Today I still study Wu Changshuo.
We still benefit from Master Wu Changshuo
Friends who are more familiar with the history of modern and contemporary seal engraving will know that in our generation, except for a group of people (a very small number of people) who will have to worship famous teachers by chance, most of our friends are self-taught seal carving, and the most famous study materials on seal engraving after new China are Mr. Deng Sanmu's "Seal Engraving", which was printed in 1979, and that year was also the year I began to learn to print, so it naturally became my enlightenment book.
(Portrait of Mr. Deng Sanmu)
Later, after gradually understanding the history of Chinese seal carving, I began to think very confidently that we were also Wu Changshuo's disciples! Because Mr. Deng Sanmu's master is Mr. Zhao Guyi, and Mr. Zhao Guyi is the disciple of Master Wu Changshuo. Of course, this is blind self-confidence, because after all, it is not a true disciple, but this is something that cannot be done. The years are the most merciless, the wind is always blown away by the rain and the wind, Master Wu Changshuo has been gone for more than 90 years, and his youngest disciple, Mr. Sha Menghai, has also died for 27 years...
(Portrait of Mr. Sha Menghai)
Of course, we say that we are still studying many things left by Master Wu Changshuo, because in addition to Mr. Deng Sanmu's "Seal Engraving", Mr. Pan Tianshou published "Discussion on The Governance of Seals", Mr. Sha Menghai published "Introduction to Printing Studies" and "History of Printing Studies"; Mr. Shou Shigong published "Lecture Notes on Seal Engraving"... And Mr. Pan, Sha, and Shou are all disciples of Mr. Wu Changshuo. Obviously, Master Wu's knowledge of seal engraving still borrows the works of his disciples to bless future generations, and we are all beneficiaries.
(Deng Sanmu's "Seal Engraving" book shadow)
Master Wu Changshuo's experience in learning printing was also to learn from Chen Hongshou of the Zhejiang school, then deng Shiru and Wu Rangzhi, then to learn Xu Sangeng, and then to learn Zhao Zhiqian and Qian Song (we know that Zhao Zhiqian and Qian Song are close friends, and their artistic views are similar), until finally Master Wu Changshuo immersed himself in Hanyin Ruoxu Nian, and finally reached the "transformation realm" of seal carving art.
(Statue of Master Wu Changshuo)
The master has been engraving the seal all his life, and his own words are "less good seal carving, from less to old age, and the seal is not separated from the seal." After 70 years of engraving and printing in his life (he lived at the age of 84), he finally changed from a "cultivator" (when he was the president of the Xiling Seal Society, he wrote a couplet: "He Dare to be long, literate is only Ding Yi Yong, a cultivator comes from the field") to a master of art, he is a person who is familiar with seal carving, his experience of learning seals is a complete journey from ancient times to the present, but in his later years, he deeply understood the importance of The Chinese Seal, so his advice to posterity is "to learn the Chinese seal first" (Zhu Lesan "Wu Changshuo Seal Carving Art"), and "imitate the Chinese seal, It is advisable to start with the plain all the way, and there is no disadvantage in the house" ("Seal of Junqing" side paragraph).
Of course, this is the talk of experience, so most of the beginners now start with the Hanbai wenyin, but in fact, the Hanbai wenyin is not easy to carve, because it is not easy to "shine". Let's read the Hanbai name seal of Master Wu Changshuo: Feng WenweiYin, as shown in the picture:
(Wu Changshuo: Feng Wenwei print and side section)
This direction was carved by Wu Changshuo to Feng Wenwei, and the side paragraph reads: "In the fifth month of The first month, engrave and send the Shu Shu Shu Bachelor's Law Book." Junqing. Feng Wenwei Zi Liantang, a native of Wucheng (present-day Huzhou), Zhejiang, was a calligrapher and painter, who was then serving as a cabinet scholar in the dprk.
(Feng Wenwei's calligraphy)
1. Orthography and seal law
Regarding the orthography and seal method, it is worth mentioning these three points: 1, the two points of water of the Feng character, in the Miao Seal, the two points of the Feng character are completely different from the writing method of "ice" in the small seal, but most of them are converted into two short verticals in the vertical direction, which of course is for the sake of regular glyphs, square printing surfaces, and the need for square characters to adapt, so the seal law is changed accordingly. Master Wu borrowed the Han chinese practice here, but instead of attacking, he showed the two points more like the "long points" written out, rather than the short vertical.
(Feng Zi in "Hanyin Rhyme")
This Feng character in the Han seal, as we have said before, has a very personal way of writing, which is "Zuo Feng Yi Cheng" (pictured), in the eyes of the Han people, it is very important to make the glyph square.
