Qijing Shisanpian (The Classic of Weiqi in Thirteen Chapters) I

Qijing Shisanpian
(The Classic of Weiqi in Thirteen Chapters)
Its History and Translation [1]
By Paolo Zanon

The most important text on the game of weiqi is certainly Qijing Shisanpian (The Classic of Weiqi in Thirteen Chapters). Its precise style and fulness of information place it far above all the other texts devoted to weiqi in Chinese literature. The present paper discusses the transmission of this text until modern times and gives its full translation .
The date of composition of Qijing Shisanpian is given right at the beginning of the work. It goes back to the Huangyou period, during the reign of the emperor Renzong of Northern Song (1049 to 1054 AD). A certain Zhang Ni is also quoted as author.
Nothing is known about Zhang Ni; his name does not appear in any biographical work. In a Ming text, Wenjianlu (Report of Things Heard and Seen), written by Shao Bowen, the scholar Yu Jiaxi did find a reference to Zhang Ni, son of Zhang Wang, who lived south of Yangzi, was a member of the imperial burocracy, and was distinguished for his profound knowledge of Confucian culture. Yu Jiaxi believed that a mistake had been made in the name of Zhang Ni, because in the Song text Jilebian (Compilation of Small Trifles), son of Zhang Wang, was called Zhang Jing and not Zhang Ni.
It was in fact noted that Zhang Wang explicitly wished to call his son by a name containing the radical li, his grandson by one containing the radical men, his great-grandson with a jin, and so on, with shi and xin. In this way, in six generations, it would have been possible to read the sentence: “the sovreign is at the door, the heart is golden”.
All these facts led Yu Jiaxi to the conclusion that the correct name of the author of Qijing Shisanpian was Jing, not Ni. He assumed that the mistake could be explained by the similarity between the characters jing and ni, if written in caoshu style . In any case, there are no further informations about the author, who remains shrouded in mystery.
What we know about the text itself is clearer: already from Song dynasty some of its quotations indicate that the date mentioned in the introductions is credible. Tongzhi (Universal Annals), written between 1104 and 1162, reports a work entitled Yiqi (Weiqi) . Chongwen Zongmu (General Index of Noble Literature), edited by Wang Yaochen (1001-1056 circa), reports a “Yiqijing (Classic of Weiqi) in a juan, unknown author” . An undated and unidentified fragment in Siku Quanshu (Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature) states that, from the times of Liu Zhongfu (fl.:1086-1100) onwards, all the qidaizhao [2] have read “these thirteen chapters” .
So already in Song times there was a text, one juan long, devoted to the game of weiqi and set out in thirteen chapters. The slightly different title does not really present any problem, because even in Qing times Qijing Shisanpian was sometimes called Qijing .
The first compilation in which Qijing Shisanpian appears is Wangyou Qingle Ji (Collection of Pure Joys, in Order to Forget Adversity), edited by Li Yimin , about whom we only know that he was a qidaizhao in the Song dynasty. However, his name supplies us with more information: Yimin means “retired from society” and is a typical example of the hao adopted by the literati when the dynasty to which they were loyal to was overthrown by a new one. In this way they indicated their disinclination to serve the new rulers.
So Li Yimin should have lived after the fall of the Song dynasty (1278) and the establishment of the Yuan dynasty. The above quoted Siku Quanshu’s fragment states that Li Baiyang as the sixth qidaizhao after Liu Zhongfu: he could well be the same Li Yimin. Therefore Wangyou Qingle Ji must have been edited in the beginning of Yuan dynasty.
A copy of this text, edited by Li Yimin, still exists in the Peking Library. Wangyou Qingle Ji is divided into four parts: the first presents Liu Zhongfu’s Qijue (The Secrete Art of Weiqi), Zhang Ni’s Qijing and a Lunqijueyao Zashuo (Miscellaneous: Discourses on the Main Stratagems of Weiqi) by Zhang Jing. The latter is simply the last chapter of Qijing Shisanpian published as an autonomous text and ascribed correctly to Zhang Jing, while Qijing Shisanpian has already been wrongly ascribed to Zhang Ni.
