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{{Short description|Book of meaningless glyphs by artist Xu Bing}} |
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[[File:EnglishChinaWriting.jpg|thumb|One of ''[[Xu Bing]]'''s more recently designed characters]] |
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{{italic title}}{{For|the idiom|Greek to me#Variations}}[[File:Title page of Tianshu (A Book from the Sky) by Xu Bing.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''Book from the Sky'', in pseudo-Chinese characters. The characters “天書” do not appear anywhere in the book.]] |
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'''''A Book from the Sky''''' ({{zh|s=天书|t=天書|p=Tiān shū}}) is the name of a four-volume [[asemic writing|asemic]] book produced by [[China|Chinese]] artist [[Xu Bing]] in the style of books printed in the [[Song dynasty]]. It was first displayed in [[Beijing]]'s [[National Art Museum of China|China Art Gallery]] between 1987 and 1991.<ref name="XBwebsite">[http://www.xubing.com/index.php/site/projects/year/1987/book_from_the_sky Description on Xu Bing’s website]</ref> |
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'''''A Book from the Sky''''' ({{zh|s=天书|t=天書|p=Tiānshū}}) is a book produced by [[China|Chinese]] artist [[Xu Bing]] in the style of fine editions from the [[Song dynasty|Song]] and [[Ming dynasty|Ming dynasties]], but filled entirely with [[asemic writing|meaningless]] glyphs designed to resemble [[traditional Chinese characters]].<ref>Two of the characters were later found by Charles Stone to coincide with attested Chinese characters; however, one of these was itself a 9th-century forgery {{harvnb|Hung|1994}}</ref> The book, which consists of four volumes totaling 604 pages, was printed in a single print run of 126 copies between 1987 and 1991,<ref name="Xu">{{cite encyclopedia | title=The Making of ''Book from the Sky'' | encyclopedia=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book | publisher=Quaritch | author=Xu Bing | translator=Drew Hammond | editor=Spears, Katherine | year=2009 | location=London | pages=51–63}}</ref>{{rp|61}} and was first publicly exhibited in October 1988, in [[Beijing]]'s [[National Art Museum of China|China Art Gallery]].{{sfn|Xu|Cayley|2009|p=163}} |
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The work was originally titled ''Mirror to Analyze the World: The Century’s Final Volume'' ({{zh|s=析世鉴－世纪末卷|t=析世鍳－世紀末卷|p=Xī shì jiàn—Shìjì mòjuàn}}), a title which "evokes the trope of the book as ''jian'' {{zhi|c=鍳}} or mirror in the venerable tradition of imperial historiography".<ref name="Liu">{{cite encyclopedia | title=The Non-Book, or the Play of the Sign | encyclopedia=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book | publisher=Quaritch | author=Liu, Lydia H. | editor=Spears, Katherine | year=2009 | location=London | pages=65–79}}</ref>{{rp|67}} However, the artist eventually felt that this title was "cumbersome" and "heavily influenced by Western forms and the current cultural climate",<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|57}} and decided to adopt the name that was already in popular use, ''Tianshu''. In Chinese, the term ''tian shu'' (“divine writing”) originally referred to certain kinds of religious texts, but is now used to mean "gibberish"; it has thus been suggested that ''nonsense writing'' would be a more appropriate translation of the title.<ref name="Wu">{{harvnb|Hung|1994}}</ref> |
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The 4,000 characters used in the book are constructed from the [[Kangxi radicals]], but are not attested in written Chinese, and are intended to be meaningless. Xu spent years hand [[Wood carving|carving]] the [[typesetting]] blocks used to make the prints according to traditional Chinese [[block printing]] methods. Each block was embossed with a unique but meaningless symbol and then used to make the prints for the exhibit.<ref>[http://www.hanshan.com/specials/xubingts.html Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky.]</ref> |
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==Production== |
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The work was originally titled ''Mirror to Analyze the World: The Century’s Final Volume'' ({{zh|s=析世鉴－世纪末卷|t=析世鍳－世紀末卷|p=Xī shì jiàn—Shìjì mòjuǎn}}){{sfn|Spears|2009|p=67}} but the artist soon accepted the popularized title, ''A Book from the Sky''. The work resulted in Xu losing favour with the communist [[government of the People's Republic of China]]{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} and being vilified by some official critics as a "[[bourgeois]] [[Liberalism|liberal]]".{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} |
