How to distinguish Bai Wen and Zhu Wen in seal cutting?

The seal is covered on paper, and the text is white, which is also called printing;

Chinese characters are red inkpad, and this is Zhu Wen, also called Yang Wen.

Generally speaking, vernacular Chinese is mostly Chinese, with stability, broadness and massiness as the aesthetic orientation;

Zhu is very rich, which is characterized by expressing the beauty of calligraphy on the printing surface and taking natural flow as the direction of beauty.

Extended data:

Seal cutting development

The seal of the pre-Qin, Qin and Han dynasties is the symbol and voucher of ancient people's power in communication. In addition, seals such as auspicious words, filial piety and Huang Zhang also reflect the customs of ancient social life and people's ideology.

At that time, regardless of rank, they were all called seals. There are two kinds of seals: Zhu Wen (raised character, also called Yang Wen) and Bai Wen (concave character, also called Yin Wen). Ancient seals vary in shape and size, with special shapes such as rectangle, square and circle. The content includes official position, name, Kyrgyz language and Xiao pattern. Ancient seals were made by seiko, chiseled or cast; The seal is fine and the composition is vivid. Zhu Wenxi's sidebar is a little wide, and Bai Wenxi has many bounded squares. There is also an ancient seal with Zhu, which is also very unique. It can be seen that the production of seals was mature at that time.

Three items similar to ancient seals were found in Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province. Some people infer that the origin of ancient seals should be in Shang Dynasty, but further discussion is needed. In the Qin dynasty, the emperor's seal was called seal, and the common people's seal was called seal. Qin Zhuan is a copy, similar to Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty. The Qin seal is solemn and beautiful, and the characters "Kou" and "Tian" are added to the square official seal and "Ri" is added to the rectangular seal (also known as semi-pass seal), which is the remarkable feature of the Qin seal. Besides official seal and private seal, Qin seal was also printed in official language, which created a precedent for later generations to print casually.

Han dynasty is an unprecedented glorious period for the development of Xi seal. In the Han dynasty, except for the emperor's seal, all the others were called seals. Some are called seals or seals in official seals, while others are called seals or seals in private seals. The word "seal" commonly used in modern times comes from this. Printing in China is richer in content and form than before, especially private printing. China seal is printed with Miao seal script. This font is related to the rise of official script in Han dynasty, with simple structure and straight strokes.

There is also a bird book printed in Chinese, which is very decorative and an ancient artistic font. China and India split casting and chiseling. Most of the seals in the Western Han Dynasty were cast, among which the seals in Xin Mang at the end of the Western Han Dynasty were the most exquisite. The seal of the Eastern Han Dynasty is characterized by block printing. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, because of social unrest and war, officials and generals were often mobilized or killed, resulting in frequent sacrifices. Usually, seals are carved on the blank prepared in advance, and most of them are unadorned. The casting and printing in Han Dynasty were solemn and vigorous, and the block printing was exquisite and extraordinary. These two completely different styles greatly influenced and inspired the seal cutting of later generations.

The materials and textures of ancient seals are mostly metal and jade. Although these printed materials have the advantages of extremely slow wear and long hanging, due to their high hardness and hard carving, the production of ancient seals must be made by specialized craftsmen.

It is said that Wang Mian, a painter at the end of Yuan Dynasty, first carved with Elaeagnus angustifolia. As early as in ancient times, there were lithographs in seals, and there were also lithographs in private seals in Tang and Song Dynasties. Elastase is easy to carve. Since it was adopted in Wang Mian, it has opened up a new world for literati and artists to carve with knives. Wen Peng of the Ming Dynasty also recorded the lettering of smooth stone (frozen stone). The extensive use of lithographic materials provides superior material conditions for the development of seal cutting.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-seal cutting