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Shudan
   

An old Japanese term for the game of Go is shudan, which literally means "hand talk".

Other names for Go are given in the RGG FAQ, Part 1, Section 4.

HolIgor: A question. The first character is "hand" (SHU,te), isn't it? And the second one is "dan" as in step, dan. Right?

exswoo: You bring up an interesting mistake. The shudan you're thinking about is a different one (手段) that means "plan/strategy". The shudan that is meant to refer to go is 手談, which literally means hand talk or hand discussion. This is meant to mean "No words are needed when playing go."

There are two other nicknames for Go as well.

Yuugen(幽玄):Lit. Ghost/Illusion. As in "There is more to Go than meets the eye."

Bouyuu(忘憂):Lit: Forgetting Sorrow. As in "Go is so much fun that you will forget your troubles."

It's most likely that these names were chosen for its pun-like qualities. You already mentioned the one for Shudan, and for the other two I just mentioned, Yuu (遊) could also mean "Play/Game", so Yuugen would become "The illusionary game", and Bouyuu could be "The game that will make you forget your sorrow".



This is a copy of the living page "Shudan" at Sensei's Library.
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