Information about the ancient Chinese art of seal carving ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chinese seal carving is the art of making seals by combining calligraphy (mainly seal script) and engraving (including chiseling and casting). It has a history of nearly 500 years since the Ming and Qing schools of seal carving. The Ming and Qing schools of seal carving were developed from the ancient seals, which laid a good foundation for the art of seal carving with their unique style and high artistry. Therefore, the history of seal carving art can be traced back to

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period (770 BC to 221 BC), which was more than 2,000 years ago.

Development of Seal Engraving Art The seals of the pre-Qin and Qin and Han dynasties were used as tokens of authority and credentials when people interacted with each other in ancient times. In addition, the seals of auspicious words, Xiao-shaped seals, Huang Shen Yuezhang, etc., also reflected the ancient social life customs and people's ideology.

Ancient Seal "Yi Jie Yi Sheng □ Lu Zhi □"

The earliest of the ancient seals is the ancient seal, most of which belonged to the period of the Warring States, of which there are some relics from the Spring and Autumn Period. Ancient seals were divided into two categories: official and private, and were called seals at that time regardless of seniority. Before the Qin Dynasty, it was written as "□" or "□". The seal text is divided into Zhuwen (text raised, also known as Yangwen) and Baiwen (text concave, also known as Yinwen) two kinds of ancient seals of different shapes and sizes, there are rectangular, square

shaped, round and other shapes. The contents include official positions, names, auspicious words and Xiao-shaped patterns. Ancient seal production, either chiseled or cast; seal text fine, vivid chapter. Zhu text seal has a wide side bar, white text seal more boundary grid, there is a kind of Zhu white text between the ancient seal is also very chic, can see that the production of the seal has become mature. In Henan Anyang Yin ruins have been found in three similar ancient seal of the physical, some people infer that the origin of the ancient seal when in the Shang Dynasty, but still need to be further explored. In the Qin Dynasty, the emperor's seal was called a seal, while the general public's was called a seal. The Qin seal script is one of the eight styles of Qin script, which is similar to the small seal script used in the Qin Dynasty. The Qin seal script is dignified and beautiful, with the addition of the characters "口" (mouth) and "田" (field) on the square official seal, and the character "日" (day) on the rectangular seal (also known as the half-pass seal), which is a distinctive feature of the Qin seal. This is a distinctive feature of the Qin seal. In addition to the official seal, private seal, there are also idioms into the seal, has opened the later generations of the first leisure text of the seal.

Qin dynasty "yinye country seal"

Han dynasty is the development of seal unprecedented brilliant period. In the Han Dynasty, except for the imperial seal, which was still called seal, the rest were called seal. In the official seal in some called seal or seal, private seal in some called letter seal or seal letter. Now usually use the word seal, that is from this. Han seals were richer than before in terms of content and form, especially the most varied types of private seals. Han seals were made in the Mu seal script. This type of script is related to the rise of the official script in the Han Dynasty, with simplified stylization and flat, square strokes. There are also bird and insect books in Han seals, which are highly decorative and are a kind of fine art characters in ancient times. Han seal casting, chiseling two kinds. The seal of the western han is mostly cast, with the end of the western han xinmang period of the seal is the most exquisite production. The seal of the eastern han dynasty to chisel the most characteristic, because the end of the eastern han dynasty social unrest, war, officials and generals are often mobilized or killed in action, resulting in frequent worship, often seals too late to casting, on the pre-prepared billet on the temporary emergency on the carving and chiseling, more than the seal without modification. Han dynasty cast seal solemn and majestic, chiseled seal robust and strange, these two very different styles, are to the later generations of seal carving to great influence and inspiration.

