Weiqi, also known as Go in English, is a black and white board game from ancient China. The game is considered one of the Four Arts for ancient Chinese literators (文人) to master. Besides Weiqi, they had to learn Chinese calligraphy (shu), painting (hua) and guqin playing (qin).
Weiqi has a history of over 4,000 years, even older than Chinese chess. According to some historical records, Weiqi was known as Yi in its early years. It is said to have been invented by Emperor Yao. Seeing that his son got angry easily and didn’t like to study, the emperor was quite worried. So he decided to find something to educate his son, and a board game came to him.
The rules of Weiqi are simple: using black and white stones, two players take turns putting their stones on empty cross points of the board. The aim is to surround (包围) a larger total area on the board while stopping one’s own stones from being taken by the other side. Stones do not move and are only taken off the board if they are completely surrounded.
The scene of two people playing Weiqi appears in many traditional Chinese paintings. The image (形象) of a player holding a stone over the board, looking for a place to put it, was later turned into a famous Chinese idiom (成语), which means “unsure about making a move”. The idiom is still widely used today.
With its development, Weiqi grew more popular. Later, it spread to other Asian countries and Western countries. Today, it has become an international board game.
