Guanzi Pu
官子谱 (guānzǐpǔ) is a large classic Chinese problem collection (1478 problems) in circulation from the sixteenth century onwards. First author/editor Guo Bailing. Published in 1660; again edited and published 1689 by Tao Shiyu.
The name implies endgame problems, and the collection has many examples of a relatively unusual type of question: not orthodox life and death, but ways to attack a group that will live with best play, but at the cost of points. The collection expanded to include many types of question - effectively any way of exploiting bad shape.
There are numerous editions of this classic set of go problems.
Cover of a Korean book with a small selection of all 官子谱 problems.
"Weiqi Technique Encyclopedia (Guanzi Pu)" or "围棋技巧大全 (官子谱)" (wei2qi2 ji4qiao3 da4quan2 guan1zi pu3) is a new (March 1996) version of Guanzipu edited by Jiang Zhujiu and Jiang Mingjiu which contains around 850 problems. The ISBN is 7-80548-477-5 and the publisher is Chengdu Shidai Publishing (成都时代出版社) The book is one of a set of three entitled 世界围棋死活经典名着 (Shi4 jie4 Wei2 qi2 Si3 huo2 Jing1 dian3 Ming2 zhu4 (World Weiqi Masterpieces of Life and Death). The other two being 《围棋发阳论》新解,程晓流解说 Weiqi FaYangLun, New Solutions/Interpretations(?) and 《围棋技巧大全》 (即 《官子谱》) Weiqi ji4 qiao3 da4 quan2 (Guanzi Pu). [100]
The book was reprinted in March 1998 by Sichuan Go Art Publishing (蜀蓉棋艺出版社) with a new cover.
According to the preface many problems are taken out because they didn't actually work. Also many problems have been revised to correct earlier mistakes. Explanations of the solutions are also added.
Also according to the preface, the title of the book "Guanzi" doesn't actually mean endgame in ancient Chinese, but rather technique in general. It is only in modern Chinese that "Guanzi" means endgame. In the edited version the whole book is seperated into 6 chapters:
- Attack/Defense - 78 problems
- Shouduan (手段) - 98 problems
- Tesuji - 86 problems
- Connection (between groups) - 18 problems
- Tsumego - 374 problems
- Yose - 184 problems
Purchasing information
Copies of the book may be purchased from Jiang Mingjiu directly. Please contact him at mingjiu7p@hotmail.com should you wish to purchase one or more copies of the March 1998 printing.
[100] tderz,Velobici: This is one book of a series of three ("World WeiQi Life&Death problems" (世界围棋死活经典名着 in Chinese;) with the same page size and cover design and heavy advertisement in WeiQiTianDi) :
- QiJingZhongMiao, ISBN7-80548-916-5/G.801, 20¥ yellowish-green
cover, and the third book is
- FaYangLun 《12298;围棋发阳论》新解,程晓流解说 Weiqi FaYangLun, New Solutions/Interpretations(?), Cheng Xiaoliu (?). Light blue cover. Please see that write up at the bottom of FaYangLun.
- Guanzi Pu, 33.5¥, darker green cover.
Bill: Current Amazon listing (Japanese)
Go Seigen provided the commentary for the (Japanese) four volume set.