Huang Longshi 黃龍士 (1651/1654 – ?, also known as Huang Yuetian) is known as one of the greatest
go players in history.
Biography
Huang Longshi was said to be born around ''
Shunzhi
The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661) was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty of China, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1644 to 1661. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succee ...
'' 8 or 11 during the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
(1651/1654). He was said to have died in his forties, but the exact date is unknown. Huang was born in
Jiangyan
Jiangyan District () is one of three urban districts of the city of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, having been, until December 2012, a county-level city. Jiangyan is noted for being the birthplace of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Commun ...
near
Taixian in China. His family was poor and he found that he could neglect his studies. However, he did not stop studying go, and soon become a strong enough player to earn money for his family. By the time Huang was 16, he was the
guoshou (national champion). He played a match with Sheng Dayou who was one of the strongest players of the older generation of champions. Huang pulled off a stunning 7 game victory in the match. He would continue defeating many top players, and would be praised by the go world.
Many people would now refer to him as Longshi, the Prodigy instead of his actual name. There is an excerpt about this in ''Seeing off Huang the Prodigy'' by
Du Jun. It contained the following ;
While Huang gained most of reputation, he had a handful of rivals. There was only one other person in China who could match him, and that was Zhou Donghou. Although Huang would beat Zhou many times, Zhou was the one giving Huang advice to become stronger.
During the latter time of his life, Huang stayed as a house guest with Xu Xingyou. They would play many go games, of which Huang won. However, every once in a while when Xu would win a game, he would brag to his guests that he had beaten Huang. Once during one of their games, Huang would whisper to Xu that his skill was so superior that he had ought to give Xu a three-stone handicap. This had turned in the ''three stone Games of Blood and Tears'', one of Huang's masterpieces. There was a story that had said Xu was the cause of Huang's death; seducing him with wine and women. It was said that Huang had coped with it for a while, until he died of a stroke. However, the story has been considered apocryphal as Huang and Xu were on a teacher-pupil relationship and Xu was very flattering of Huang. At the time of his death, there was no record that he had left behind a wife or children. Only his masterpieces survived.
Go playing style
He was also known for his contribution to
go theory. He would use a lot of forcing moves to give his opponent inefficient shapes, and would attack while gaining territory. He certainly had a unique style of go. He would play moves that were normal, that looked plain and clear. This left his opponents not knowing what to do, and if they would try to muscle him out, he would catch them with a surprising move or attack a weak point.
Quotes
He has been praised many times during his life and after his death. Famous book publisher Deng Yuanhui had this to say about Huang;
Huang was also regarded as one of the ''Fourteen Sages'' of ancient China by his contemporaries.
Go Seigen
Wu Quan (), courtesy name Wu Qingyuan ()His courtesy name was created based on his real name (''Quan'' means "spring, fountain" and ''Qing Yuan'' means "clear and pure source of water"). (June 12, 1914 – November 30, 2014), better known by ...
, considered to be one of the best go players of the 20th century, and of all time, had also commented on Huang. He had said that if Huang were alive during modern times, he would be a 13 dan. He also went on to say that Huang was at least the level of
Honinbo Dosaku
In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi w ...
. Honinbo Dosaku is considered by many to be the greatest go player of all time.
Even with all this praise, Huang is barely known anywhere outside of China. Much of this had come from
Inoue Inseki
In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi w ...
's impressions of Chinese go players during the 17th century in his famous book ''Hatsuyorun''. He had said that Chinese players would have to take senaisen (handicap) from the top Japanese players, although there is no mention of Huang. This led many to believe that all Chinese go players were no match to the Japanese go players.
Hayashi Genbi had also said something along the lines of Chinese players being inferior, although he said this about Huang, ''"Huang Yuetian and Xu Xingyou are known as recent champions of the Qing era. In my opinion, for Yuetian this must be so, but for Xingyou, judging by the games given in this book (''Gokyo Seimyo'') he is far behind."''
External links
Story at MSO WorldBiography at Sensei's Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Longshi
1650s births
Chinese Go players
Qing dynasty people
Sportspeople from Jiangsu
People from Taizhou, Jiangsu
1700s deaths