As Taoists say: Earth and Sky don’t do anything, but everything happens thanks to them.
On the goban in front of us Earth and Sky, immobile, are waiting that we move on them.
We array the first stones on Earth and Sky and the game takes its special configuration. Fuseki is played.
As we know, the stones themselves can’t be moved from their position, but the shapes of stones and the sequences of them are continuously in mouvement, in changement, creating quite at any move a new situation.
We can say that this movement has basically two directions, if we want to keep things simple enough to be able to speack easily about them: the direction from Earth to Sky and the direction from Sky to Earth.
The direction from Earth to Sky is the movement with the essence of
3 – fire – inspiration – expansion – increasing power
The direction from Sky to Earth is the movement with the essence of
4 – water – expiration – completion – control – invasion
Fire and water essences are the components of mouvement.
Examples can show quite clearly what we mean by that. We have to use imagination, of course 
We all know this position: Black took sansan, the most earthly position of goban. Sansan is perfect to take territory, but he is very low, he looks intensily at the sky above him hoping to develope. This developement will be very sure and safe, then White decides to limit it playing hoshi, who blocks the movement of Black from Earth to Sky.
From 2 starts, for example, this joseki:
With 3 Black inspires and expands himself, but White with 4 expires and keeps it under control. At any move Black tryes to get the way of Sky, like fire does, and White tryes to prevent the developement of fire pouring water on it (if you imagine Tengen already played you can see better the descending mouvement of White). As you see the game is breathing.
Or an other joseki can start:
White decides, with a deep expiration, to create a large bassin with 8 and 2 and fulfill it of water, letting Black’s fire free to go trough the sky with a deep inspiration.
An other example:
Also this position is very common: White decides that the bottom side of goban is the most valuable for him and plays 10, starting a joseki called nadare, avalanche. Well, it is snow, not water, but the mouvement of precipitation over the Black group is quite clear
Black chooses the 13 variation, a solid move of stabilization, but not only: 13 is also an absolute sente. Why? I marked q6 to help beginners like me to imagine the situation.
This is what it will happen if White tenuki, the nadare will be vaporized by fire You know how fire is: when the temperature is very high, things around it start to burn spontaneously, as the black stones on the upper side…
Then, white has to play q6 himself, to avoid that fire blaze everywhere, and White q6 is absolute sente too. Why?
Because the effect of the avalanche, or White expiration if you prefer, free to precipitate over the Black group and the right (originally black) side of goban, will be devastating. The breathing of the game is brocken.
Black should play r7, as the joseki teaches.
W find fire/inspiration and water/expiration sequences in the formation of good shapes:
the respiration of Black
the respiration of White.
The fire move 6 also gets power for an expiration/invasion into the Black shape, then Black defend at g16. After g16 White can inspire again and expand himself along the edge. This an other quality of fire who runs horizontally on Earth pushed by the wind.
Well, i stop here with examples, hoping that now the four essences are a little more clear.
If we play Go trying to develop this sensibility for the Breathing, the link with Alchemy will appears spontaneously.
We stay between the immobile Earth and Sky in the center of ourselfs, in a special point in wich the balance is perfect: the “medium”. This is the condition of medi-tation “in medio stare”. And we Breath: inspiration/fire, expiration/water. We can’t inspire and expire at the same time, we cant melt fire with water. We say that these essences are “opposite”.
Alchemy is the Art to join the opposites. On the physical plan it is impossible, it is possible on the essence plan. When the junction is done, in this pecial point of meditation, the quintessence appears, the fifth essence.
Is there a meditation point in a Go game? Can junction happen? Can quintessence appear? I saw it in masterpieces.
Engakuji Temple, Kamakura – 1940
White: Go Seigen
Black: Kitani Minoru
December 20, 2007 at 1:45 pm |
I would like to see a continuation of the topic
December 22, 2007 at 8:04 am |
me too, but my knowledge of Go is too little