In the 17th, 18th and 19th century, Go was popular in both Japan (
Edo period) and China (period of the
Qing dynasty). In Korea, a Go variant called
Sunjang baduk was played.
Japan At the start of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, four
Go academies were established. This table lists all heads of these houses, as well as some that were appointed heir but died before they became head of the house. Tokugawa also established the post of
Godokoro (minister of Go), which was awarded to the strongest player of a generation. Such players were dubbed
Meijin (brilliant man), which was considered equal to a 9 dan professional grade. Over the 300-year period covered here, only ten players received the title of Meijin. Several other players (16 total) received the title of
Jun-Meijin (half-Meijin), which is considered to equal an 8 dan professional grade and listed as such below. In some houses it was the custom that the head of the house was always named the same according to the
iemoto system (家元). All heads of the house
Inoue (井上) were named Inseki (因碩), heads of the house
Yasui (安井 ) were named
Senkaku (仙角) from the 4th head onward, and heads of the house
Hayashi (林) were named
Monnyu (門入) from the second head onward. To distinguish between these players, the names listed below are the names they had before becoming head of their house, or after their retirement. The house
Honinbo (本因坊) had no such tradition, although heads would often take one character from the name of their predecessor into their own name, notably the character Shu (秀) from the 14th head onward. • All ranks are professional dan grades unless otherwise noted.
China • Players could achieve the level of
Guoshou (literally National Hand), which is best in the nation and ranked 1 pin 品. This title is a derivation of Mencius description of Yi Qiu (弈秋), Qiu the Yi player in 《孟子·告子章句上》: 今夫弈之为数，小数也。不专心致志，则不得也。弈秋，通国之善弈者也。使弈秋诲二人弈，其一人专心致志，惟弈秋之为听；一人虽听之，一心以为有鸿鹄将至，思援弓缴而射之，虽与俱学，弗若之矣！as being "通国之善弈者", literally the finest Yi player of the whole nation. It is considered to be equal to the Japanese title of
Meijin. The term Qi Sheng (棋圣) was first mentioned by Ge Hong (葛洪) in 《抱朴子》：“棋之无敌者，则谓之棋圣。” The literal meaning is the Invincible Qi player is called the Saint of Qi (Qi Sheng). Note that both Guoshou and Qisheng were not tournament winner titles; instead they were honorific titles used by Wei Qi players and historians respectively to refer to the best players who were invincible in highest graded tournaments. Guoshou was the normal term used to refer to the promo player while he was alive, whereas Qisheng was used more as posthumous fame. The ranking of players began in
West Han dynasty (2nd century BCE) and formally recognized by the Governments during the
North and South Dynasties Period (3rd to 6th century CE). There were 9 ranks called pin 品 in the system, the same as the ranking system for government officials. The lowest rank was 9 pin, then 8 pin, etc. up to 1 pin. The difference of the lower 5 pin was about 1 zi (子, piece or stone), and the difference between the top 4 pin was half zi. ==20th century==