Pînă acum am insistat în a căuta filmele care arată cîte ceva despre Go, singura carte prezentată în această serie fiind una pe care a descoperit-o pentru că am citit-o, nu pentru că aş fi găsit titlul în lista dedicată.

Şi iată a doua carte prezentată, peste care am dat singur ca şi în cazul precedent. Nu tocmai întîmplător este tot o carte de Piers Anthony şi anume Isle of woman din  quintologia Geodissey.

Întîmplător este una din puţinele cărţi pe care am lăsat-o necitită după ce am început-o. Asta cu cîţiva ani în urmă. Îl citesc pe Piers pentru că scrie fantasy, şi scrie bine. El şi Roger Zelazny fiind practic autorii a mai bine de jumătate din cărţile citite de mine în ultimul deceniu.

Dar Insula femeii, nu e fantasy. Practic este o carte de istorie, o carte de istorie romanţată a omenirii de la începuturi pînă la cîteva decenii în viitor. Zic cîteva, deşi acţiunea ultimului capitol se întîmplă peste 9 ani,  la momentul cînd era scrisă 2021 era la o distanţă de trei decenii. Am început cartea cu mulţi ani în urmă şi am abandonat-o. Nu era cu fiinţe fantastice sau pe planete inventate, şi m-a plictisit. Am reluat-o acum întîmplător, şi neîntîmplător de data aceasta mi-a plăcut. Cartea este chiar fantastică, dacă privim fantasticul drum al omului de la clipa cînd s-a dat jos din copac pînă în prezent.

Pentru că mi-a plăcut, voi prezenta cîteva detalii în plus, nu doar strict ce e legat de Go.

Fiecare capitol are o notă introductivă şi una la final, oferind date istorice despre locul şi timpul în care are loc imaginara acţiune din respectivul capitol. Mai este prezentă şi o hartă  lumii în care este marcat locul.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 — FOOTPRINTS urme de picior

CHAPTER 2 — TOOLS unelte

CHAPTER 3 — FIRE foc

CHAPTER 4 — ISLE insula

CHAPTER 5 — ART artă

CHAPTER 6 — VOYAGE călătorie

CHAPTER 7 — NEANDERTAL neanderthal

CHAPTER 8 — CAVE peştera

CHAPTER 9 — CAT felină

CHAPTER 10 — TOWN oraş

CHAPTER 11 — CITY citadelă

CHAPTER 12 — KINGDOM regat

CHAPTER 13 — EMPIRE imperiu

CHAPTER 14 — IRON fier

CHAPTER 15 — SILK mătase

CHAPTER 16 — T’ANG  dinastia T’ANG

CHAPTER 17 — LITHUANIA

CHAPTER 18 — KUBA

CHAPTER 19 — INDIA

CHAPTER 20 — MALTHUS

După capitole se poate ghici conţinutul cărţii, şi nu cu mult efort putem ghici în care capitol este vorba despre Go.  Evident, T’ang, care este o dinastie ce a dăinuit între anii 618-906.

La curtea împăratului, fiu al cerului cum era considerat, sălăşluiau şi concubinele sale, printre care şi Zhao. Aceasta a cam fost ignorată de împărat, dar nu şi de fiul acestuia, motiv pentru care deşi la moartea împăratului a fost pusă pe liber, cînd fiul a ajuns la putere, Zhao a reajuns pe vechea funcţie dar de data aceasta nu a fost ignorată, ci a luat locul concubinei favorite, ulterior chiar locul împărătesei şi la moartea împăratului fosta concubină ignorată a devenit “Fiu al cerului” conducînd strălucit imperiul pînă la 80 de ani. Detaliu amuzant, Zhao a fost rechemată de la mînăstire unde fusese retrogradată nu de împărat, ci de soţia acestuia, care se pare ca nu agrea că prea era favorită concubina favorită, şi ştiind de povestea din copilăria soţului ei, a ticluit rechemarea ei la palat. Planul se vede că a fost strălucit pentru că nu doar rivala ei a fost înlocuită, ci şi ea însăşi.