Chinese Official Seal

Chinese Official Seal

Chinese Official Seal

Chinese Official Seal

Sun Qian's Seal Letter

The use of seals in ancient times was accompanied by the use of a kind of sealing clay, also known as a mud seal. Seal mud when first discovered, had been mistaken for the seal model, in fact, is the use of the seal left when the seal of the seal. Before the invention of paper, the ancients wrote official documents, accounts, letters, etc. on the documents, in the process of sending and receiving documents, in order to strictly protect the confidentiality and prevent □ Du pseudo, so in the documents of the knot plus soft mud, and then Inscription

Seal, which is known as mutilation. This method was also used for sealing some articles in ancient times. Due to the extrusion of the seal on the clay, the sealing clay formed a wide edge and a set of edge, and after the white seal was inscribed on the clay, there was also a special effect of turning "white" into "vermilion" and an ancient and heavy artistic feature.

Han Dynasty "Yiwu" (Bird and Insect Book Seal)

Han Dynasty "Qi Imperial Seal" (Clay Seal)

The seals of the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasty, and the North and South Dynasties basically followed the form of the Han seals. During the period of the North and South Dynasties, paper was commonly used, so a new method of sealing came into being, and the method of sealing mud began to be abolished. Instead, the sealing clay made of vermilion sand was used to inscribe the seal, which is called the system of moistening vermilion. The official seals of the Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties until the Song and Yuan Dynasties were enlarged in size, and the competition was for Zhuwen. The seal text was curved

and curved around to fill the gaps in the seal surface. In the Song Dynasty, the seal script developed into the nine-stacked seal script, losing the elegance of the traditional seal script.

Yuan Dynasty Seal of the Deputy Chief General (Nine-fold Seal)

Sui-Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, calligraphy and painting have made great progress, some people for the purpose of collecting calligraphy and paintings, and calligraphers and painters inscribed seals on their works became a trend, so the collection of seals, zhai guan yin (hall seals), and leisure seals were prevalent, which was an important factor in the development of the practical seals and seals to seal carving art. In calligraphy and painting works with bright red seals, so that the calligraphy and painting works can collect the wonderful baking, seals

and calligraphy and painting organic integration, seals become people at the same time to appreciate the object, called goldstone calligraphy and painting. Song and Yuan dynasties seal gradually for people to pay attention to, appeared for this thing for the literati and painters and calligraphers. In addition, such as song hui zong zhao ji □ written "xuanhe seal history", yang ke a "collection of ancient seals" and wang ziang's "xiaotang collection of ancient records" of ancient seals have been recorded, the yuan dynasty goo qiu yan wrote the earliest theoretical work of Chinese

printing theory, "learning about the ancient chapter". The calligrapher and painter Zhao Meng □ is known for his skill in engraving round Zhuwen. Many private seals of the Song and Yuan dynasties are also very artistic, some of which are from the hands of literati. Song dynasty Zhu Ji seal and Yuan dynasty flower seal, also rich in characteristics, has been used in the official script, regular script into the seal, is the later generations of seal carvers attach importance to the seal information and take the model.

Ancient seal material texture, mostly metal and jade. These materials have the advantages of slow wear and tear and long-lasting, but due to the high hardness, hard and astringent difficult to carve, the ancient seal production must come from the hands of specialized craftsmen. According to legend, at the end of the yuan painter wang coronation first use flower milk stone to carve seal. Early in the ancient seal, has found a stone seal, in the Tang and Song private seal also has a stone seal. Flower Milk Stone is easy to engrave, since Wang Coronet adopted, for the literati and artists with a knife engraving opened up a new world. Ming dynasty wen peng also used light stone (i.e. frozen stone) seal engraving records. The widespread use of stone seal materials provided excellent material conditions for the development of the art of seal carving.