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The book is composed using a set of 4,000 characters, as this is roughly the number of characters in common usage in modern written Chinese. These characters were designed on the basis of the [[Kangxi radicals]], so that "in terms of density of strokes and frequency of occurrence, they{{nbsp}}... appear, on the page, to be real characters".<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|55}} In addition to these, page and fascicle numbers were indicated using [[Tally marks#Clustering|tally marks]] based on the Chinese character {{zhi|c=正}}.<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|60–61}} |
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The Chinese idiomatic expression "天書" (celestial script) is a metaphor for incomprehensible writing somewhat akin to "chicken scratch" in English, referring to a writing system of unknown origins never seen before by mankind. |
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The characters were carved into individual pieces of [[movable type]] made from [[pear#Uses|pear wood]],<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|54}} in a style slightly squatter than that of [[Ming (typefaces)|Song typefaces]].<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|53}} Initially, Xu himself typeset sample pages, and took them for printing to a factory in the village of Hanying ({{zh|s=韩营|t=韓營}}), in [[Caiyu|Caiyu township]] ({{zh|s=采育}}).<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|46,58}} (This was one of the last remaining traditional printing factories in China, which after the [[Cultural Revolution]] mainly produced state-sponsored reprints of classical texts using pre-Revolution woodblocks.<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|59}}) Later, workers at the factory typeset the pages by referring to a "model book" prepared by Xu, which contained symbols such as ↓★○☒❖ that had been placed in a [[one-to-one correspondence]] with his 4,000 pseudo-Chinese characters.<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|61}} |
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Later versions of these characters incorporated English letters into square word-shapes, which he called ''Square Word Calligraphy''.<ref>url="http://www.xubing.com/index.php/site/projects/year/1994/square_calligraphy_classroom"</ref> The example at right is a square word which reads "WIKI". |
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== |
==Reactions== |
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Critical reactions to ''A Book from the Sky'' were initially dismissive. In 1990, an article in a Beijing newspaper,<ref>{{cite journal | title=An Essential Critique of 'New Wave' Art | author=Yang Chengyin | journal=Literature and Art Newspaper | date=June 2, 1990}}</ref> said to have been authored by an agent of the [[Ministry of Culture (China)|Ministry of Culture]], described it as "[[Ghosts building a wall|ghosts building walls]]" ({{zh|s=鬼打墙|t=鬼打牆|p=guǐ dǎ qiáng}}), i.e., obfuscation for the sake of obfuscation.<ref name="Wu"/> Meanwhile, "New Wave" artists found it too "traditional and academic".<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|63}} Nevertheless, the 1988 exhibition of the book at the China Art Gallery attracted a broad audience that included not only artists, but also professors and editors, some of whom visited the exhibition repeatedly in an attempt to find even a single real Chinese character.<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|58}} Later critics viewed the work more positively.{{sfn|Xu|Cayley|2009}} |
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''A Book from the Sky'' is considered to be a representative of the "1985 Fine Arts New Wave" ({{zh|s=85美术新潮|t=85美術新潮|p=Bāwǔ Měishù Xīncháo}}), and has been interpreted as "a primary symbol of the broad liberalization movement that characterized the years prior to the [[Tiananmen massacre]]".<ref name="Wu"/> It has also invited comparisons with [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'', as "a radical challenge to how we think about language, writing, literacy, and human-machine relationship".<ref name="Liu"/>{{rp|65}} However, according to Xu, his main purpose was to "expose the fact that Chinese literary culture is {{zhi|c=[[wikt:討厭|討厭]]}} ''taoyan''", a term professor [[John Cayley]] translates as 'boring' or 'tedious' in ironic comparison to the process of making the book itself.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=His Books | encyclopedia=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book | publisher=Quaritch | author=Cayley, John | editor=Spears, Katherine | year=2009 | location=London | pages=1–37}}</ref>{{rp|17}} In later works such as ''Square Word Calligraphy'' and ''Book from the Ground'', Xu takes this idea further by subverting the [[logographic]] nature of the Chinese script in ways that make it broadly accessible. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{refbegin}} |
