Emperor Yao and the invention of weiqi

tundra · #1

Many go players have heard the story that go (or weiqi) was invented by the legendary Chinese Emperor Yao, in an attempt to improve his son, Danzhu. (It is not clear to me if Yao's plan worked.)

I do not seriously view the story as history, but a question about it occurred to me. When does this story/legend of Yao inventing go first appear in the records, relative to other legends about Yao?

My thought is this: If the go story has been part of Yao's legends from our earliest surviving documents, than we are dealing with a very old story. Who knows how far back it goes. But if, on the other hand, the go legend first appears several centuries after other recorded legends of Yao, then that would suggest (though not prove, of course) that the go legend is probably a later addition. (And sadly, it would give us even less reason to believe this particular legend.)

Comments from all are welcome. Though you probably already know who I am hoping will answer this ;-)

CDavis7M · #2

This legend is not really about whether the Emperor invented Go or whether he even had a son.

This is about the place in your heart that holds the stones and the nakades you made along the way.

tundra · #3

This entry in Senseis Library largely answers my question:
https://senseis.xmp.net/?MythOfOrigin

There is much more detail in some of John Fairbairn's articles. In particular:
https://gobase.org/reading/history/
https://gobase.org/reading/history/china/
https://gobase.org/reading/history/china/?sec=part-2
and this, which seems to be another copy of his China article:
http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/essay ... china.html

To quote from the Senseis article,

Quote:

While the story of Yao and Shun was widely known and is told in the earliest records on chinese history (like the Shu Jing 書經), the idea of Go originating there only appears during the Han Dynasty. At that time confucianism was declared official state doctrine, which considered Go primarily a waste of time. Yao and Shun were very highly regarded by confucianists as morally perfect sage-rulers of the distant past, so it is quite likely this legend was created by Go players of the Han who wanted to legitimize their addiction and the resulting neglect of their social duties.

So it does appear that the go legend is, indeed, a much later addition. Moreover, rather than being innocuous fun, it sounds like it was a deliberate attempt to raise the reputation of the game, by altering the historical or mythic narrative. Whether or not one agrees with such tactics, this does at least suggest that human nature has not changed that much over the millennia.

Emperor Yao and the invention of weiqi

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