Anyone who is familiar with the history of Go will not be unfamiliar with the name "Honinbo", which is the surname of the first family in the history of Japanese Go, and the origin of the "Honinbo Battle", which has a transcendent position in the seven major title battles in the Japanese chess world today. For hundreds of years since its birth, the name "Ben Yin Fang" has been a banner standing at the pinnacle of chess.

Sun Suhe tapped lightly on the surface of the newspaper, and couldn't help but think wildly. His chess skills are really not worth a lot, but he knows a lot about the history of Go. When he was learning chess when he was a child, Sun Suhe was more obsessed with the countless old anecdotes on the chessboard that spanned the 361 roads, among which the thrilling points were not inferior to the magnificent martial arts imagined, and even the real history was often more exciting than the fictional ones.

The origin legend of Go can be traced back to the Yao Shun era, and Zhang Hua of the Western Jin Dynasty recorded in the "Naturalist Chronicles": "Yao made Go to teach his son Danzhu." Or clouds, Shun is stupid with his sons, and he pretends to play Go to teach him, and his law is not wise. ”

Whether it is Yao's invention of Go to educate his son Danzhu, or Shun's invention of Go to educate him because his son Shang is stupid, the origin of this kind of Go is inevitably suspected of clinging, just like the barber took Lu Dongbin as his ancestor, and the local snacks were eaten by Qianlong when he went down to the south of the Yangtze River, which is always difficult to believe.

However, the significance of legends often lies not in the truth or falsehood of the legend itself, but in why such a legend is formed. Through these, we can get a glimpse of the ancients' perception of Go.

The rules of Go are very simple, they can be explained in three words, and they have the taste of simplicity, and it is not impossible that they originated in ancient times, at least in the classics of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there have been clear references to the text of Go, such as "Zuo Chuan", such as "Mencius......

The variations of the two Go games are subtle and mysterious, and the possibilities are almost endless. The ancients regarded it as an otherworldly game, the vitality of heaven and earth is dripping between black and white, containing the mystery of nature and the philosophy of life, not only to educate children of the puzzle game, but also with the piano, poetry, painting at the same time, qin, chess, poetry and painting, the four arts of the gentleman, there is the ability to cultivate self-cultivation.

However, despite the reverence of Go in ancient China, it was always treated as a game.

It's just a game.

For example, in the allusion of Xie An's famous "Little Generation's Great Thief" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Go appears as a distinct contrast prop.

"Jin Shu Xie An Biography" cloud: "Fu Jian entered the Kou, and the Beijing master was terrified. Gashean conquest of the Grand Governor. Xuan entered the question, An Yiran was not afraid, and replied: "There is no other purpose. 'Then there is silence. Xuan didn't dare to reply, but asked Zhang Xuan to ask again. An Sui ordered to drive out of the villa, relatives and friends gathered, and Fang and Xuan Go gambled on the villa. An Changqi is inferior to Xuan, and he is afraid of Xuan, so he is an opponent and cannot win. An Gu said that his nephew Yang Tan said: "Beg for you with a villa." 'Swim in peace, and return until night, and appoint the commanders, each according to his own duties. Xuan and others are broken, there is a post book, An Fang is a guest Go, reading a book, and then he is put on the bed, and there is no joy, and the chess is the same. When asked, Xu replied: "The younger generation has been a thief." 'Both, but also inside, the transfer limit, the heart is very happy, do not feel the crooked teeth, its hypocrisy is so. ”

Xie An is a famous man in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a generation of high-powered statesmen, and the allusion of "making a comeback" comes from him. At that time, the former Qin Fujian, who was dominant in the north, led a million troops to invade the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south, and the soldiers were in the direction, the tiger devoured the whale, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was almost on the verge of extinction.

Xie An's nephew Xie Xuan, as a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, anxiously asked Xie An about the plan to retreat from the enemy, Xie An looked calm, and did not look afraid at all, but replied to him: "The court already has another idea." After that, he said no more.

Xie Xuan didn't dare to ask again, and sent Zhang Xuan to ask for instructions again. Xie An then ordered to take a car to the villa in the mountains, and relatives and friends gathered around him, but Xie An did not talk about military affairs at all, but sat down to play Go with Zhang Xuan and gambled on the villa.

Xie An's chess skills are usually not as good as Zhang Xuan's, but on this day, Zhang Xuan was worried about the war, where to play good chess, he was defeated by Xie An, and even the villa was lost. Xie An turned around to his nephew Yang Tan and said, "The villa is for you." "I went to the mountain to play, and I didn't come back until the evening to arrange the general, and it was appropriate to teach the opportunity.

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the former Qin army fought a decisive battle in the river, this battle of the Eastern Jin Dynasty created a miracle of winning more with less, and defeated the former Qin army that had an absolute advantage before the war in one fell swoop.

When the good news was rushed to Xie An, Xie An was playing Go with the guests, and he threw it on the bed after reading the good news, his face did not show any joy, and he still played chess as before. It wasn't until the guest asked him that he slowly replied, "The junior has already defeated the enemy." ”

When he returned to the inner room after playing chess, Xie An couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart, and he didn't even notice that he had broken the clogs under his feet when he crossed the threshold.

The so-called Mount Tai collapsed in front and the color remained unchanged, the elk was on the left and the eyes were not instantaneous, Xie Anshi's pretentious and calming kung fu has always been greatly valued in traditional culture, which is the envy of future generations.

However, if Xie An was reading official documents or reciting scriptures when the good news came, then it would be relatively ordinary to continue to do the important business at hand with a blank face, and lose the dramatic tension of the huge contrast.

Only such an elegant but "worthless" game as playing Go can form a huge contrast with the military emergency, thus showing Xie Anshi's extraordinary elegance.

Because of this, Go can only be used to cultivate sentiment, and if you really devote yourself to it like a professional chess player, and continue to pursue the supreme realm of chess for several generations, it will become a deviant who is not doing his job. On such historical soil, it is difficult to grow a professional game of Go in the modern sense.

Even if there are occasional geniuses born in history, such as Wang Jixin, Huang Longshi, Fan Xiping...... It was just a flash in the pan, and the glory was hard to continue.

It wasn't until the end of the 16th century that Go really ushered in its first earth-shaking revolution. If China is the biological mother of Go, then the adoptive mother that has matured the game is undoubtedly Japan, which is across the sea.

Go was introduced to Japan around the 7th century AD, and legend has it that it traveled east with the famous Tang envoy Kibi Shinbi. After its introduction to Japan, Go quickly became popular among the court and the nobility.

Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were influential figures in Japan's Warring States period, were all chess lovers. It was also in that era of ups and downs that a Zen monk came into being and opened up a new world for Go, and the professional game of Go began with him.

This monk was born in Kyoto's Kukkoji Temple and was called "Nichikai". In the Zen temple, there is a small courtyard next to the tower dedicated to the ancestors as a guard, called the tower head. The head of the tower of the temple is called Honinbo. In the future, Rihai took this as his surname and changed his name to Ben Yin Fang Shusha.

It is for the first generation of Ben Yin Fang.