What is seal cutting?

What is seal cutting? Seal cutting is a unique traditional art with a long history of two or three thousand years. Seal cutting, as the name implies, is a seal carved with seal script, and it is a practical work of art, which is also the most basic and simple problem, but at the same time it is a fundamental problem. The most popular saying is that seal cutting is "the art of engraving seals", which is the general understanding of seal cutting by most people.

We can't say this statement is wrong, because it almost expresses the characteristics of seal cutting. First, the word "engraving" expresses the way of seal cutting creation, and second, the word "seal" explains the basic form on which seal cutting depends; At the same time, it also shows that using characters as printing materials is the characteristic of seal cutting. Finally, the word "art" obviously refers not only to the practical function of the seal, but also to the pursuit of its aesthetic value.

Therefore, it is not wrong to say that seal cutting is "the art of engraving seals". However, this sentence is easily misunderstood by people, that is, putting "seal cutting" in the first place is aimed at carving seals to make them look better and more exquisite. This is the so-called "seal cutting". The actual meaning of this sentence is "the skill of seal cutting".

We have no intention to deny the technical means that must be adopted in the process of seal cutting creation, but apart from the characteristics of "writing", seal cutting creation has many characteristics, such as calligraphy, which are isomorphic with the concept of seal cutting.

Seal cutting is also known as "iron pen". The ancients said, "Make a knife like a pen". Some people think that seal cutting should belong to the art of calligraphy, aiming to show the art of calligraphy on the printing surface, but the brush was replaced by a carving knife. When creating, one is writing and the other is engraving. The material carrier of the work is one on paper and the other on stone.

Broadly speaking, it is not bad that calligraphy and seal cutting belong to the same category. Both of them are based on words, with readable meanings and abstract artistic forms. But when it comes to works, they are obviously two different things, with different forms of existence, creative methods and artistic expression languages.

Knife stone is an important expression of seal cutting, and it is a symbol that constitutes the language individuality of seal cutting and is different from calligraphy art. The uniqueness of seal cutting is reflected by the melting and casting of knife stone effect and the charm of pen and ink. This kind of pen and ink does not transfer the calligraphy pen and ink to the printing surface, but changes the interest of pen and ink with the shape of a knife stone.

Once the knots and lines in calligraphy are used for printing, they must be transformed from the printing surface, and the pottery carved with a knife is hardened, making it something in printing instead of something in books. It is the form of printing and the special expression of "knife stone" that distinguishes seal cutting from calligraphy.

As for seal cutting, everything in calligraphy is only the raw materials that can be used after the printing form changes, and seal cutting (especially small seal cutting) is called "small seal cutting" because seal cutting and printmaking are created by carving with a knife, and they all appreciate the effect of rubbing on paper rather than the original engraving. From this perspective, seal cutting does have some characteristics of printmaking, but the two are not the same thing anyway. The difference lies not only in the size of the format, but also in their irreplaceable and confusing artistic language and technical procedures.

In addition, there is a saying that seal cutting is "as the name implies", which shows the significance of seal cutting and calligraphy, as well as the creation with the help of seal cutting, but all of them have removed the most basic support, that is, seal cutting must occur and exist on an inch square printing surface, and without the form of seal, seal cutting will cease to exist. If this basic feature is removed, then anything with seal cutting, such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, Qin and Han stone carvings, can be called seal cutting, but this is obviously not the case.

Seal cutting has some characteristics of practical seals, arts and crafts, calligraphy, prints and other inscriptions, but it is essentially different from the above. Seal cutting is an art category with an independent and complete system. It takes square-inch printing as the form of occurrence and existence, takes character modeling (mainly seal script) as the basic material, takes seal cutting as the main creative means, and uses the unique expression language of seal cutting (such as seal cutting, knife cutting, composition and printing effect production, etc.) to create the form of seal cutting, and expresses the beauty and cultural connotation of seal cutting through the form.

Here we basically define the content of "seal cutting". This definition refers to the creation characterized by active artistic creation consciousness, and the resulting seal cutting works. We use this definition to examine a large number of seals left in history, excluding the function of seals as practical tools and ignoring the meaning expressed by their printed words. The only problem is their artistic form and aesthetic significance. Then, the word seal cutting can also be used in ancient seals.

Determine what seal cutting is, and then discuss the content of seal cutting techniques. Seal cutting originated from ancient seal making, and it is an art that takes place on the printing surface, so seal cutting technology and seal making technology are intertwined. However, seal cutting is an independent art category after all. Although it has the attributes of craft, calligraphy and art, it has different technical language and expression forms from other art categories. Seal cutting techniques, including seal cutting, composition, knife cutting and effect making, are all means to create the material form of seal cutting works.

The seal cutting discipline includes: seal cutting history, seal cutting aesthetics, seal cutting theory, seal cutting creation and techniques, seal cutting criticism, seal cutting education and so on. Engaged in seal cutting, we should not only be familiar with the subject content of seal cutting itself, but also be familiar with other art categories or disciplines related to seal cutting, such as calligraphy art, ancient philology, ancient seal cutting archaeology, arts and crafts and so on.

In many aspects of seal cutting, history and aesthetics are the basis of the subject, while Indian research, creation and techniques, criticism and education are the applications of history and aesthetics. Among them, the most direct, concrete and basic technique is seal cutting. Although the technique belongs to the concrete application of seal cutting aesthetics and historical theory in the discipline, all metaphysical things come from this concreteness. Without techniques, there is no creation, no material entity of seal cutting, let alone history and aesthetics as the theoretical basis of the discipline. Therefore, the theoretical basis of metaphysics and the technical application of metaphysics are inseparable, and in a sense, they are interdependent.

Seal cutting techniques are not isolated, and the study of seal cutting techniques must involve seal cutting history, aesthetics, printing theory research, creative research, seal cutting criticism and many other aspects. Therefore, when writing this book, it includes a brief history of seal cutting technology in China, an overview of seal cutting technology theory in past dynasties, a review of modern seal cutting and selected readings. The chapter on seal cutting techniques, in addition to the usual seal cutting, composition and knife cutting, also involves the contents of seal script and seal cutting from copying to creation. On the basis of summarizing the previous seal cutting techniques and combining with the needs of contemporary creation, the concept and content of "making method" are put forward.

In a word, seal cutting technology is an inseparable part of seal cutting, which will involve all the contents of seal cutting.