Yunzi

   

Yśnzi 云子 are Go/Weiqi stones from Yunnan and shortly called Yunzi.

White Yunzi resembles white jade http://www.ynartcraft.com/mj/mj/htm/qt/qt/yz.jpg (ф 21.6mm, thickness 7.6mm-9.2mm),

black Yunzi are non-glossy black by itself (can be oiled), but if held against the light, they will appear dark green (black ф 21.9mm) and show a nice translucency: http://china.alibaba.com/img/product/54/49/42/5449426.summ.jpg http://www.hkgo.com.hk/thirteen/HKGO-010.JPG

Now here comes the test: If holding against the light and you see voids, resp. gas bubbles in it, you may have glass stones. (That's what I was told later)

Traditional Yunzi Go stones are not lense shaped (≠ Japanese stones), but half-flat.
Called "One side convex" on [ext] http://go-gamestore.com/goequip/stones/stoneinfo.htm#Marble , where the say it can be mass-produced.

Chinese players like this for analyzing variations by turning the stones in question upside down. (e.g. cf. with the picture on Weiqi Tiandi, where 杨莲 Yang Lian seems to have turned around all stones)

Sold at e.g. [ext] http://www.yun-zi.com


mdh: I have a set of these and they are very nice. There is only one slight problem. They do not fit on a regular Goban very well. They are slightly larger then Japanese (Korean) stones and when the Go board gets crowded, They will overlap some. I have a couple boards, but I plan to make a homemade board just for these stones.

rubilia: If you by "regular board" refer to a Japanese board, the mismatching is no surprise, since Chinese boards are slightly bigger. I think, Korean boards (and stones) are again a little smaller than Japanese ones, but I am not sure about that.

kds?: I bought some yuniz stones (bi-convex) from go-gamestore.com and love them! The fit my japanese boards just fine. After playing with them, I doubt I will ever use plain glass stones again! They feel good in the hand and look great on the board.


mdh Can anyone tell me anything about Yunzhi Stones. I have thinking of getting a set of Chinese style stones (Flat on the bottom) And I have been seeing these Yunzhi Stones in bamboo woven bowls on ebay for (USA)$49.99. They say they are actually a stone (Marble) material, not glass, plastic or ceramic. The only other reference I have found to chinese stones at the main online dealers is from Yutopian about Yunnan stones that are in the Japanese style which I would take to mean rounded on both sides.

Niklaus: Maybe you'll find more info if you look for Yunzi (short for Yunnan Qizi) instead of Yunzhi, which appears to be a typo.

mdh The spelling you see above (Yunzhi) is what is given in the Ebay auction. But the problem remains that I have not been able to find a source for good Chinese style go stones. They don't have to be Yunzi. Doing a google on Yunzi, Yunzi Go Stones didn't help. Chinese Go Stones does a little better but there is too much junk.

John F. You can't mix Chinese and Japanese and expect Google to sort it out! Go and stones are Japanese terms. Use yunzi weiqi or yunzi weiqi pieces.

Niklaus: Apparently the Chinese aren't yet into exporting weiqi equipment (I guess the domestic market is still a little bit bigger :), as google really doesn't turn up much. However I just found the website of the "Yunnan Weiqi Factory" at [ext] http://www.yun-zi.com. Most of it is in Chinese, but if you click at the link below the nice picture of the company president, there's a little bit translated into english.

Yunzi Owner: I have a set of chinese style yunzi. I find them very attractive - they are very uniform in size, beautiful in colour, heavy and have large specific heat capacity (i.e. feels cool to the touch, or warm if they have been left in the sun). Another nice thing about them is the sound they make when you rattle them in the bowls (or put a large capture of enemy stones in the lids) - it is very pleasing to the ear.

The material they are made from is supposedly secret, but it is certainly nothing like plastic - more like glass, ceramics or stone without being any of these - I dont really know what to compare them to, but you wont be disappointed. They are certainly a quality product. The straw bowls are, lets say, at rustic touch and part of the experience.

