The Last Emperor's Weiqi Set

Puyi (溥儀), the tenth and last emperor of the Qing Dynasty to rule over China.

Some of you might have seen the movie entitled, The Last Emperor. It was a dramatization of the life of Puyi (溥儀), the last emperor of China.

Pong Yen of Yellow Mountain Imports shared with me three photos he took of the emperor's weiqi set. Surprisingly, it was a rather simple one that included a pragmatic folding board.

I imagine that the emperor may have had a few weiqi sets. This may have merely been the one that survived the cultural revolution.

Notice the beautiful gold artwork on the bowls. The colors for the stones were dark and light blue.

This side-shot shows some interesting flecks within the stones themselves. Perhaps they were made of glass or some semi-precious stone? The bowls are also different from the Japanese Kitani-style.

The star points were not marked with a dot but with emphasis lines. In this photo too, you can see what is either flecking on the stones or the remnants of some design.


Back to KGS matches

I'm going to try to get in a few weekly games on Kiseido Go Server. I haven't been playing much for a long while thanks to all the hullabaloo at work. I expect to be clobbered but it would only get worse if I don't play. I also want to experiment with some new ideas and advice that I received.


Fuseki Quiz 10/20

Black to play. Miyamoto-sensei says to use your intuition.
I chose E.

Scoring of Last Weekend's Fuseki Quiz 9/20
(Jump to last week's quiz!)

• A = 6
• B = 2
• C = 8
• D = 10, A severe move. Note only does it attack the Black stone in the lower right but it also threatens W-H3 as a follow-up move. Black would be forced to play H3 himself.
  
• E = 4