The second part of the work illustrates examples of eighteen games, some by Liu Zhongfu, the third shows example of corner fights with variations; and the fourth thirty-four “life and death” problems .
However, the collection in which Qijing Shisanpian was published and which became the most famous and widely printed is entitled Xuanxuan Qijing (The Very Mysterious Classic of Weiqi). It contains three introductions which allow its history to be reconstructed.
The oldest of these is dated “autumn 1348” and was written by Yu Ji (1272-1348), about whom we know that in 1341 he wrote a preface to the Buddhist text Fozu Lidai Tongzai (General Report on Buddha and His Patriarchs) by the monk Nian Chang .
Yu Ji’s text [Introduction to The Very Mysterious Classic of Weiqi] begins with a series of classic parallels referring to weiqi: Yin and Yang, the circle and the square, active and passive, and so on. He goes on to recount an autobiographical event which occurred in 1330 at the court of the Mongol emperor Wendi. The sovereign asked the author, as a member of the imperial Hanlin Academy, if it was dignified for the Son of Heaven to play weiqi. Yu Ji answered:
When the ancients invented an object, they allowed themselves to be perfectly absorbed by its spirit, and from each object they extracted its usefulness. And indeed, there is no object which does not have its particular use.
Regarding the game, Confucius long ago said that playing weiqi was better than doing nothing, and Mencius even believed that it was an art.
One may understand it therefore only by concentrating on it with a will of iron. Moreover, the methods of organization and preparation, the Dao of conquest and preservation, reasoning and decision, all recall the logic followed in compiling state laws and preparing military orders according to division, brigades, battalions and companies. After having studied all these things and absorbed their contents, one’s attention will remain vigilant even in times of peace .
The emperor was so favourably impressed by these words that he permitted Yu Ji to carve an inscription on the box containing his personal weiqi set.
Yu Ji goes on to describe how he later fell into disfavour and was exiled to Linchuan, now on the outskirts of the present-day city of Fuzhou. During these years of his exile, he occupied his time exclusively with weiqi. His reputation became such that players passing through Linchuan visited him to play the game and debate fine points. In the autumn of 1348, a player arrived from Luling, now Ji’an, south-west of Nanchang, carrying a copy of Xuanxuan Qijing. He presented it as a work from Song times, collected and commented on by two of his countryman: Yan Tianzhang and Yan Defu. It is probable that he was referring only to Qijing Shisanpian as a Song text, and that Yu Ji misunderstood and extended the dating to the entire Xuanxuan Qijing.
Struck by the value of these texts, Yu Ji decided to have them printed for posterity, but committed the singular error of considering the two compilers as man of letters from the Song dynasty.
The second introduction to Xuanxuan Qijing is the work of Ouyang Xuan , composed at the beginning of the Chinese new year of 1349. Ouyang Xuan states that he was obliged to study hard as a young man in order to attain his present position, which was why he had not been able to learn how to play weiqi. However, he accepted the task of writing this introduction on the pressing request of Yan of Qingcheng, who intended to publish Xuanxuan Qijing. Although this lord Yan remains a mysterious figure, at least the place of publication may be identified. It was Qingcheng which, in Yuan times, was a small town north-west of the present-day Chengdu.
Of the compilers of the work, Ouyang Xuan writes:
- At Luling, the skilful player Yan Defu began to collect a series of works on [how to play] weiqi. Yan Wenke, who came from a distinguished family of literati, enriched this compilation by adding many illustrations exemplifying game situations .
According to Ouyang Xuan therefore, Yan Defu compiled the texts and Yan Wenke prepared the illustrations. Yan Wenke may be another name for Yan Tianzhang, or a mistake may have been made.
In the third introduction , dated “the third month of 1350”, we find that the compiler is the same Yan Tianzhang, believed to have died centuries before by Yu Ji. Moreover: Yan Defu was still alive at that time:
In my prefecture [i.e., Luling] lives professor Yan Defu, a person of absolute probity and iron will. At the early age of twenty, he was already famous south of the Yangzi as a weiqi player. He collected classics on this subject in order to aid scholars in posterity.
