A week ago I could not have told you what the trivium was. I know that the trivium was the basic three of the seven liberal arts, but I could not name them. They are grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. This week I ran across the idea of the trivium applied to learning a single subject, with the different arts being more general than you might think. Grammar, for instance, would not just be a set of rules, like the grammar of a language, but would be the basic knowledge of a subject. Dialectic would be the logic of a subject, how things are related, and how to discover and test those relationships. Rhetoric would be how to apply knowledge and make use of logic in practical and creative ways. In traditional education, these three were studied in sequence, but that is not strictly necessary.
(Searching the internet I have noticed that different people have different perspectives on the idea of the trivium and apply it in different ways to education. I join the club, with no pretense that I am being faithful to the original concept.
)As for grammar, there is quite a bit of go knowledge: the basics of capture and ko, the need for two eyes for independent life, the different types of eyes, the different kinds of seki, basic shapes, basic haengma, basic tesuji, etc. Much of it is encapsulated in proverbs, such as eight live, six die and hane at the head of two stones.
I think that dialectic encompasses technique: tesuji, tsumego, much of the endgame. These types of problems have provable solutions. Reading would also go here. I think that joseki would, too. Not that they are provable, but they undergo a dialectical process.
Rhetoric would include strategy and creative application of knowledge and technique: fuseki and much of the middle game; attack and defense, reduction, invasion, sabaki, shinogi, sacrifice, furikawari, etc.; advanced concepts such as thick and thin, heavy and light, kikashi and kikasare. Also efficiency and positional judgement.
