it is also the way of Go.

Wu Qingyuan believes that "It is better to say that Go is not so much competition and victory as it is harmony." "Harmonious interdependence, square chess game", Go seems to be a fierce battle between the warring sides, but chess is like flowing water, when you commit yourself to the flow of Go, when you do it, stop and stop, the warring sides are in harmony, and finally reach a harmonious realm.

Go is a competitive game, also known as "hand talk", hand talk is dialogue, it emphasizes a special discourse activity that does not require language and words. The essence of competition lies in conflict and conquest, and the essence of discourse is communication and exchange. Dialogue determines that Go is an intellectual game that emphasizes equal competition, and in a sense embodies a modern spirit. Dialogue also gives Go a sense of tolerance. Go is naturally a war for living space, but in the process of "encircling the land", it is not necessary for you to live and die, and do not leave a little "room" for the other party. The so-called two eyes are alive, a game of chess, often presents the situation of you have me, I have you, and peaceful coexistence. Harmony and difference are precisely the embodiment of the spirit of Chinese culture, and it is also what modern society needs to promote in the coexistence of people, nations and nations, and countries and countries. This is like the competition of modern enterprises, not to seek to crush the opponent, but in the equal competition, everyone has gains, of course, the more the winner wins. "Hand talk" embodies the traditional Chinese dialectic of harmony in conflict. Dialogue is a heart-to-heart exchange, and the real opponent is both an enemy and a friend. The real chess game is also the final harmony between the two sides in constant conflict. This is true of playing chess, and it is also true of life.

Equal competition, the way of harmony. Go is both traditional and modern; Go is both Chinese and worldly. Nowadays, go, which represents the Chinese tradition, is increasingly going global and is recognized and loved by people of different colors in the world. The world plays a game of chess, and Go can become an international public spiritual product and a common spiritual wealth of mankind.