Miyabi lecture

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An Introduction to Miyabi
Wang Chaoying | JIBO

Origins

Miyabi is an ancient form of Chinese kanji characters. Kanji characters originated as hieroglyphs. One theory of the evolution of kanji highlights the deep connection of hieroglyphs to the natural surroundings of their creators. Unlike phonogram characters (such as those of the Roman alphabet), kanji not only function as a means to communicate or record, they also express aesthetic appreciation or the desire for prosperity or perpetuation.
Many uncovered artifacts indicate that as far back as 5000 BC, fertility motifs of animals and birds were being used to decorate household objects. This reflects the fact that early civilizations had an aesthetic sense.
The development of bronze casting in China around 1500 BC led to the systematization of kanji characters into the functional and the decorative. Three types of kanji evolved.

Kanji Types

The official style

This style was used for promoting mutual understanding within the administrative systems of a sovereign territory. Standardized kanji were used by successive rulers and their bureaucracies.
This style can be seen in official documents of the time. These kanji were based on a well-regulated and stable structure, which facilitated clear communication.

evolution of Kanji for "water", from 7,000 years ago to 1,000 years ago

The popular style

Popular kanji developed with the need for an even more efficient means of communication for the transfer of news, the exchange of ideas and the implementation of laws. Lower level bureaucrats would use the characters to communicate with the populace. The characters were simpler and more efficient for engraving and writing.

4,200 years ago	1,800 years ago

2,800 years ago	1,200 years ago

Dongba character/ Naxi tribe, YuinNan province

Miyabi style

The miyabi style of characters developed as an art form, detached from the functionality of the other character styles. It was intended to express the pinnacle of civilization. Miyabi characters were used exclusively by a ruler and his court. They were employed to express an aesthetic appreciation of nature, to metaphorically depict sexual love or the permanence of life. This was the express purpose of these characters, so variety and originality were encouraged. Miyabi was never influenced by the progression of the other styles of characters; it was clearly distinct from them. Those who composed miyabi (royal bun-jin*, or miyabi masters) tried to attain the ideal of a highly cultured people imbued with sensibility and grace, founded purely on a refined notion of beauty. The creation of miyabi was a measure of the quality of the art of a kingdom in competition with its neighbors. Failure to produce miyabi to the satisfaction of the king would lead to the execution of the miyabi master. The main theme of miyabi was vitality: the characters were a philosophical visualization of fertility.
Owing to this unique background, miyabi characters belonged exclusively to the high aristocracy and the intellectual elite for thousands of years. Miyabi sustained the appreciation of figurative art in court culture.

*Bun-jin were the cultural elite within a court. They were experts in one or more cultural disciplines such as calligraphy, poetry and music. Their work was meant to display the cultural achievements of the kingdom. To achieve the position of bun-jin required a high sense of aestheticism more than great erudition.
The focus of this text is on those bun-jin who created miyabi characters, and they will therefore be referred to as miyabi masters.

The purpose of Miyabi

There has been little scholarly research into the historical evolution of miyabi and the rise and fall of the characters. One observation is apparent, that the structure of miyabi characters is connected to the fundamental elements of kanji characters: the themes of life, existence and nature.

Communication with the divine

Ancient Chinese writings reveal that kanji were a code for understanding between god and mankind. It was believed that kanji were given by god as a communication tool between him and mankind. People would show the sincerity of their gratitude to god through their writing of the characters.
The characters would also be used to demonstrate the cultural achievement of a kingdom to its neighbors.

Thus miyabi masters were required to focus exclusively on the aesthetic quality of the characters, even by disregarding the authorized structure and stroke order of kanji. The characters were appreciated as figurative art, not only as a system of communication. Thus they incorporated complex strokes of varying thickness, embellishment, flexuous curves, and the free combination of points, lines and planes within a balanced structure.

Motifs

Animals were a constant motif in miyabi characters. It was believed that birds were messengers between god and humans, the bearers of good fortune and the harbingers of birth. Other animal motifs are also in evidence, such as tigers, panthers, snakes, insects, and fish. Animals were regarded as symbols of freedom: birds could ascend higher than humans, fish could travel to greater depths. The prevalence of a motif would depend upon the importance of the animal in that particular territory. The recurrence of fish representations in the characters indicates that the kingdom was located near a major river. The prevalence of birds in the characters suggests the kingdom was located at a high altitude.

birds and fishes

By their portrayal of creatures held to have superior vitality, miyabi masters believed their characters would communicate this vitality fully to the deities they addressed.
One of the most significant elements in the decoration of miyabi characters is the celebration of humanity integrated within a thriving natural world. The characters include graceful curved lines, which resemble the contours of the human body. By combining human forms with the forms of animals known for their fertility, the miyabi masters expressed their desire for perpetuation.

human, dragon, sheep

The Complexity of Miyabi

Other elements were invariably integrated into the decoration of miyabi characters. Representations of the miyabi master's social position and status, his specific psychological state, his level of cultural accomplishment and his artistic sophistication could be combined with symbols of the kingdom to which he belonged, its location, its geographical environment and its history. These many variables attest the immense complexity of miyabi.