Apart from ebay you may like to try [ext] http://www.go-gamestore.com/ or [ext] http://www.yellowemperorbooks.com (look under cultural supplies). I got mine from Yellow Emperor, but be advised that these are chinese sized (if there is such a thing), which is to say too large for a standard japanese goban. Luckily I had a slightly larger goban they fit on. Yunzi comes in several sizes - apparently go-gamestore sells the size that fits a japanese goban, but I have no experience with them.

mAsterdam: At the [ext] Yellow River Bookstore in Amsterdam (100 m. from Dam) I bought a very nice set. The white stones have a beautiful green glow. The sound makes you want to play more. There is nothing mistique about the sound of one hand. This is it. In one of the straw bowls there was a yellow nylon cloth with a 19x19 grid on it. A 35 Euro portable go ... err ... wei qi set.

John F. Here's a story about the photo at the bottom of the [ext] http://www.yun-zi.com homepage. It shows Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh being presented with a set of Yunnan stones during a state visit to China in October 1986.

This story will make most sense to UK readers, but still... On a visit to China a couple of years ago, I saw a flyer for Yunnan stones in a department store. It had this picture on it. I had not known before that the Queen had been given such a present and so started talking to a salesgirl about it. We soon attracted a crowd. What puzzled me was that no-one knew who this famous person was. So I decided to give them a clue. I said that this was the most important lady in England. Recognition dawned all round: "Ah, Mrs Thatcher!" they said.

Having been on a quasi-state visit with Mrs Thatcher to Korea, I could understand their confusion, but of course I knew that the Chinese visit was on a much higher level. In particular, presents exchanged in such cases are normally kept in a government store, to be wheeled out for display when the visit is reciprocated. I was hoping to get a close-up photograph. However, on inquiry, it turned out that these stones had appealed to the Queen so much that she decided to keep them in her own apartments at Sandringham. I have visions of her offering them as Mint Imperials after dinner, but short of a personal invitation it doesn't look like I can ever see these stones or find out why they really appealed.

mdh To finish this thread out. I bought the stones. And to the person that said it was Yunzi and not Yunzhi, the printed sticker on one of the bamboo bowls says Yunzhi next to some chinese characters. I bought them from freeblue collectables through Ebay. If you hold the black stones up to a light they are slightly transparent with a nice color of green. There was a folded yellow vinyl board in one of the bowls.

I spent the first night cleaning the white powder off of them. The next night, I went through a game on my 1" slotted board (agathis). Here are my first impressions. The stones have some weight to them. They are at least as heavy as Ing stones. Holding them between the first and middle finger is not as easy. They are a little tighter on the board then regular stones, but not so that they are unusable. All in all, it will take a few games before I fully decide if I switch over to them from my old glass set.

John F. It is Yunzi, but Yunzhi here may mean something like manufactured in Yunnan - we'd need to see the characters to know, But the real point I want to make is to ask whether you aware that a Chinese board is bigger than a Japanese one (and is square)? Also, the habit of using two fingers like prongs is a Japanese one. I've shared your hesitation about using Chinese stones, and I haven't really liked any Chinese board I've ever seen. Maybe first loves are impossible to ditch.

Yunzi Owner: A little tip - after cleaning the black Yunzi giving them a little oil really brings out the color. Put the stones in a plastic bag and add a very small amount of oil and twirl the stones around in the bag for a minute or two. Wipe the stones clean of excess oil. Litterally one or two drops of oil is enough - err on the side of caution, you dont want to turn your new stones into an oily mess. Get an oil suitable for applying to stone surfaces or light sewing machine oil. Don't use cooking oil. The difference this makes to the appearance is dazzling - keep a stone unolied and see for yourself. Only do this to the black yunzi - it does not seem to do much for the white. axd: worse: oil is not good for the shell stones.

mdh I did not know that the Chinese board was a larger (and square) The vinyl board that came with the set does match your description of larger and square but I thought it was because it was a cheap add on. I will have to give the oil idea a try, thanks.

Seffer Yunzi stones are made of jadeite, a type of jade, or so I've been told.

Nemir I went on a pilgramage to the factory in Yunnan, and was rewarded with a wonder day playing go with the cheif engineer of the factory who was a lovely man. They have many, many different grades of stone for sale made with many different materials, but all are of a local stone. They are passionate about their craft, and proud of their history and their reputation as making the best stones in all of china. The stones they sell in bamboo were (I thought) much less nice to play with than their higher end stones. You can see many of their different stones and their prices on the website. Certainly the stones in the bamboo bowls were much cheaper! They also sell boards which are definitely not square. I shall update with full dimensions at a later time.


This is a copy of the living page "Yunzi" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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