Cryptology is a branch of computer science and mathematics that involves significant information theory. American cryptographer Ronald Rivest (1947-) once said, 'Cryptography is about communication in the presence of adversaries'[3] Classical Cryptology primarily focuses on encrypting information, transmission, and corresponding decryption methods. Depending on the creativity of both adversaries and designers in coding and decoding, it is considered a practical art.

The binary system refers to a numbering system with a base of two, typically represented using 0 and 1 in mathematics and digital circuits. Logic gates in electronic circuits use 0 and 1 to denote true and false, widely applied in computers and various computer-dependent devices. The uniqueness of the binary system lies in its ability to represent complex data in an extremely simple form (such as through sound interruptions, light on-off patterns, etc.).

[3] Oral History of Ronald L. Rivest, (2017) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQJmqQrcazU

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a renowned German philosopher and mathematician who first published his essay on binary arithmetic, 'Essay on a New Science of Numbers (Essay d'unne nouvelle Science des Nombres),' in 1701 [4]. Later, he learned about the Yin-Yang philosophy of the I Ching from the French priest Joachim Bouvet (1656-1703), and found it to be analogous to his own invention of the binary system [5]. Inspired by the trigrams '- -' and '—' of the I Ching, he modified his binary system to use '1' and '0' and published 'Explanation Of Binary Arithmetic, Which Uses Only The Characters 0 And 1, With Some Remarks On Its Usefulness, And On The Light It Throws On The Ancient Chinese Figures Of Fuxi' in 1703 [6].

[4]  Chinese Journal of the History of Science and Technology, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2002, pp. 54-58.

[5]  Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz, 'Leibniz Korrespondiert mit China', (1990), P.94-97.

[6]Histoire de l′Academie Royale des Sciences, Année 1703n, Paris , (1705), P.85-89.

The I Ching is a set of symbolic narratives that form a formal system. Philosophically, it starts with the concept of the 'Wuji' (無極, the Limitless) and the 'Taiji' (太極, the Supreme Ultimate) as the fundamental principles. The 'Liangyi' (兩儀, Two Primal Forces) are then represented by the symbols '- -' (Yin) and '—' (Yang), which are combined to form the 'Sixiang' (四象, Four Emblematic Symbols) and the 'Bagua' (八卦, Eight Trigrams), as well as the 'Liushisi Gua' (六十四卦, 64 Hexagrams). The basic unit is the 'Yao' (爻, Line), with six Yaos forming a single Hexagram.

Charles Sanders Peirce's (1839-1914) semiotic theory [7] is based on the triad relation of the sign, where the components are the 'Object, Representamen, and Interpretant'. In the I Ching, this corresponds to the visual representation of the Hexagrams, the descriptive Hexagram statements, and the deeper interpretations in the I Ching Commentaries. The I Ching generates its symbolic language (Yin and Yang) from abstract concepts to concrete representations, and the three-level attributes mutually influence the development of its comprehensive interpretive system. It then combines the external context to analyze the internal meanings, allowing for multiple layers of interpretation and the potential for infinite elaboration.

Unicode [8] is a universal character encoding system widely used in computer software. Unicode Blocks are defined to uniquely identify the encoded locations of specific scripts or characters.

[7]Peirce, Liddell & Scott Ancient Greek lexicon, 1906, EP 2:411 and CP 5.484.
[8]Unicode Library: https://unicode.org/terminology/about_term.html

The I Ching Code
The artist uses a unique encryption method based on binary and Unicode (etc.) to transform information into the hexagrams of the I Ching, forming the artist's exclusive code. On a macro level, the work reflects the philosophical perspective of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, while on a micro level, it encrypts another set of messages the artist wishes to convey.

Physical (Yang) : The 'Seal-Carved Movable Type Printing Scroll' in the real world
The reason for choosing the long scroll is that the essence of the 'I Ching code' is based on a binary narrative, and in computer science, whether the display of codes on the screen, the writing logic in programming, or the priority rules in program execution, they all scroll and execute from top to bottom. The characteristic of 'landscape following each step' in traditional Chinese painting using the long scroll format perfectly matches the connotation of the 'I Ching code'.

Movable type printing is one of the four great inventions of China, and it is a crucial creation in the transmission of human information. Whether as the personal identity of the artist or in the exploration of information and symbol transmission, movable type printing is an unavoidable subject of inquiry. Tracing the history of human civilization, carving can be considered the earliest method of transmitting information, and the origin of writing evolved from symbols, with the earliest symbols visible on the inscriptions of primitive pottery in China, which can be considered an artistic form of information recording.

Therefore, in the exploration of the theme of this work, the choice of using seal carving as the medium for movable type printing, and the long scroll as the display format for the physical work, implicitly contains multiple creative connotations and symbolic meanings.

Virtual (Yin): 'NFT Non-Fungible Tokens' in the Metaverse
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer data transaction block chain designed by combining various contemporary technologies, involving cryptography and consensus mechanisms. NFT (Non-fungible token) is a unit of network digital accounting information on the blockchain, which can serve as an electronic certificate of ownership for network commodities. Since each token can represent a unique set of information, NFTs have become the virtual certificates of digital products and electronic art on the internet, thus giving rise to various NFT artworks. Once an artwork becomes a trading currency on the blockchain, the information cannot be modified or deleted. As long as the internet exists, the information of that artwork will be preserved for eternity.

Therefore, in the creation of the symbolic virtual 'NFT Non-Fungible Tokens', the artist has digitized the physical part of the graduation work, the 'Seal-Carved Movable Type Printing Scroll'. Using the Bitfontmaker2 system, a complete set of encrypted fonts was established, and the artist's personal ciphertext was written on the computer, becoming the 'Digital Version' and 'Digital Print' existing in the virtual world. They were then uploaded to the artist's personal page on the Mintable NFT trading platform, and the 'Digital Version' and 'Digital Print' were sold in the form of NFTs, thus the 'Virtual Part' of this graduation work has become a non-fungible token on the blockchain, a string of information preserved on the network (until the future).