The flexibility of miyabi characters was also prized. A miyabi master would produce variations of a character so it could be reproduced for the monarch using different media: bronze, lacquer work, sculpture, embroidery. Subtle alterations meant that every character was unique. The perfect harmonization of the characters with different natural materials would lend a luxuriant aroma to the miyabi of a kingdom. Such versatility affirmed the ingenuity and strength of the kingdom.

Another observation can be made concerning the sophistication of miyabi. Miyabi characters originating in the southern territories of China are characterized by smooth curves (representing the female form), whereas characters from the northern areas exhibit more linear strokes, indicative of masculinity.

This distinction between miyabi characters from the south and the north reflects cultural differences that can be discerned between the two regions at that time. The southern people existed in agrarian, maternal societies whereas in the north the dominant culture was hunting, which led to the evolution of paternalistic social structures. Other contrasting characteristics seem to emerge: sensibility in the south as opposed to rationality in the north, meekness as opposed to passion, emotionalism compared to practicality, romanticism versus realism.

north
1,600 - 1,800 years ago	2,400 - 2,800 years ago

south
3,200 years ago	2,600 years ago

Prohibition

Miyabi culture was destroyed and prohibited under the first Chinese Emperor, Qin (BC221-210). The emperor was determined to weld the independent territories of the Chinese continent into an administratively centralised and culturally unified empire. One of Qin's strategies was to remove the independent states' tools of communication: he thus enforced a standardized set of characters, and outlawed all other styles, including miyabi.
With the collapse of the empire in 210 BC, independent kingdoms attempted to revive miyabi culture, but it was never again to flourish as it had two thousand five hundred years previously. The first unified empire had lasted for only five years, but the legacy of its ruthless drive to standardize would continue to threaten the culture of minorities in China right up to the present day.

Current Research

Artifacts exhibiting traces of miyabi characters are being recovered from archaeological sites in China, giving Wang Chaoying material for his research. As a child, Wang studied with a Confucian scholar.
Wang possessed a unique aptitude for the study of kanji and was able to master kanji spanning five thousand years of evolution. He now applies his knowledge to the archaeological evidence of miyabi and, aided in part by aesthetic intuition, he attempts to piece back together the full form of the miyabi characters.

Expansion of Miyabi Project

Philosophical communication tools based on a primitive energy for life, that is miyabi character.

We define miyabi-tai (tai means style of character) as living characters which contain racial
history and genetic information. Looking back over the history of five millenia, we can find in the development of written characters a stream which transforms over each thousand years: changes from linear strokes into flexuous strokes. Another thousand years brings a gradual transformation back to linear strokes. At the halfway mark of each of these thousand years, miyabi characters reach a high point in their evolution also. If we define the linear strokes as male (yang) and smooth curves as female (yin), perhaps we can say that miyabi characters are the offspring of the characters.

Today we are living at the beginning of the twenty first century, but there is no feeling that the stream of characters is transforming even in this new millennium. Does anybody even care about the characters? The answer appears to be no.
Today our communication is predominantly controlled by computer and e-mail. Most people have stopped writing by hand and have abandoned the precious energy that each written character contains. The more that convenient communication tools develop, the more the instinct for pure communication within our genes is lost. Individual characters are losing their meaning, with each character being encoded as a mere component of the entire message.

With the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth century England, human life was dramatically changed.
Wang Chaoying believes that this century-long development inhibited our cultural development.
We somehow gained borderless, global communication, but we arrested the natural stream of evolving characters, and thus stopped our gene of communication as well. Wang Chaoying does not reject the development of convenient tools for communication, he accepts it. However, he believes we should not leave our mind out of our communication. We should give birth within our communication. We should regain our awareness of how communication should be genuine; then the world might be changed.

When we observe the world, we see endless conflict, chaos, economic adversity, abandoned cultures or tradition, violence, revenge. Now it is time to learn from our ancestors the wisdom to respect other lives and genuine communication, to reseed the earth with their genes through this world cultural heritage.

We regard Wang Chaoying as a researcher of this great cultural heritage as well as a great artist who is trying to spread this hopeful message to the world.
We would like to involve international artists who sympathise with this project, to create miyabi products with Wang Chaoying.