Four arts

rdf:langString Four arts

rdf:langString Clunas, 135

rdf:langString Defu & Tianzhang & Fairbairn, 1

rdf:langString Tregear, 168

rdf:langString The most celebrated go manual is the Chinese Xuanxuan Qijing. It was published in 1349 by Yan Defu and Yan Tianzhang. The former was a strong go player and the latter a collector of old go books. They made a perfect team. The title of the book is literally The Classic of the Mystery of the Mysterious, but it is an allusion to Chapter 1 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching where the reference goes on to say that the mystery of the mysterious is 'the gateway to all marvels'. I prefer that as a title, especially as it is made clear in the preface that this latter phrase is meant to be called to mind, and is meant to imply that the book offers the way to mastering marvels in the form of go tesujis.

rdf:langString The most valued of all art treasures in China have been examples of the writing of certain aristocrats from the fourth century CE, including casual notes exchanged between them. The process whereby this came about is a lengthy one. It had to do with religious developments in the third-seventh centuries. It was also connected intimately to the role of writing in upper class life, to notions of personality, and the visible expression of personality.[...] The notion of writing as an art form however probably does not appear until the early centuries of the common era. It is linked to the emergence of the idea of the artist as an individual whose personal qualities allow command of the technical resources to produce work of a higher quality and greater value [...] than that of the common run of writers.

rdf:langString The growing complexity of society at the end of the sixteenth century was reflected in an enriched cultural life in which heterogeneous tastes supported a wide variety of artists and craftsmen: the presence of foreigners at court and increasing affluence, which made the merchants independent of the court and of the official class, were only two of the many factors which nurtured artistic diversity. Individuality also began to be considered an important quality in the painter; indeed, a small group of artists were even known as the "individualists".

rdf:langString The four arts (四藝, siyi), or the four arts of the Chinese scholar, were the four main academic and artistic talents required of the aristocratic ancient Chinese scholar-gentleman. They were the mastery of the qin (the guqin, a stringed instrument, 琴), qi (the strategy game of Go, 棋), shu (Chinese calligraphy, 書) and hua (Chinese painting, 畫), and are also referred to by listing all four: 琴棋書畫; qínqíshūhuà.