The Formation of Seal Carving Schools In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the seal had developed into a unique art of seal carving. It developed from a practical object, an accessory to the art of calligraphy and painting, to an independent art. The word "seal carving" was originally used as a metaphor for writing and elaborate text, "seal script, carving is also called carving articles", Han Yang Xiong, "Fayan" book also said that "children carve insects and seal carving," "the strong man does not do also ", also refers to the rhetoric when the painstakingly carved chapter and sentence, but later became the name of the art of engraving seals. Seal carving art in the Ming and Qing dynasties good hands such as forests, schools of thought. The schools of seal carving are generally named after the origin, family name, teacher relationship and activity area of the seal carver. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty in nearly 500 years, there are various styles of schools, so that the ancient Chinese seal carving art pushed

toward another period of prosperity. Wen Peng of the Ming Dynasty was the eldest son of the calligrapher Wen Zhengming, who passed on his family's method of poetry, calligraphy and painting, and was especially famous for his seal-carving, which later seal-carvers regarded him as the ancestor of seal-carving. Wen Peng made efforts to revive the tradition of Han seals, and his round pearl seals, with small seal scripts, are elegant, graceful and most distinctive; his knives are quick and easy to use, and his chapters are arranged in a very ingenious way. His idea of using the "Six Books as a guideline" is still a law followed by seal carvers today. Due to Wen Peng's advocacy, the art of seal carving "became popular for a while, and the trend of seal carving was freely developed". Wen Peng's school is known as the Wu School. Among the seal carvers of the Wu school were Gui Changshi, Li Liufang, Chen Wanyan, Gu Ling and Gu Xin. He Zhen, who is also known as Wen Peng, studied under him in his early years, but later turned to Qin and Han seals and created a variety of artistic forms in seal carving, and was regarded as the "master of the art" who "practiced the ancient but not the clay of the ancient", and had a great influence on the later generations. He Zhen's school is known as the Hui School. Seal engravers belonging to this school include Liang Zhi, Wu Zhong, Cheng Park, Jin Guangxian and Hu Zhengyan. In the Ming Dynasty, Su Xuan, Gan □, Zhu Jian, Wang Guan and others were also able to set up their own schools.

Ming Dynasty? Wen Peng: "Leaning on a Pine and Playing with a Crane"

Ming Dynasty? He Zhen: The depths of the oriole

Qing Dynasty, the prevalence of jinshi, as well as a large number of jinshi relics unearthed, many scholars are committed to the collection of these relics and ancient texts, research, writing and dissemination, and thus expanding the horizons of the seal carving artists. The number of schools of seal carving in the Qing Dynasty was also unprecedented. In the early Qing Dynasty, Cheng Profound was the most outstanding, and his seal carving could "change the old habits of Wen (Peng) and He (Zhen)", which was creative. His

Baiwen yin (white seal), which was modeled after the Han seal, is heavy and condensed; Zhuwen yin (white seal), which was modeled after the big seal, is bizarre and disorderly, and lays the foundation of the Wan school. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the art of seal carving entered a period of prosperity, and the seal carvings of Gao Fenghan, Wang Shishen, Ba Yuzu, Dong Xun, and Hu Tang were all able to create their own new ideas and rich in personality. Among them, Ding Jing and Deng Shiru were the most influential and accomplished. Ding Jing's seal carving was directly based on the Ming Dynasty, mainly