Dar revenind la Go, acesta apare la prima întîlnire a proaspătului împărat cu Zhao care o avea ca slujitoare pe Lotus, o copilă de 12 ani. Lotus avea obligaţia de a fi mereu la dispoziţia stăpînei sale, dar evident cînd aceasta era la dispoziţia împăratului, Lotus nu avea ce căuta în aceeaşi încăpere aşa că i s-a spus să aştepte împreună cu servitorul de gardă în antecameră. Şi nefiind altceva de făcut, servitorul îi  face  o propunere.

-Atunci stai aici la masă ca să jucăm o partidă de Go.

-Go?

-Nu cunoşti jocul regal de înconjurare?

-Am auzit de el, dar nu am jucat niciodată.

-Atunci e timpul să înveţi. Şi cel mai uşor se învaţă jucînd. Aceasta este tabla de joc, 19 linii pe 19, acestea sînt piesele albe şi negre, ia una neagră şi pune-o pe o intersecţie.

Îi explică scurt ce e aia libertate şi captură, şi că de fapt teritoriul e cel care contează, şi lupta începe fără întîrziere. Urmează alte partide şi cînd la miezul nopţii cînd apare înlocuitorul servitorului, Lotus exlamă uimită.

-Cum? deja este miezul nopţii? Dar partida nu este gata! Ambii servitori izbucniră în rîs.

-Iată un adevărat jucător de Go. Joacă de cîteva ore şi nu a observat.

Mai este un pasaj în care împăratul joacă o partidă de Go cu un nobil, Zhao îi ţinea companie, şi Lotus avea grijă de unul din cîinii regali. La un moment dat concubina observă că situaţia împăratului devine din ce în ce mai nefericită, aşa că îi face semne din ochi lui Lotus. Nu prea pricepea ea ce vrea stăpîna, dar se riscă cu o interpretare şi se face că scapă cîinele, care jucăuş fiind, sare pe tabla de Go să lingă faţa împăratului, după care îşi vede de ţopăială cu slugile după el. Partida e ruinată, pare un accident. Dar fiul cerului este salvat de la o înfrîngere umilitoare.

În continuare textul în original.

The servant was an older man. “Sit down, girl,” he said. “Have you eaten?”

“Yes.” Lotus looked around nervously. “She told me to—to wait here.”

“That’s right. She will be with him the night. You may lie on those cushions and sleep, if you wish.”

“I—yes. But not yet.” She did not want to say that it bothered her to be alone with a strange man.

“Be at ease, girl,” he said as if reading her mind. “I am not a man. I’m a eunuch. I will not molest you.”

She stared at him, astonished. She did not know what to say. But she had to say something. “I don’t know exactly what to do.”

“Then sit at the table here and play me a game of go.”

“Go?”

“Don’t you know the royal game of enclosing?”

“I—I have heard of it, but never played it.”

“Then it is time to learn. Do not be afraid of me, girl. I serve the Son of Heaven. I would cut off your head if he told me to, but that is not his business tonight. I am here to see that no one intrudes, and at midnight I will be relieved by another with the same mission. I am bored, and go is the game to distract one’s mind. Let us make our introductions: I am Old Coal.”

“I am young Lotus,” she said, smiling.

“Here is the game,” he said. “Here is a place for you.”

Lotus joined him at the table, sitting on a cushion to get enough height. There was the go board, a grid of nineteen lines square. Beside it were two bowls of pebbles, white and black. “The game is best learned by playing,” the man said. “Take a black stone and set it at any intersection on the board.”

Lotus took a black stone and set it in the closest corner.

“Now observe: your stone has two freedoms. Two directions in which you might build. I will remove one of them.” He set a white stone next to it. “Now if you do not protect yourself, I will remove your other freedom, kill your stone, and take it from the board, and you will have nothing.”

Lotus considered, and put her next black stone on the place of her second freedom. “Ah, now you flee,” he said. “I must work harder to enclose you, for a chain must be captured as a unit.” He put another white stone beside his first, starting a chain beside hers. “But if you make a mistake, I will still get you.”