{{refbegin}} |
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* |
*{{cite book |last1=Xu |first1=Bing |last2=Cayley |first2=John |editor1-last=Spears |editor1-first=Katherine |title=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book |date=2009 |publisher=Bernard Quaritch Limited |isbn=978-0955085291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YUoPwAACAAJ }} |
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*{{cite journal|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/public-culture/article-abstract/6/2/411/32172/A-Ghost-Rebellion-Notes-on-Xu-Bing-s-Nonsense?redirectedFrom=fulltext | title=A 'Ghost Rebellion': Notes on Xu Bing's 'Nonsense Writing' and Other Works|doi=10.1215/08992363-6-2-411|first=Wu|last= Hung | journal=Public Culture | year=1994 | volume=6 | issue=2 | pages=411–418|url-access=subscription}} |
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* {{cite book | title=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book | publisher=Quaritch | year=2009 | location=London | isbn=0-9550852-9-2 | Editor=Spears, Katherine}} |
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* {{cite encyclopedia | title=The Making of ''Book from the Sky'' | encyclopedia=Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book | publisher=Quaritch | author=Xu Bing, Drew Hammond (translator) | editor=Spears, Katherine | year=2009 | location=London | pages=51–63}} |
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{{refend}} |
{{refend}} |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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*[http://www.xubing.com/ |
*[http://www.xubing.com/cn/work/details/206?year=1991&type=year#206 Description on Xu Bing’s website] |
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*[http://crab.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/free-writing/ Blog post mentioning A Book from the Sky, with photographs] |
*[http://crab.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/free-writing/ Blog post mentioning ''A Book from the Sky'', with photographs] |
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{{Avant-garde}} |
{{Avant-garde}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Book From The Sky, A}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Book From The Sky, A}} |
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[[Category:Art exhibitions in China]] |
[[Category:Art exhibitions in China]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:1988 books]] |
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[[Category:1988 works]] |
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[[Category:Chinese characters]] |
[[Category:Chinese characters]] |
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[[Category:Artists' books]] |
[[Category:Artists' books]] |
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Latest revision as of 21:38, 10 November 2024
_by_Xu_Bing.jpg)
A Book from the Sky (simplified Chinese: 天书; traditional Chinese: 天書; pinyin: Tiānshū) is a book produced by Chinese artist Xu Bing in the style of fine editions from the Song and Ming dynasties, but filled entirely with meaningless glyphs designed to resemble traditional Chinese characters.[1] The book, which consists of four volumes totaling 604 pages, was printed in a single print run of 126 copies between 1987 and 1991,[2]: 61 and was first publicly exhibited in October 1988, in Beijing's China Art Gallery.[3]
The work was originally titled Mirror to Analyze the World: The Century’s Final Volume (simplified Chinese: 析世鉴－世纪末卷; traditional Chinese: 析世鍳－世紀末卷; pinyin: Xī shì jiàn—Shìjì mòjuàn), a title which "evokes the trope of the book as jian 鍳 or mirror in the venerable tradition of imperial historiography".[4]: 67 However, the artist eventually felt that this title was "cumbersome" and "heavily influenced by Western forms and the current cultural climate",[2]: 57 and decided to adopt the name that was already in popular use, Tianshu. In Chinese, the term tian shu (“divine writing”) originally referred to certain kinds of religious texts, but is now used to mean "gibberish"; it has thus been suggested that nonsense writing would be a more appropriate translation of the title.[5]
