BROWN-GLAZED WITH RUSSET SPLASHES 'WEIQI' BOX
NORTHERN SONG / JIN DYNASTY
北宋/金 磁州窯黑釉褐斑圍棋罐of squatted globular form with short mouth rim, covered overall in a dark brown glaze with light brown splashes around, the base unglazed revealing the buff stoneware body 
13.5cm wide 
Private English collection
Weiqi is one of the four arts (siyi 四藝) of the Chinese scholar, were the four main academic and artistic talents required of the aristocratic ancient Chinese scholar-gentleman. They were the mastery of the qin (the guqin, a stringed instrument, 琴), qi (the strategy game of Weiqi or Go, 棋), shu (Chinese calligraphy, 書) and hua (Chinese painting, 畫). Although the individual elements of the concept have very long histories as activities befitting a learned person in ancient Chinese history, the earliest written source putting the four together is Zhang Yanyuan's 9th-century Fashu Yaolu (Compendium of Calligraphy) from the Tang dynasty. A Ming dynasty painting titled "The Eighteen Scholars” depicting a scene of Song-dynasty scholars playing weiqi, including a scholar holding a weiqi box of comparable form to the present example, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, museum no. Gu Hua 故畫858. A comparable Cizhou black-glazed weiqi box of similar form and size, dated to the Ming dynasty, is in the collection of the China National Tea Museum, Hangzhou.