The “Four Arts of Chinese Scholars”, namely qin (the guqin, Chinese stringed instrument), qi (the strategy game of go), shu(Chinese calligraphy) and hua (Chinese painting), are deeply rooted in the Chinese civilization,

and have been admired and pursued by people of refined tastes since ancient times, becoming an artistic form to show dispositions, express feelings and cultivate sentiments. Qin was a symbol of ancient Chinese musical culture. Implicit and profound, it reveals extraordinary taste through its elegance, indicating the endless charm of self-constraint and meaningfulness in traditional Chinese culture. The story about Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi known as “Lofty Mountains and Flowing Water” has been popular for long. Qi, known as “yi”in ancient times, specially refers to weiqi (the game of go). The game of go is like the Tao of Taoism, or the life of man, containing numberless truths in the world despite its small size. In ancient times, the best go player was Yiqiu. According to Gaozi Shang (First Part of Gaozi) in Mencius, “Yiqiu was the best player in the game of go all over the territory”, which is evidence for his extraordinary skill in the game of go, and the story “Yiqiu Teaching His Disciples” is thus well known.

Source: Chinese Post

published July 24th, 2013