Production
[edit]The book is composed using a set of 4,000 characters, as this is roughly the number of characters in common usage in modern written Chinese. These characters were designed on the basis of the Kangxi radicals, so that "in terms of density of strokes and frequency of occurrence, they ... appear, on the page, to be real characters".[2]: 55 In addition to these, page and fascicle numbers were indicated using tally marks based on the Chinese character 正.[2]: 60–61
The characters were carved into individual pieces of movable type made from pear wood,[2]: 54 in a style slightly squatter than that of Song typefaces.[2]: 53 Initially, Xu himself typeset sample pages, and took them for printing to a factory in the village of Hanying (simplified Chinese: 韩营; traditional Chinese: 韓營), in Caiyu township (Chinese: 采育).[2]: 46, 58 (This was one of the last remaining traditional printing factories in China, which after the Cultural Revolution mainly produced state-sponsored reprints of classical texts using pre-Revolution woodblocks.[2]: 59 ) Later, workers at the factory typeset the pages by referring to a "model book" prepared by Xu, which contained symbols such as ↓★○☒❖ that had been placed in a one-to-one correspondence with his 4,000 pseudo-Chinese characters.[2]: 61
Reactions
[edit]Critical reactions to A Book from the Sky were initially dismissive. In 1990, an article in a Beijing newspaper,[6] said to have been authored by an agent of the Ministry of Culture, described it as "ghosts building walls" (simplified Chinese: 鬼打墙; traditional Chinese: 鬼打牆; pinyin: guǐ dǎ qiáng), i.e., obfuscation for the sake of obfuscation.[5] Meanwhile, "New Wave" artists found it too "traditional and academic".[2]: 63 Nevertheless, the 1988 exhibition of the book at the China Art Gallery attracted a broad audience that included not only artists, but also professors and editors, some of whom visited the exhibition repeatedly in an attempt to find even a single real Chinese character.[2]: 58 Later critics viewed the work more positively.[7]
A Book from the Sky is considered to be a representative of the "1985 Fine Arts New Wave" (simplified Chinese: 85美术新潮; traditional Chinese: 85美術新潮; pinyin: Bāwǔ Měishù Xīncháo), and has been interpreted as "a primary symbol of the broad liberalization movement that characterized the years prior to the Tiananmen massacre".[5] It has also invited comparisons with James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, as "a radical challenge to how we think about language, writing, literacy, and human-machine relationship".[4]: 65 However, according to Xu, his main purpose was to "expose the fact that Chinese literary culture is 討厭 taoyan", a term professor John Cayley translates as 'boring' or 'tedious' in ironic comparison to the process of making the book itself.[8]: 17 In later works such as Square Word Calligraphy and Book from the Ground, Xu takes this idea further by subverting the logographic nature of the Chinese script in ways that make it broadly accessible.
References
[edit]- ^ Two of the characters were later found by Charles Stone to coincide with attested Chinese characters; however, one of these was itself a 9th-century forgery Hung 1994
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Xu Bing (2009). "The Making of Book from the Sky". In Spears, Katherine (ed.). Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book. Translated by Drew Hammond. London: Quaritch. pp. 51–63.
- ^ Xu & Cayley 2009, p. 163.
- ^ a b Liu, Lydia H. (2009). "The Non-Book, or the Play of the Sign". In Spears, Katherine (ed.). Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book. London: Quaritch. pp. 65–79.
- ^ a b c Hung 1994
- ^ Yang Chengyin (June 2, 1990). "An Essential Critique of 'New Wave' Art". Literature and Art Newspaper.
- ^ Xu & Cayley 2009.
- ^ Cayley, John (2009). "His Books". In Spears, Katherine (ed.). Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book. London: Quaritch. pp. 1–37.
- Xu, Bing; Cayley, John (2009). Spears, Katherine (ed.). Tianshu: Passages in the Making of a Book. Bernard Quaritch Limited. ISBN 978-0955085291.
- Hung, Wu (1994). "A 'Ghost Rebellion': Notes on Xu Bing's 'Nonsense Writing' and Other Works". Public Culture. 6 (2): 411–418. doi:10.1215/08992363-6-2-411.