daal wrote:Everyone knows that the OP was referring to a game record. Despite the blowhard replies that the word kifu was being used inaccurately, I still don't know why, and am inclined to care less and start using Japanese words incorrectly just to see who it riles.
I imagine Japanophiles would be the only ones guaranteed to pitch a fit when incorrect use of a Japanese term occurs. Most Japanese
per se would not care since they do not expect non-Japanese persons to be fluent in Japanese to the degree characteristic of a Japan-born Japanese person.
Maybe your post provoked snarky replies because it seems hard to get a handle on. Why should one form of nourishment lead to stronger muscles and bones and the other to body tissue? How do you determine that one aspect of go is more yin or yang than another? How does yin and yang balance each other - is this an ideal or is it viewed as something that occurs automatically? What I mean by my last question is, if we assume that your categorizations are ok, does Chinese philosophy say that an excess of yin always brings about more yang or just when a person is in balance?
I'll have to confess that my descriptions were metaphorical and Westerners tend to avoid use of metaphor, instead preferring accurate descriptions.
Perhaps we should bring on board a Chinese person acquainted with the light & shadow concept as described in Taoist philosophy. This person may help clear things up
In the event that that does not happen, here is a Wikipedia quote on the topic:
Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, and nighttime.
Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.[18]
Yin refers to actions and characteristics that are associated with the female (soft) aspect. For instance, wet, dark places are known to be
yin. A shadowy, humid forest may fall into this description. A dark cave is another such place.
Yang refers to actions and characteristics that are associated with the male (hard) aspect. One example is a dry, sunny spot. Deserts consisting of little more than sand and rocks are like this. So are sun-facing sides of mountains. This is the image conveyed by the character 陽 .
This association also exists in Japanese place names. For example, the southern strip of the Chuugoku region that faces the Seto Inland Sea is known as
San'yoo, or side of the mountain facing the sun. The northern strip that faces the Sea of Japan is known as
San'in, or side of the mountain that faces away from the sun, i.e. shadow.
Having said the above, I say that
passive replaying of game records can be considered a
yin activity, since there is no focus, but rather passive internalization of patterns of play. Doing Go puzzles requires focus, which would make it a
yang activity.
As to your hypothesis that replaying kifu (is that some kind of donkey?) will bring about the ability to analyze board positions, who know? Try it out! My feeling is that the more passively (yinly?) you replay the games, the less it will add to your ability to analyze board positions. Replaying a game doesn't have to be sitting back and watching - you can also be trying to make and justify the decisions yourself.
Whenever I hear someone who has never replayed a pro game record say that one should attempt to analyze a game from the start, it reminds me of someone who plays Association football without ever having seen anyone else play it, let alone seen a match on TV.
My personal experience indicates that after a long while of passively replaying games, enough info has been stored in the brain to allow one to make educated guesses on what occurs during play. Passive becomes active, in short. I am not yet at any high level of analysis, but I am able to make out just a few things whenever I replay a pro game record.
