"The Analects of Confucius - Yanghuo No. 17" from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Three Kingdoms period: "The Master said: 'It is difficult to be full all day long and have no intention of doing anything. If there is no game, it is still a virtuous thing!"
p>"Mencius - Chapter 2 of Li Lou": "Mencius said: 'Playing games involves drinking and neglecting the support of parents, which is unfilial." If you concentrate on it, you will not succeed, and those who are good at playing the game of Qiu and Tongguo..."
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Go was very popular, so Confucius and Mencius often used chess as an example, and it is not difficult to see that Yi Qiu and Confucius In the same way, he takes Shu Ling and teaches disciples. In Go, Yi Qiu may be the earliest great player. As for the game passed down from person to person, such as Sun Wuzi, Guiguzi and their disciples Sun Bin, Pang Juan, Su Qin and Zhang Yi all like to play Go.
The development of Go was relatively slow during the Han Dynasty. Records of Go activities in the Western Han Dynasty include "Xijing Miscellanies", "Huainanzi", "Hanshu", "Dialect", etc. In the Western Han Dynasty, people called Du Fuzi "the best player in the world". He was very good at chess and was good at chess. Some people ridiculed him that playing chess was a waste of time. Unexpectedly, he replied: "Those who are good at chess can be of great benefit to the Holy Religion." A feudal scholar-bureaucrat dared to say that Go could make up for the shortcomings of Confucius. , it can be seen that he indeed studies Go as an art, an art that is not under the Confucian classics.
Liu Qu and Chen Zhu were also famous for playing chess during the Western Han Dynasty. Chen Zhu was named the governor of Taiyuan because he played chess with Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty to please the emperor.
According to "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes", Go was popular in the palaces of the Han Dynasty. Every year on the fourth day of August, Mrs. Qi always played chess with the great ancestor Liu Bang. Later, playing Go on the fourth day of August became a custom in the Han Palace. Gan Bao from Jin Dynasty said in his "Sou Shen Ji" that when playing chess on this day, the winner will be blessed all year round, while the loser may suffer from diseases. He can only take a strand of hair, face the North Star, and beg him for longevity. Only when you are a hundred years old can you be safe and sound.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang once wrote "Ode to Go": "A brief look at Go, the law lies in the use of troops. The timid will have no success, and the greedy will perish first." Ban Gu wrote "The Purpose of the Game" and said: "There are heaven and earth above. The materialist philosopher Huan Tan also wrote "New Theory", he said: "There is the game of Go in the world, or the art of war." "Like this". "There are also Ma Rong's "Weiqi Fu", Li You's "Go Inscription" and so on.
"The Purpose of the Game" says: "People in the north call chess a chess game, and they talk about it in a general way and give its general outline, which has profound meaning." It not only promoted the chess activities at that time, but also had a special influence on later generations. big. He compared chess with gambling and believed that chess was better than gambling. He said: "A husband's game depends on fighting, and he is not specialized in the profession. The superior will not meet, and the inferior will be lucky. As for chess, it is not the case. Superiors and inferiors are compared to each other. People have levels. Just like the door of Confucius, they will obey each other in return." “His basic arguments have been cited repeatedly by later generations.
Ma Rong's "Ode to Weiqi" is an important document. He said at the beginning: "A brief look at Go, the method lies in the use of soldiers, the game of three feet is the battle field, and the players gather in formation to play the game. , the two enemies are equal, the clumsy one will have no success, and the weak one will die first, so he can neutralize it. Please explain the method. "Then he introduced the methods and experience of Go. The final conclusion is: "If you think deeply and think far, victory is inevitable." Ma Rong was active in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He "educated thousands of students", and his famous chess players and Confucian scholars Zheng Xuan and Lu Zhi were all his Gaozu. He played a major role in the Go activities in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.
Although the Three Kingdoms period lasted only a few decades, Go enthusiasts spread throughout the government and the public. There are many places where Go is mentioned in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Let’s talk about Wei first. The Cao family and his son loved Go. Cao Cao’s Concubine Bian had a garden called "Chess Garden". At least three of the Seven Sons of Jian'an loved Go. Wang Can is a master, and it is said that he has a very strong memory. Once, Wang Can watched other people playing chess. Someone accidentally messed up the chess pieces. He said that he could help them arrange the chess pieces as they were originally. They didn't believe it, so they took out a handkerchief to cover the chess board and asked him to change the chess board arrangement. After arranging the chess pieces, the two sets When comparing the chessboards, there is not even a single error. (See "Three Kingdoms" Volume 21)
In the Shu Kingdom, "Baoqing Mansion Chronicles" records: "There is a "chessboard cliff" five miles south of the city of Baoqing Mansion (now Shaoyang, Hunan). It is said that Zhuge Liang was The place where he plays chess with his guests. "Both the servant Huang Wenwei and the general Jiang Wan are highly praised by Zhuge Liang. As for the story of Guan Yunchang scraping bones to cure poison, it is well known to women and children.
Go was popular among the scholar-bureaucrats in the Wu Kingdom, and they wrote books, such as "Game Theory" written by the concubine Wei Zhao. He believed that the chess style at that time was too popular and should be stopped. He Said: "Many people in this world do not engage in classics and skills, but are interested in playing games. They abandon their careers, forget about sleep and food, and use fat candles to burn out the sun." "Specialization in everything means excellence, because there are so many people playing chess. And if you specialize in this way, your skills must be excellent. It is said in "Guangwu Zhi" that Yan Ziqing and Ma Suiming were masters who appeared when chess was booming. At that time, people called them "chess saints".