'Weiqi (also known as Go) is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. According to chess master Emanuel Lasker: "The rules of Weiqi “Go” are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play “Go”".

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Wang Runan 8P, the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, last week asked the British to return the Weiqi Classic, also known as the Dunhuang GoManual, to China. The manuscript, which itself dates back to the ninth century, is  a copy of  the earliest known manual of go, known as weiqi (weichi) in China, where the game originated. Sinologist Frances Wood, formerly of the British Library, has put the date of the manuscript some time in the sixth century. It was taken from the “Library Cave” in Dunhuang, China in 1907 by Aurel Stein and is now in the collection of the British Library in London.

 

Wang was speaking at a press conference at the British Museum on September 5 to publicize British-Chinese Weiqi Cultural Exchange Event held on September 7 at the museum, hosted by the UK Research and Development Centre for Chinese Traditional Culture and the East Midland Youth Chinese Organisation, in cooperation with the British Go Association (BGA).

 

A partial English translation of the fascinating text of the Weiqi Classic, with notes, can be found in the Library’sdatabase entry for the item.

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Wang Runan 8P, the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, last week asked the British to return the Weiqi Classic, also known as the Dunhuang GoManual, to China. The manuscript, which itself dates back to the ninth century, is  a copy of  the earliest known manual of go, known as weiqi (weichi) in China, where the game originated. Sinologist Frances Wood, formerly of the British Library, has put the date of the manuscript some time in the sixth century. It was taken from the “Library Cave” in Dunhuang, China in 1907 by Aurel Stein and is now in the collection of the British Library in London.

 

Wang was speaking at a press conference at the British Museum on September 5 to publicize British-Chinese Weiqi Cultural Exchange Event held on September 7 at the museum, hosted by the UK Research and Development Centre for Chinese Traditional Culture and the East Midland Youth Chinese Organisation, in cooperation with the British Go Association (BGA).

 

A partial English translation of the fascinating text of the Weiqi Classic, with notes, can be found in the Library’sdatabase entry for the item.