“But what about all the rest of the board?” Lotus asked.

“It is there to be played on. It is not the stones that count, in the end, but the amount of territory you control. If I kill your first two stones, I control a territory of two points. That is not enough to win.”

Lotus was getting the idea of it. She shifted to the center of the board, where she had more freedoms, and the battle took shape. She soon lost the game, but remained fascinated, and started another, playing with greater savvy. “Ah, you learn quickly,” the man said, concentrating.

While they played, they chatted. Lotus told about her family’s printing business, and the man told of his family’s farm to the north. He also said something about Zhao.

“There is a story about her. Perhaps it is not true. Certainly I would not credit it.”

Lotus pretended nonchalance. “What is it?”

“She was a concubine for the Son of Heaven T’ai Tsung, the father of Kao Tsung who is now the master of all, but she was not in much demand at the time. Yet it is said she did not retire a virgin.”

“She didn’t?”

“Mind you, this may be fanciful, and I would not impugn the good name of my master the Son of Heaven for anything.”

“Naturally not,” Lotus agreed, catching on to the way of such narrations. “Nor would I impugn my mistress, Wu Zhao. But I like to know what is said of her.”

“I merely mention what some unkind person bruited about. It is that some call her the Fox Woman.”

“The Fox Woman? She does not resemble a fox to me.”

“This is a story of China’s illustrious past. The Fox Woman of folklore is one who assumes human form and preys upon unsuspecting men by stealing their vitality and leaving them in sexual exhaustion. For some reason such men never seem to protest such treatment.”

Lotus had gathered enough of the passions of men to appreciate why. Their appetite for sex was almost insatiable. Thus a woman with an even greater appetite would be in rare demand. “There was such a creature in China’s past?”

“During the Han dynasty there was one who came to be known as a fox woman. She was Wei Tzu-fu. It is said that she was a servant who waited on the Son of Heaven while he changed his dress. That is to say, while he did what all men and most women must do every so often, that no other can do for them. In that state of dishabille he observed the form of her body, and was so smitten that he stood up straight, as it were, and ‘favored her’ on the spot. She became a concubine and later displaced the empress herself.”

“But that was in the Han dynasty,” Lotus protested. “What does that have to do with Lady Zhao? Did she seduce the Son of Heaven?”

“Not the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven’s young son. He was only twelve at the time, but eager to know the ways of the flesh, yet hesitant to approach a woman. It is said that the Lady Zhao happened to be in the vicinity when he changed his dress, and perceiving the standing sign of his dawning manhood, arranged to acquaint him with that which he most wished to know. She was then fifteen, and as lovely as a new temple, and perhaps somewhat miffed that the Son of Heaven took no notice of her. It is said that the lad was most grateful, and thereafter eagerly sought more instruction of that nature.”

“Of course it is only a story,” Lotus said, intrigued. “Yet they do seem to be well acquainted, considering their recent separation.”

“Yes. That is surely coincidence.” His tone suggested that it was no coincidence at all.

They continued playing the game, conversing about other things. Lotus was enjoying herself greatly.

Another man entered the chamber. “It is midnight; my relief has arrived,” Old Coal said.

“Already?” Lotus asked, surprised. “The game is not finished.”

Both men laughed. “There speaks a true go player,” the first said. “She plays for hours and doesn’t notice.”

Lotus realized that it was true. The time had passed unnoticed while she was taken by the game, and it was long past her bedtime. Go was a great discovery.

The replacement finished the game. Lotus lost again, but by a lesser amount. Then, reluctantly, she went to the cushions and retired for the night.

She dreamed of go, of enclosing and being enclosed. Black stones warred with white stones, constantly.

“Wake, girl,” the man said. “They are stirring.”

Lotus scrambled up, logy from insufficient sleep, realizing that the rest of the night had passed. She had to be ready to serve her mistress.

Soon Zhao emerged, looking radiantly fulfilled. Lotus approached with the wig. The woman donned it, then moved on out of the chamber. Lotus followed.

