Chess is just a game, why bother with real emotions.
You can just count me as the winner. After all, when the chess is played,
the chess pieces will be collected. Where can you find the victory or defeat on the chessboard?
The meaning of the game is to use artificial rules to allow people to have some fun in it. However, if you indulge in the consequences of winning or losing caused by such artificial rules, it will harm your character and emotions, which will defeat the original purpose of the game. Just the opposite. The poem uses the game of chess to express the philosophy of life of being at ease and not being attached. From this, it can also be seen that the author's chess skills are very poor.
This is a Qijue poem with a fresh style and full of interest. Although the poem is short, it occupies an extremely important position in the history of Chinese Go. From this poem, we can get a glimpse of the way of thinking of ancient Chinese literati playing chess, and then gain insight into the national character revealed through chess.
At the beginning of the poem, the author positions Go as a "drama". In Wang Anshi's view, Go is just a game and cannot be taken seriously. He believes that the so-called "true love" is the most important. In the first sentence, the choice between "drama" and "true feelings" is very clear, and the word "mo general" emphasizes the firmness of this attitude.
It is precisely because of this understanding that the second sentence is said in a narcissistic way: "You can just let it happen and I will win." On the surface, this seems to be a state of detachment where winning or losing does not bother him, but in fact, it is precisely because he cares too much about winning and losing. This is fundamentally different from Su Shi's "I am happy to win, and happy to lose". Su Shi took victory and defeat lightly. As long as he was immersed in the fun of Go, he didn't have to worry about victory or defeat, but he still respected the fact of victory and defeat. This is not the case with Wang Anshi. For him, victory or defeat can be "determined" at will. "Tao I win", the word "Tao" just shows that the author actually lost. Since I lost, I still want to say that I can count myself as a winner. Just imagine, if you really don't care about winning or losing, why would you use such a "spiritual victory method" to excuse yourself from losing? It can be seen that the reason why he regarded Go as a game was because of his poor chess skills and guilty conscience.
The end of the poem is Wang Anshi’s rational understanding of Go and the reason he found for his “indifferent attitude towards winning or losing”. Now that a game of chess is over and the black and white chess pieces are put into the box (that is, the chess jar), there is nothing on the empty chess board. Right or wrong, success or failure, it's all gone when you turn around, so what's the difference?
From this poem, we can see that Go, among many literati including Wang Anshi, is just a "little path" and just a plaything. As long as you are happy, you can win or lose. Blasphemy. In the eyes of these literati, playing chess is just a way to show that they are free and leisurely. If the literati are like this, why should it be surprising that when the emperor's turn comes, things like the Kangxi chaos happen? From the perspective of the realm of chess, we are really far away from Japan in this regard. Juban chess, which is like a "hand-to-hand fight on a cliff", and the exhausting game of vomiting blood and earache, is the most important thing in the history of Chinese Go, especially among the literati. Never before.
From Wang Anshi’s attitude towards Go, it is not difficult to see why China later fell behind Japan in Go. Isn’t this poem a decoding of the reasons for backwardness? Poetry is indeed good poetry, but unfortunately, the dignity of chess has been completely ruined.