Page 68 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024

THE NOBLE GAME

REGINA KRAHL

Chinese chess, weiqi, or ‘surrounding chequers’, is one have a tone where purity and calm return as a leitmotiv
of the oldest board games still played today. Although … Taoist monks searching for immortality, hermits,
often referred to by its Japanese name, go, it is of sovereigns and poets play weiqi, often in close harmony
Chinese origin. It can be traced back to the Warring with nature, and time … seems suspended” (ibid. p. 47).
States period (475-221 BC) and has been popular in
China ever since. On account of its endless number In paintings, weiqi is similarly employed to embody
of possible configurations it requires highly complex moral concepts or philosophical ideas. These can be of
strategic thinking and is therefore considered one of a universal nature, like in depictions of the triumvirate
the most challenging board games worldwide. Although of a Confucian scholar, a Daoist priest and a Buddhist
believed by some to have been invented by military monk united around a weiqi board, symbolizing harmony
strategists, chess playing belongs to the ‘Four Arts’ between the Three Teachings (Ni Yibin, Kan tu shuo
a Chinese scholar was expected to master, besides ci [Looking at pictures to explain ceramics], Beijing,
calligraphy, painting, and playing the qin zither; of these 2008, pp. 129-138). More often, weiqi is associated with
four disciplines, it is considered the most difficult to Daoist values – the light and dark game pieces naturally
accomplish. Their mastery was considered desirable inviting association with the duality of yin and yang –
not only for male literati but equally for educated ladies. as in the often-illustrated and quoted story of a wood
Depictions of the Four Arts are known with both male cutter watching two immortals playing the game, who
and female participants, as, for example, on two mid- on returning home, discovers that over a hundred years
fifteenth century blue-and-white jars, the female version have passed since he left (Ni Yibin, op.cit., pp. 113-120).
from the Shanghai Museum, the male one from the Ideas of good government are also associated with
Victoria and chess, as in the story of the Four Elders of Shangshan,
Albert Museum, sages who had
London, both The physical quality of the porcelain produced under retreated to the
illustrated in the Yongle Emperor’s patronage was boosted to mountains in
the exhibition opposition to
catalogue Ming. previously unknown excellence […] The form of the the government
Fifty Years that present jar was developed in the Yongle reign, when of the Qin (221-
Changed China, 206 BC), but
The British artisans – or designers – conceived completely new later returned
Museum, forms with superb profiles, which display an unerring to help stabilize
London, 2014, the Han (206
figs 165 and 167. sense of proportions and a clear view to functionality. BC-AD 220);
the four are
The game typically
of weiqi is encountered throughout China’s literature, depicted around a chess board.
it features in most of the Classics, China’s ancient
philosophical texts, in all the great classical novels, and in Since the connotations of weiqi were essentially positive,
endless poems. Although it was sometimes criticized as it is not surprising that numerous emperors are recorded
being addictive and leading to laziness and a neglect of to have enjoyed playing it and that some are depicted
one’s duties, overwhelmingly it is praised as a noble and in paintings at the game board, in imaginary scenes.
educational pastime beneficial to a person’s character Two handscrolls of that nature are in the Freer Gallery of
and intellectual fitness. It is said that proficiency in this Art, Washington, D.C. (F1911.195 and F1911.227, gifts of
game requires “the tactic of the soldier, the exactness Charles Lang Freer): The Double Screen: Emperor Li Jing
of the mathematician, the imagination of the artist, Watching His Brothers Play weiqi, formerly attributed
the inspiration of the poet, the calm of the philosopher, to the tenth-century painter Zhou Wenju, and Emperor
and the greatest intelligence” (Elisabeth Papineau Minghuang and Consort Yang Playing weiqi, formerly
(transl. Michael Black), ‘The Game of weiqi, a Chinese attributed to the thirteenth century painter Qian Xuan,
Way of Seeing the World’, China Perspectives no. 33, both depicting Tang (618-907) emperors enjoying the
Jan.-Feb. 2001, p. 48, quoting Zhang Yunqi, Weiqi de game. The former is now attributed to the early Ming
faxian [Discovering weiqi], Beijing, 1991, p. 2). In Chinese dynasty (1368-1644), fourteenth century, the latter (fig.
literature, weiqi is often used to illustrate moral values. 1, detail) to the late Ming, seventeenth century. Taking
“The metaphorical use or the mere mention of the game place in a Ming-style setting, it shows emperor Xuanzong
(r. 712-756) holding a white porcelain game piece jar.

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