Are minimalism and complexity in jade carving both excessive and inefficient?

"Extreme simplicity and complexity are both excessive!" Some jade lovers have questioned the minimalist concept of jade carving, believing that minimalism and complexity are the two ends of jade carving, and focusing on either end is going to extremes.

Teacher Wang Chaoyang believes that the creation of jade carving is essentially the result of thinking. Whether the result is presented in a simple or complex form depends on the jade carver's thinking and aesthetic attitude.

Complex jade carvings seem difficult to make, but in fact, given enough time, most jade carvers can train their skills to a certain level. Just as the poem “The Oil Seller” says, “It’s nothing special, it’s just that my hands are practiced,” because it is human nature to think of simple things as complicated and to do things in a complicated way.

But to make complex things extremely simple is what a master does. Because this "simple" is not "empty and boring" without any content, but it contains a lot of information and can be expressed in a concise and pure way. This kind of cultivation cannot be achieved by simply spending time training your skills, but requires the broadening and improvement of thinking, and the experience and tempering of the mind.

Figure 1: Wings of the Sky by Wang Chaoyang

Figure 2: Blue Bird by Wang Chaoyang

Figure 3: Chongming Bird by Wang Chaoyang

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