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February 26–March 3, 2016
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(Left) Koreans play a game of Go in early 1900s.
(Top) The round, white and black pieces
reflect the circular nature that ancient Chinese
ascribed to Heaven, while the square positions
they occupy represent earth.
(Below) The Chinese legend of the woodcutter
who watches two sages play Go.
Essence of China
How About a Nice Game of Go?
By Leo Timm | Epoch Times Staff
You wouldn’t think that a strategy game
would be created to improve moral character,
but according to Chinese legends, that is how
Weiqi, more commonly known to the West by
its Japanese name Go, came to be.
There are many tales about the origin of Go.
One version says the board game was originally used by the legendary Emperor Yao to
teach his son Danzhu moral principles.
The object of Go, the Chinese name of which
means “encirclement chess,” is to take and fill
in space on the 19 by 19 board in a way that
preserves the integrity of one’s own formations while encircling the other player’s pieces.
The game has only one kind of piece, called
stones, which are divided into white and black
to distinguish between the two players. This
deceptive simplicity belies the virtually endless number of possible Go matches, as well as
the subtle machinations which can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in even the most
unlikely of situations.
Go is one of the four great arts of ancient
China—the others are calligraphy, painting,
and mastery of traditional instruments. Perhaps because of its depth, Go was traditionally associated with celestial phenomena, military strategy, management of state affairs, and
even divination.
Patience and Character
As a youth, legend says, Emperor Yao’s son
10
Greatest Poems
Ever Written
PA R T 2 O F 10
Reaching to pick up his axe, he discovers that
it has long rotted away, and returning to his
hometown, finds himself in a different age.
Reflection of the Cosmos
A traditional Go board has 19 vertical and 19
horizontal lines, forming 360 points, which
is said to symbolize the myriad celestial bodies. A single point in the center of the board,
called the Tianyuan, symbolizes the center of
the universe. The round, white and black pieces
reflect the circular nature that ancient Chinese
ascribed to Heaven, while the square positions
they occupy represent earth.
Mastery of Go embodied the Chinese ideal
of living life in accordance with fate. This sort
of personal cultivation emphasizes obtaining
things naturally rather than through brute
force. This principle is reflected in the mechanics of Go: playing too aggressively risks encirclement, whereas the ability and patience to
analyze the flow of the match is the way to
victory.
Go’s simplicity is another element that
meshes well with traditional Chinese philosophy.
The white and black colors reflect the traditional Daoist yin-yang duality. Though they are
but two elements, the opposites coexist to produce “the myriad things.” In this way, a game of
Go can be seen not only as a struggle between
armies, but as the ceaseless interaction of complementary opposites found throughout life
and the world.
9. ‘The New Colossus’
By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
By Evan Mantyk
n this series we look at the ten greatest
poems originally written in the English language, one by one. It is presented from least
greatest (No. 10) to greatest greatest (No. 1),
and each poem is followed by a brief analysis.
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Emma Lazarus.
The ancients
invented
Go not for
the sake of
winning or
losing, but
for nurturing
character and
expressing
one’s artistic
talent.
Danzhu was lacking in character, so his father
sought help from divine beings. On the bank
of the Fen River, he saw two immortals sitting
across from each other under a green juniper.
They drew grid lines in the sand and placed
black and white pieces along the grid in a battle array.
The emperor approached them and asked
how he could improve his son’s behavior. One
immortal said, “Danzhu is good in competition
but is foolhardy. Take what he is good at and
develop his character that way.”
One immortal pointed at the sand lines and
stones. “This is a Go board,” he said. “The board
is square and static, while the pieces are round
and in motion. It follows the pattern of heaven
and earth. From the time when we invented
this game, nobody has truly mastered it.”
Upon the emperor’s return, Danzhu took
up Go and made rapid progress. The ancients
invented Go not for the sake of winning or losing, but for nurturing character, cultivating
morality and temperament, growing wisdom,
and expressing one’s artistic talent.
A mystical atmosphere surrounds Go, and it
is the subject of the Chinese saying “a day in
heaven is equivalent to a thousand years on
earth.” The legend behind this phrase is that of
a woodcutter who, lost in the woods, chances
upon a pair of immortals playing a game of
Go. Given a heavenly fruit by one of their servants, he observes their match for hours, until
the servant reminds him that it is time to
return home.
Analysis of the Poem
Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New
York harbor, this sonnet may have the greatest placement of any English poem. It also
has one of the greatest placements in history.
Lazarus compares the Statue of Liberty to the
Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World.
Like the Statue of Liberty, the Colossus of
Rhodes was an enormous godlike statue positioned in a harbor. Although the Colossus of
Rhodes no longer stands, it symbolizes the
ancient Greek world and the greatness of the
ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, which
were lost for a thousand years to the West and
only fully recovered during the Renaissance.
“The New Colossus” succinctly crystallizes
the connection between the ancient world and
America, a modern nation. It’s a connection
that can be seen in the White House and other
state and judicial buildings across America
that architecturally mirror ancient Greek and
Roman buildings, and in the American political system that mirrors Athenian Democracy
and Roman Republicanism.
In the midst of this vast comparison of the
ancient and the American, Lazarus still manages to clearly render America’s distinct character. It is the can-do spirit of taking those persecuted and poor from around the world and
giving them a new opportunity and hope for
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
the future, what she calls “the golden door.” It
is a uniquely scrappy and compassionate quality that sets Americans apart from the ancients.
The relevance of this poem stretches all the
way back to the pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in Europe to the controversies surrounding modern immigrants from Mexico and the
Middle East. While circumstances today have
changed drastically, there is no denying that this
open door was part of what made America great
once upon a time. It’s the perfect depiction of this
quintessential Americanness that makes “The
New Colossus” also outstanding.
Emma Lazarus was a New York poet of the
Romantic period. Of aristocratic Jewish background, she worked for the defense of Judaism
and Jews in Eastern Europe and throughout the
world, as well as for the welfare of immigrants
to the United States. Her poem “New Colossus” was at first forgotten among many poems
written to help raise money for the building
of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. After
Lazarus’s death, the poem—indeed a sort of
Lazarus itself (biblical character raised from
the dead)—was found by statue patron Georgina Schuyler, who selected it to be engraved
on the statue.
Full list of poems: ept.ms/GreatestPoems
To contact the Society of Classical Poets, write
to [email protected]
Evan Mantyk is president of the Society of Classical Poets and a high school English teacher
in upstate New York.