The Game of Go

[In China] by 600 - 1200 A.D., spurred on by changes in the ideas of poetry as art, the production of Go books, the melding of the sky- and earth-oriented varieties of feng shui, and the general blending of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, playing Go had become a virtue and a reflection of the greater powers of the universe.

More than simply a lesson in the Way of the Tao, the game became for the Confucians an expression of the One and for the Buddhists a method to lift the "Twenty-seven Veils of Ignorance" that prevented mankind from learning the Truth—on the board and in life. By medieval times, the best players were described as "Walking in the Light" and Go had joined music, calligraphy, and painting as one of the Four Great Accomplishments that any cultured person would be expected to master.

---Peter Shotwell, in Go! More Than a Game---