What are the meanings of "female engraving" and "male engraving" in seal cutting works?

To understand "yin engraving" and "yang engraving", we must first know what "yin" and "yang" are. In the traditional culture of China, "Yin" and "Yang" are two core words in China's ancient philosophy. Philosophers believe that yin and yang are two aspects that run through the world, the sun and the moon, cold and heat, men and women, up and down and so on. More vivid examples, such as the Yin and Yang fish in the Book of Changes, are the same in shape, different in black and white, and still alive.

Yin Shuo Wen Jie Zi said: "Darkness is also the south of the water and the north of the mountain." Shuo Wen Chuan said: "The mountains are north and the waters are south, and the sun is not as good as it is." What do you mean? The ancients thought it was dark, and the south bank of the water and the north slope of the mountain could not get sunlight, so it was called Yin. Yang Shuo Wen Jie Zi said, "Brilliant." Zheng Ziyi says, "Talented people can also be Yin Yan." What do you mean? "High" actually refers to "heaven". "Ming" means the sun. "Yang" is relative to "Yin".

So, let's look at "lettering". "Engraving" is sculpture, while "seal cutting" is actually a kind of sculpture with a long history. The word "seal" in seal cutting was written as "Zhen" in ancient times and belongs to the word "jade". All the concave and convex patterns carved on jade are called "truth". Later, bamboo and silk became popular writing tools, so the word "Zhu Ke" was changed from "Zhu Ke" to "Zhu Ke". In fact, in ancient times, anything that belongs to jade carving, stone carving, bamboo carving and bronze carving can be called "seal cutting", and seal cutting is only a small part of it.

So, what is "intaglio"? To put it bluntly, it is to let the words sink in. That is, the place where the strokes arrive is engraved, so that the words printed on the paper are white words without inkpad, so the "intaglio" is also called "white text". In contrast, "orthographic engraving" means to make the word "convex" appear, which means to engrave all the parts except the strokes. The strokes of the characters printed on paper are red strokes dipped in inkpad, so "orthography" is also called "Zhu Wen".

Summary: "Engraving" and "Engraving" are technically different. "Ming" should be "more knives than less knives", because the shortage can be made up and the surplus cannot be corrected. "Yang lettering" should follow the knife and pen, and not leave a trace, otherwise the "white sword" will not be beautiful after printing.