Dunhuang Go Manual
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''The Dunhuang Go Manual'' or ''Dunhuang Go Classic'' or simply the ''Classic of Go'' () is the earliest surviving manual on the strategic
board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...
of Go (). Dating from the 6th century and written in Chinese, it exists as a single manuscript that was discovered in the 'Library Cave' of the
Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
in Dunhuang, China by
Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, ( hu, Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at ...
in 1907, and which is now in the collection of the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
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.


The British Library manuscript

The manuscript (Or.8210/S.5574) is a paper scroll 15.5 cm high and 240 cm long. The hand-written text comprises 159 lines of about 15–17 characters per line. The handwriting is cursive, and in places untidy and hard to read, with many obvious transcription errors. The manuscript is incomplete, with probably three to five lines of text (45–75 characters) missing at the beginning. The end of the manuscript is intact, and gives the title of the text as ''Qi Jing'' (碁經) "Classic of Go", and notes that it is complete in one scroll. Unfortunately the name of the author, which would probably have been given at the start of the text, is not provided. The manuscripts in the Dunhuang library cave date from the 5th century up to the early 11th century, when the cave was sealed.
Lionel Giles Lionel Giles (29 December 1875 – 22 January 1958) was a British sinologist, writer, and philosopher. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. He is ...
(1875–1958), the first scholar to recognise the contents of this manuscript, dates the manuscript to the late
Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, about 900 AD. However, it is believed that the text of the manual was composed during the late 6th century under the
Northern Zhou Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern dynasties of China's Northern and Southern dynasties period, it succeeded the Western Wei dynasty a ...
dynasty (557–581). The main evidence for this is the fact that the author of the text refers to the black pieces as "crow pieces" (烏子) rather than "black pieces" (黑子). The explanation for this unusual term is that
Yuwen Tai Yuwen Tai () (505 – 21 November 556According to Yuwen Tai's biography in ''Book of Zhou'', he died aged 52 (by East Asian reckoning) on the ''yihai'' day of the 10th month of the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Gong of Western Wei. This corre ...
(507–556), father of the first emperor of the Northern Zhou, and posthumously honoured as the founding emperor of the dynasty, had the nickname 'Black Otter' (黑獺), and therefore the character 'black' () was tabooed in documents written during the Northern Zhou dynasty, being replaced by the word 'crow' () which is a synonym for 'black' in Chinese. At the end of the manuscript is a single line of Tibetan reading ''ban de sba'i 'dris 'o'', which has been interpreted as meaning "Written by the monk Ba". It is uncertain whether this means that the Chinese text was copied out by a Tibetan scribe, or whether a Tibetan monk added the line to the manuscript at a later date.


