A famous chess player in ancient Weiqi. Mencius called Qiu Yi "a good chess player who knows the world". Although there is no specific name, the praise for the kindness of knowing the country has become a symbolic term similar to what later generations called the national hand. Later generations called a master a "contemporary autumn player", which means that his level is equivalent to that of a national player.
The appearance of masters like Qiu Yi showed that Go was quite popular at that time. To be sure, there is more than one national player like Qiu Yi. Qiu Yi is very lucky. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period lasted for 500 years. He is the only player who left his name and the first player we know.
Weiqi influence
At that time, Weiqi had become a science (skill) like Taoism, Mohism, Confucianism, medicine, divination, architecture and other industries. Although the influence of Go is not as good as politics, philosophy, saints and so on. In that era when a hundred schools of thought contend, any knowledge has its own soil for survival. Weiqi has its own independent circle, just like the seventy-two disciples of Confucius and Mohist academic groups.
Just as later generations praised Lu Ban as the founder of the construction industry, later generations also praised him as the "originator" of Go (Yi Dan Review by Feng in Ming Dynasty). Qiu Yi is the first Weiqi master in history. In ancient times, there was no concept of professional chess player, but there were people who made a living from chess or who took chess as their main business. If they can't reach the top among their peers, it's almost impossible for them to stay in history.