Back at the private chamber, as Zhao let her pretense expire and her fatigue began to show, Lotus broached the awkward matter of the story of the Fox Woman. “You asked me to listen, and to tell you what is said of you, but I fear you will not like it, Lady.”

“The Fox Woman!” Zhao said, laughing. “How apt!”

“Apt?”

“That was just about the way it happened. But it had to be secret, of course, for I was pledged to his disinterested father. What we did would have been called incest. I did like him, though he was three years my junior, and we passed many happy hours together. He certainly was virile, for his age.” She stretched languorously. “Still is.”

“That was why he liked you?” Lotus was amazed by this admission. She had feared that Zhao would be furious with the story.

“That was why. At one time he was quite smitten with me. But we knew it couldn’t last, and when his father died and the girls were sent away, I had to retire to the nunnery. Mind you, I am a sincere Buddhist, but I would have preferred to remain with Kao, had I had a choice. I thought he had set me aside when he assumed the burden of being Son of Heaven. But then he visited me at the nunnery, and I knew he had not forgotten.”

“He visited you there?” Lotus wondered if she was being teased.

“Yes. And the empress learned of it, and realized that I might represent the tool she needed to pry his interest from Liang. I think she was right.”

So it seemed. It was evident that even with her head bald, the Lady Zhao had captivated the Son of Heaven.

They went to the morning meal. Many heads turned when they entered the dining chamber. Liang’s head did not turn; she faced sullenly ahead, knowing who had displaced her the past night.

Lotus got her meal, and sought the table where Liang’s girl sat. “I think my mistress got something yours did not, last night,” she remarked innocently, and was gratified by the other’s glare of wrath.

After breakfast Zhao and Lotus retired to their room, where both slept much of the day. It didn’t matter that others would know why they had lost sleep; in fact it was a matter of pride. A concubine who returned from the Son of Heaven’s bed well rested obviously hadn’t interested him much.

After that Zhao joined the Son of Heaven more often than not, and sometimes by day as well as by night. Once the Son of Heaven was playing a game of go with a noble, and it was Zhao who sat by his side for all to see. She was certainly accomplishing the empress’s mission. On this day there was a royal dog, whom Zhao held for awhile, then passed over to Lotus to hold. He was a frisky animal, eager to make the acquaintance of everyone, and she had to clasp his collar quite tightly to be sure that he did not stray.

But she did get to look at the go board. Soon she saw that the Son of Heaven’s position was not good. The other player was making canny moves and gaining territory. The Son of Heaven seemed likely to lose, but of course could not complain, for it was a fair game and he had to demonstrate good sportsmanship. There was probably a considerable wager riding on the outcome, for the wealthy and powerful liked to make things interesting.

Then Lotus caught Zhao’s signal. But what did it mean? She didn’t know what to do.

Zhao’s eyes moved to the dog. She made the signal again. Was Lotus doing something wrong? But she was holding the animal tightly.

Then she understood. She hoped. She let go of the dog’s collar. “Oh!” she cried in simulated dismay. “He got away!”

Indeed, the dog rejoiced in his freedom. He bounded forward—right up onto the go board itself, scattering the stones. He licked the Son of Heaven’s face, then jumped playfully away. Several servants chased after him.

The game had been ruined. Zhao jumped up. “Oh, you bad girl!” she exclaimed to Lotus. “You were supposed to hold that dog tight!”

But the Son of Heaven restrained her. “It was an accident,” he said. “The dog is strong. The child did the best she could. It behooves us to be generous. We shall play again tomorrow.” He looked straight at Lotus for a moment, and his mouth quirked. Then he got up and walked away, and Zhao walked with him. Lotus followed, her eyes downcast.

For a moment there were no other courtiers near. “Your girl is responsive,” the Son of Heaven remarked to Zhao.

“I am sure I don’t know what you mean, O Illustrious One,” Zhao murmured.

The Son of Heaven understood perfectly—and kept the secret. As would Zhao and Lotus. It must never be known that the mishap that had saved him from the embarrassment of a loss had been no accident.