Contents

The main text is divided into seven numbered sections. The number and title of the first section is missing, but it discusses general principles of attack and defence, suggesting that the player emulate famous military strategists such as Chen Ping and
Zhuge Liang Zhuge Liang ( zh, t=諸葛亮 / 诸葛亮) (181 – September 234), courtesy name Kongming, was a Chinese statesman and military strategist. He was chancellor and later regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is ...
. It gives general advice such as "If greedy, one will often be defeated. If timid, one will rarely succeed" (貪則多敗,怯則少功). The second section (誘征第二) explains the ladder strategy. The third section (勢用篇第三) discusses good and bad
shapes A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie o ...
of groups of stones, and gives examples of live and dead shapes, for example noting that "bent four in the corner is dead at the end of the game" (角傍曲四,局竟乃亡). The fourth section (像名弟四) discusses the symbolism of the Go board and the symbolic names given to different positions on the board. For example, the author states that "Go stones are round in imitation of the heavens, and the Go board is square in the same way that the earth is; that there are 361 intersections on the board reflects the division of the
ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agains ...
nto 365 days (碁子圓以法天,碁局方以類地。碁有三百六十一道,倣周天之道數). The explicit mention here that a Go board has 361 points indicates that the author of the manual was familiar with the standard board with a 19 × 19 grid, and not the earlier 17 × 17 grid board that is attested in archaeological evidence dating back to the late
Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(206 BCE – 220 CE) and from paintings dating up to the mid 8th century. The fifth section (釋圖勢篇弟五) discusses the importance of Go diagrams to mastering the game. It does not give any concrete examples of Go diagrams, but Cheng Enyuan (1917–1989) suggests that the original text of the manual would have included a set of accompanying diagrams illustrating game positions and strategy. The sixth section (碁制篇弟六) discusses rules of behaviour when playing Go, for instance noting that "when a stone has been played it may not be moved again" (下子之法,不許再移). Cheng Enyuan notes that this section is very hard to understand as it uses some obscure technical terms and mentions some obsolete practices that are not found in modern Go. In particular it refers several times to the use of counting rods (), but their exact role in the game is uncertain. The seventh section (部袠篇弟七) discusses the classification of Go diagrams into four categories: famous games; cunning techniques;
Ko fight A ''ko'' ( Japanese: コウ, 劫, ''kō'', from the translation of the Sanskrit term kalpa) fight is a tactical and strategic phase that can arise in the game of go. ''Ko'' threats and ''ko'' fights The existence of ''ko'' fights is implied by ...
s and seki; and
life and death Life and death (死活) is a fundamental concept in the game of Go, where the status of a distinct ''group'' of ''stones'' is determined as either being "alive", where they may remain on the board indefinitely, or "dead", where the group will b ...
shapes. It mentions "13 diagrams of Han Dynasty Go games" and "24 diagrams of Eastern Wu Go games", which suggest that there was once a collection of early Go games, which the only surviving example of is a diagram of a game reputedly played between Sun Ce (175–200) and
Lü Fan Lü Fan (died 228), courtesy name Ziheng, was a Chinese military general and politician serving under the warlord Sun Quan during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He continued serving in the state of Eastern Wu during the early Three King ...
(died 228). Following the main text is an unnumbered section oddly titled "Techniques of Go Faults" (碁病法), which appears to be a previously unknown text that the scribe added after the main text. Cheng Enyuan suggests that this section actually comprises two separate extracts from two different Go texts, the first which should be titled "Go Faults" (碁病) and the second which should be titled "Go Techniques" (碁法). The "Go Faults" part discusses three bad faults of Go-playing (sticking too close to the edge and corners; clumsily responding to an opponent's moves; and allowing groups to be cut off from each other) and two careless types of play (playing a stone hurriedly and without thought; and trying to save a dead group), as well as two ways of staying alive (moving out to the centre; and connecting in all directions) and two good habits (not being greedy in a weak position; and not being timid in a strong position). Cheng believes that the following "Go Techniques" part, which is written in a different style and is a more rounded discussion of Go strategy, may be an extract from a Go treatise by
Emperor Wu of Liang Emperor Wu of Liang () (464 – 12 June 549), personal name Xiao Yan (蕭衍), courtesy name Shuda (叔達), childhood name Lian'er (練兒), was the founding emperor of the Chinese Liang dynasty, during the Northern and Southern dynasties peri ...
(464–549) who is recorded to have written several works on Go. Appended after this is a short text (16 lines) entitled ''Essential Commentary on Go'' (), ascribed to Emperor Wu of Liang, which gives some general strategic advice on playing the game. Although Emperor Wu's ''Commentary on Go'' is mentioned in bibliographies from the Tang Dynasty through to the
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
, no extant editions of the text are known, and so the brief extract at the end of the Dunhuang manuscript is all that remains of this early Go treatise.


Controversy

In September 2013, Wang Runan, the vice-chairman of the
Chinese Weiqi Association Chinese Weiqi Association (), or Chinese Go Association, founded in Hefei, Anhui in 1962, is the major go organization in China. As a branch of the Zhongguo Qiyuan, it oversees professional players as well as strong amateurs, functioning in the s ...
, called for the ''Dunhuang Go Manual'' to be returned to China.


See also

*
History of Go The game of Go (board game), Go () originated in China in ancient times. It was considered one of the four arts, four essential arts of a cultured Chinese scholar in antiquity and is described as a worthy pastime for a gentleman in the ''Analect ...
* '' Classic of Arts'' * Go strategy and tactics


Notes


References

* * * *


External links


Transcription of the Chinese text of Or.8210/S.5574

Or.8210/S.5574
on the
International Dunhuang Project The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese city of Dunhuang and v ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunhuang Go Manual British Library oriental manuscripts Chinese manuscripts History of Go Dunhuang manuscripts Traditional board games