1. Ma's success with his Weiqi Fu was noted by Ouyang Xun (557~641), the Tang dynasty compiler of the Yiwen Leiju (Anthology of Artistic Literature). Though this no doubt helped secure the reputation of Ma's work, it was an incomplete version. It was reduced from 46 to 36 lines and omitted the xi (ah!) or caesura character in each line. Ouyang possibly relied on his readers' knowledge to insert it - it was typical of the fu style. Fortunately the full work survived in other compilations. These show some discrepancies, though they are actually useful in helping tease out the meanings of some difficult terms. The version that is regarded as the most error-free is in the Guwenyuan (Garden of Old Literature) by Zhang Qiao of the Song dynasty.
2. Zhonghe refers to general strategic and tactical theory. Zhang Qiao's version has the comment that this is "like the Golden mean." It is regarded as the highest level of go theory, hard to put into words.
3. Ouyang Xun amends "horse's head" to "horse's eye." Both terms may have been in used. Either way it clearly refers to the knight's move, and the "flight of geese" is similar, probably referring to the large knight's move.
4. The character chuo1 (or tiao2) is not known in the later go literature, though there is a very long gap before the first record of technical terms (Xu Yuan's Weiqi Yili Quanshi, or Explanation of Go Terms, in the Five Dynasties era, 907~960). There is the very similar chuo for hane later, but it is not likely to be what is meant here. The base meaning of the character is 'stride, move ahead, exceed'. Given the context it clearly means a way of escaping into the centre, and with knight's moves accounted for, it must be either a straightforward jump (Jp. tobi), or perhaps just escaping by running.
5. The character for the modern meaning of connecting along the edge would seem to have originally been used of connecting in general.
6. 'Evade' and 'stop' seems to imply a regrouping manoeuvre in this case.
7. The original meaning of qiang was 'proceed' and jiang was 'stand (trembling) according to the Ji Yun (Collected Rhymes). Zhang Qiao said the original meaning was lance shaped. Some regard it as kind of clubbing weapon.
8. Fang means 'room' star of the 28 stars of the lunar mansions reside. It is adjacent to the xin heart star in the constellation Scorpio. These two stars were important places in the Ming Dang (originally a hall for sacrificing to the gods but later used for grand buildings or even important spots such as acupuncture points). The meaning is the weapon of the heavenly lance club enters the important places of fang and xin.
9. On the basis of the entire poem there is a character missing one one line in front of or after qing. The next line suggests this is a 'not' (bu) before qing. Qing is obscure and may be 'thick'or 'join', but as various possibilities fit, the line is now ambiguous..
10. Qi refers to the centre point (tengen). Zhang Qiao helpfully says "has the same meaning as yue (vantage point). This and the four corner points are called the five prominences [an allusion to the Five Sacred Mountains of China] which cannot be moved." Yang Shen of the Ming dynasty quotes this definition in his Zhuanzhu Guyin and adds, "Nowadays we call them shi zi [starting stones] but the central piece is not placed." This may be proof that go in Han times used either four or five starting stones, but the poem itself seems only suggestive that there were some starting stones. What we know of Tibetan go and old Korean sunjang go suggests the possibility there may have been more. There are game records from the Ming with a centre stone in place [in Shiqing-lu] but the same games appear also without that stone. Fortunately there is a little more to go on. Another Weiqi Rhapsody, by Cai Hong (p. 134) of the Jin Dynasty has the obscure phrase "Take up the earthly representations in the four quarters, set up generals on the five Prominences." This seems to indicate starting with five stones. But this is an area that awaits more research.
11. Lizhe is replaced by zata (numerous, mixed) in a another version, but lizhe makes more sense.
12. Line 33 and line 34 refer to the same incident when the famous general Han Xin (d. 196) of the Warring Kingdoms Period went to the East to attack Zhao at Kingxing Defile. He was faced with an opponent who was trying to cut off his supply lines, so that Han Xin was in a precarious position. So he deployed his men with their backs to the river, and since they thus had no retreat they fought magnificently and soundly defeated Zhao. According to the Records of the Historian, when asked by his generals how he had secured such a magnificent victory, Han replied, "Does not the art of War say 'Put soldiers in a death trap and they will come out alive. Send them to destruction and they will survive.'" Ma Rong is alluding to this strategy in go, which may be crudely likened to the "one-weak-group strategy", or more elegantly to amashi strategy.
13. One version has three generals seven soldiers but this was amended by later editors. There is also an allusion to Lao Zi here.
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