Now he is an old man and fears that the ancients, although intelligent, did not fully appreciate some of the finer points of the game and that, although their knowledge was profound, it was not perfect. This is why he is publishing this work, after having sought in it its deepest and most mysterious aspects and made comparisons with other discordant editions.
[...] I have therefore respectfully copied the text and had it carved in catalpa wood blocks in order to publish it. If learned and cultivated men of letters who share my opinions were to wish to correct my mistakes [and inform me of them], they would make me extremely happy .
In this appreciation, Yan Tianzhang attributes all the merit of the collection to Yan Defu, but it is possible that he himself also helped to prepare the illustrations, if he is that Yan Wenke quoted by Ouyang Xuan.
To summarise, therefore, Yan Defu of Luling was probably the main compiler of Xuanxuan Qijing. The work, still in manuscript form, quickly circulated among competent players along the Yangzi: the first editions, by Yu Ji and Yan of Qingcheng were prepared hundreds of miles away. When Yan Defu and Yan Tianzhang decided to print the collection, it was already famous.
Xuanxuan Qijing is composed of two parts: the first containing texts on weiqi, and the second, made up of five books (juan) illustrating various problems of play and recommended moves.
The Xuanxuan Qijing texts contain not only Qijing Shisanpian, but also Yizhi (The Excellency of Weiqi) by Ban Gu (32-92 AD), Weiqi Fu by Ma Rong (78-166? AD), Yuanyi (The Origin of Weiqi) by Pi Rixiu (834?-883?), Qijue (The Secrete Art of Weiqi) by Liu Zhongfu. There is also Wuqi Ge (Song of Understanding Weiqi) by Lü Gong - a poetical exercise - and Sixianzituxu (Introduction to the Illustrations of the Four Immortals) - a description of a match also illustrated in Wangyou Qingle Ji , by Xu Zongyan.
The history of the transmission of Qijing Shisanpian as an autonomous work ceases with the publication of Xuanxuan Qijing. However, it is interesting to follow its trials and tribulations until it came down to us.
One copy of the Yuan edition, printed in Qingcheng, has survived until now. It is identical to a Ming copy, the only one of that period still remaining, edited between 1573 and 1619 .
In Ming times, Xuanxuan Qijing was inserted in two large encyclopaedias, Jujia Bibei (Preparations Necessary for the Home), now lost, and Yongle Dadian (The Great Collection of Yongle), currently lacking in several of its books, including the one concerning weiqi. Yao Guanxiao, the editor of the latter, committed the same error as Yu Ji in considering Yan Tianzhang as the Song author of Qijing Shisanpian .
In Qing times, Yongle Dadian was the edition used for republication in Siku Quanshu. In fact, Siku Quanshu only contains Qijing Shisanpian (called here Qijing) and Liu Zhongfu’s Qijue. Neither the illustrations nor the commentaries of Yan Defu are included .
However, during the Qing period Zhang Haipeng prepared an edition based directly on the texts going back to Yuan times. Owing to a fire in the publishing house, this edition never saw the light of day, and it was only thanks to the original drafts of Zhang Haipeng that Qian Xizuo was finally able to have the definite edition of Xuanxuan Qijing printed by Shoushan'ge. Qian Xizuo not only republished Yan Defu’s notes, but also added his own and corrected the erroneous attribution of Qijing Shisanpian, referring it to Zhang Ni. He also was the first to put forwards the hypothesis that Zhang’s real real name was Jing and not Ni .
In 1717 Shen Fu reprinted Xuanxuan Qijing with notes. But the greatest commentator of Qing times, for the number and quality of his notes, was Deng Yuanlü .
In Japan, the first publication goes back to 1630. The oldest edition to come down to us bears the date 1753 and is entitled Gengenkikei rigenshô (Translated Edition of the ‘Very Misterious Classic of Weiqi’) .
In 1985, Xuanxuan Qijing was reprinted with the modern annotations of Li Yuzhen and Cheng Enyuan, together with all preceding commentaries and explanatory notes on possible textual differences. This is the edition from which the following translation was made .

[1] The author would like to thank Gabriel Walton for her translation of this work from the original Italian into English.
[2] Title introduced in Tang times to designate the members of the Hanlin Academy, selected for their skill at weiqi.