Zhu Jian, and the Han Dynasty seal, but he did not aim to honor the past, but drew nutrition from various aspects to nurture change, borrowing from the past to open up the present, and became the founder of the Zhejiang School. This school was inherited and developed by eight successors, including Jiang Ren, Huang Yi, Xi Gang, Chen Yuzhong, Chen Hongshou, Zhao Zhichen, and Qian Song, and became the most influential school of seal carving in the Qing Dynasty. These eight seal carvers are also known as the Xiling Eight. Among them, Qian Song was able to break through the barriers of the Zhejiang school, and he had the greatest achievement with his new style of seal cutting and three-dimensionality. Since Ding Jing, Deng Shiru was a pioneer in the development of the art of seal carving, and was good at the four styles of calligraphy: zhen, cao, li, and zhuan (seal script). In his seal carving, he studied the Huizhou school in the early days, and was influenced by Cheng Profound, initially using the small seal script to enter the seal, and later using the Shi Gu Wen and the seal script of the Han Dynasty, which opened up a new way of searching for seals outside of the seal. Since Deng Shiru was from Anhui, his seal carving was called the Anhui School, also known as the Deng School. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, many seal carvers were influenced by him, such as Wu Xizai, Xu Sangui, and Huang Shiling. Among them, Wu Xizai was the most capable of passing on the mantle of Deng's school. In his seal carvings, the knife is used vividly and freely, fully expressing the meaning of the brush, and he has the skillful technique of utilizing the knife like a pen; his seals are graceful and colorful. Many later learners of Deng Shiru started with Wu Xizai's seal carvings. Most of the seal carvings in the late Qing Dynasty were within the two schools of Zhejiang and Anhui, without any new ideas. In addition, the seal carvings of Weng Dainian, Wang Shijing, Xu Lun and others, although profound in their skills, were tracing the Qin and Han dynasties and lacked creativity. Only Zhao Zhiqian, Hu, Wu Changshuo and Huang Shiling, several talented seal carvers, with a high degree of creativity, made the seal world in the late Qing Dynasty show a vibrant situation again. Zhao Zhiqian, with profound attainments in calligraphy and painting, had been in and out of the Zhejiang and Anhui schools of seal carving. He not only drew on Qin and Han seals, but also used inscriptions into seals, forming a variety of styles of his seal carving. His white seals are dignified, and his vermilion seals are beautiful and colorful, which can show the interest of ink and brush between the knife and the stone. The margins of his carvings are also unique, breaking through the mold of his predecessors and finally establishing the status of the Zhao school. Wu Changshuo was a giant in the art world at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and he had profound attainments in poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal cutting. His seal carving started from the two schools of Zhejiang and Anhui, and he also took the method of Deng Shiru and Wu Xizai, and then he devoted himself to the Qin and Han seals and seals, sealing clay and ancient pottery, and he incorporated the brushwork of Shikuwen into his seals. He specializes in the use of blunt and hard knives, and the use of both punch and cut knives. In his seal carvings, he puts the beautiful interest in the pale strength and simplicity, which is honored as the Wu School by the later generations, and has a great influence on the seal circles in China and Japan. There are many descendants of this school, of which Zhao Shi and Chen Shizeng are the best. Huang Shiling's seal carving was first learned from Wu Xizai, then he switched to Qin and Han seals, and he was especially fond of using gold text in his seals; his sealing style is quite ingenious, bizarre and interesting; his knife style is also robust and majestic, and his seal carvings are often unadorned, and he does not claim to be tattered. His seal carving is plain and simple, with a combination of clumsiness and ingenuity, which made him rise to prominence at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Since he lived in Guangzhou for the longest time, he had the greatest influence on the seal carvers in Lingnan, and some people named Huang Shiling's seal carving as Yishan School.

Qing Dynasty? Ding Jing: "Gu Hang Shen Xin"

Qing Dynasty? Deng Shiru: Jue Fei □ Lord

Qing Dynasty? HuangShiLing "wuYuanYuDan collection of gold and stone painting and calligraphy" modern seal carver in continue to create the development of the art of seal carving school, draw on the national excellent art tradition, break through the qin, han seal and Ming, qing school of seal carving norms, the courage to innovate, and continue to explore, unveiled the modern seal carving art of a new page. The existing achievements of seal carving artists include Ding Ren, Wang □, Yi Xi, Wang Daxin, Qiao Zengqi, Qian Shou Tie, Zhao Shuru, Chen Bending, Shou Shi Gong, Lai Chusheng, Fu Baoshi and so on, and Qi Baishi has the greatest influence. His seal carving was initially based on Ding Jing and Huang Yi, and then on Zhao Zhiqian and the Han chiseled seals. He also melted the calligraphy of Han and Wei inscriptions, such as the Sacrifice to the Three Dukes of the Mountain Stele and the Divine Prophecy Stele, into his seal carvings. He used the concise single-blade method and the charm of the Han Dynasty's

Chapters

to create the Qi School style, which is strange and unrestrained and vigorous.

I hope you are satisfied.

I hope you are satisfied.