Me dive into history isn’t just for semantic or historical curiosity but also about how concepts like “hane” evolved over time.
The origin of this term came from the ancient Chinese text 玄玄棊經, which was a collection and compilations of even older texts (some sources we no longer know their full contents or authors). It was compiled by an author who visited one of the strongest Go players at the time in the Yuan Dynasty around the 14th century. It was one of the earliest surviving printing press Go books when printing started to get widely used commercially (hence, more likely to survive and spread being mass produced). This book came to Japan, likely around the same time (one copy still existed in Japan), and one of the complied chapters is called 圍棊三十二字釋義 “the explanation of the 32 terminologies/words for weiqi” (立 行 飛 尖 粘 幹 綽 約 關 沖 覷 毅 剳 頂 捺 蹺 門 斷 打 點 征 㠔 聚 劫 拶 撲 勒 刺 夾 盤 鬆 持), which the word 綽 later became the source of the word “hane”.
However, if we looking deeper into these 32 terminologies, we will find that there were more than just 綽 has a similar shape and meanings compared to the more “modern concept”. The words 約 捺 蹺 㠔 also utilize the same “hane” shape, the differences between them have more to do with intention than the shape themselves. The original 綽 means to reduce the territory of the opponent (like in yose, when you hane at the 1st line or 2nd/3rd line, hence a hane from below type). The word 約 means blocking the path of the opponent’s dragon’s head, hence more like a “side hane”. The word 捺 means to block from the top and limit the development to the center (a top hane). The word 蹺 means when both sides had been in a contact extending race, one side decides to “bend” to gain the upper hand, and exchange weakness to gain sente (let the other to hane, and you can tenuki). The word 㠔 means when there is a fight coming, you actively hane, where the opponent has no choice but to cut (a sente hane so to speak).
From the 14th century all the way to the late 19th century this book and chapter were repeatedly translated into Japanese (with Japanese pronunciations), as late as 1878, we can still find Go book using the exact translation word for word. However, in the 1880s and 1890s, things started to change, especially when Hoensha was established, they published a lot of new Go textbooks to promote Go. Like this book in 1897 titled How to Learn Go Quickly by Yourself, still copied the 32 terminologies, but their “explanations” started to defer. Examples were given, and concepts like 蹺 would include the word 綽(hane) to explain it. This trend continues, where one of the earlier (simpler) terminologies hane was used to explain the later terms, and in a 1935 Go book for the beginner, they were reduced from 32 words to 25 words, and there were only 2 words 綽 and 約(おさへる osaheru) left to represent the concept where hane was more about hane from below like in yose, and osaheru was more about hane from the top to limit/block the opponent. We can even find an earlier version of this simplification in a book for quick learning of Go, where the incomplete 14 words were introduced instead of the full 32 words, and the word osaheru had already taken a slightly different meaning than hane, which include not hane, but about the shape of “blocking” the opponent (disregard the sequence of moves).
Whether or not to use shapes, move sequences, or intentions, I feel the concept of hane is constantly evolving, and redefining in every generation and even in different cultures and languages. The Chinese concept of 扳 (also a newly coined term) differs from the ancient terminologies and becomes a lower-level fundamental shape word, while the intentional terminologies at a higher level like 擋 are still in use but can be combined with other low-level terms, where combo terms like 扳頭 for older concepts like 捺.
is a bulge play.