(Hanyin: Zuo Feng Yicheng)
2. The "small claw" in the upper part of the printed character. In most of Wu Changshuo's private prints, the printing characters use this kind of seal method (reprinting the notation, very common), he never adopts a neat and neat white geometric engraving method, such a seal method has two advantages: one is "creating emptiness", he accepted Zhao Zhiqian's dense theory, one side of the white printing, there will generally be a conspicuous red ground, this "seal" character is written like this, the hollow is obvious, a small piece of "red ground", more conspicuous; the second is "reflecting the writing intention", the master is a practitioner of "printing with a book", Of course, he hoped that his work contained the seal characters that he had "written", and if it was neatly coded and carved into a neat white, he would not do it. Of course, this "seal" character seal method, the indians of later generations learned a lot of people.
3. The choice of "wen" character seal method. There is no shortage of square characters in the Chinese seal, of course, there are also such a seal method that is all oblique, why did Master Wu choose such a seal method? The answer is simple: of course, to serve the rules, as we'll say below.
2. Rules and Regulations
Regarding the chapter method, this square seal is the main line of the chapter method that is typical of the large sparse and large secret echoes: (1) Under the theory of "dense and not allowing needles, sparse can run horses", the "parallel pen" large white block treatment made by Wei Zi is more intense; (2) The small "red ground" at the "seal" character and the small "red ground" at the text (this is the reason for the choice of the "Wen" character seal method) strongly echo, and the whole square seal is dense and sparse, the loop is reciprocating, and the sense of rhythm is very strong.
In addition to the main line of the chapter, it is worth saying a lot:
1. Back to the word order. Master Wu chose the palindromic printing order, which is of course a convenient practice, because if according to the normal word order, the two dense characters "Feng" and "Wei" are crowded on top and are not easy to arrange in the second place, even if it is arranged, this is definitely a "top-heavy" seal, and it is not easy to come up with good results.
2, the elevated "蔚" word. Han bai wen printing, the most typical printing surface distribution is evenly divided printing surface, ren sparse and dense. But this square seal, Master Wu made adjustments: the two characters on the right were evenly divided into printing surfaces, and even in order to divide the printing surface equally, the upper part of the printed characters was also written as a "small claw" with an oblique trend to raise the height and match the "Feng" character. On the left, it is no longer equal at all, and the word "Wei" is obviously elevated, but it does not completely occupy the position, but under the word, a relatively empty red ground echoes with other red fields. After the elevation of the Wei character, "Wei" and "Feng" have a contact point in the land area, and the two words "Wen" and "Yin" are completely separated from the form, which strengthens the diagonal and dense echo of this square seal.
(Isolation effect after raising the wei character)
The diagonal dense echo is obvious, but the elevation of the area of the wei character obviously has an isolation strengthening effect.
3. Word-to-word care and full-print reunion. In this seal, as the master said, "One seal should be like a family, united in unity." "Just like a human body, the limbs and torso must be properly configured, and the blood and blood of the whole body should be unimpeded." Otherwise, he will become deformed and sluggish, and even become a half-hearted patient" (Zhu Lesan, "Wu Changshuo's Art of Seal Engraving"). The "horse" part of the "Feng" character stretches out the rightmost foot and the "small claw" of the "Yin" part of the head is raised, the left part of the "Yin" character and the "inch" part of the "Wei" character are connected in two places, the left side of the "Wei" character "艸" head is raised up to take on one foot of the "Wen" character, and one hand at the waist of the "Wen" character is supporting the center of the second point of the "Feng" character, and the posture is obvious. This is exactly the good seal of potential energy harmony and reunion between the four words of one side.
4. Clumsy freehand. Strictly speaking, this article belongs to the style of the whole square seal, Wu Changshuo has never pursued uniformity and cleanliness, he has more books into the print, with his unique calligraphy style into the seal, the work is full of true qi, Canggu Qi, majestic and simple. In this square seal, as shown in the picture, everywhere you can see the master's knife like a pen, such as "hidden front, out of the front, back forward, pick up the pen" and other clear "writing intentions".
(Full of calligraphy)
You see, in this picture, we left the wei character, because the prominent feature of the wei character is the sense of the knife, of course, it also has a sense of writing, such as a stroke on the side, but in general, the "wei" word "more see the knife".
Third, about the knife method
Regarding Wu Changshuoyin's knife technique, we will not say more, his knife is a magic knife, an omnipotent knife that serves his creation. You see that the knife method treatment in this seal is completely in the service of the chapter law and the seal law. Many beginners say that Wu Changshuo's seal is not neat, not as clean as Huang Mufu, not as elegant as Chen Julai, about neatness and cleanliness, we have to say two additional words:
For the direction he pursued, of course, Master Wu was not allowed to carve all the lines neatly, smoothly, as precisely as a ruler and as precise as an instrument, or as neat and uniform as geometric figures, because that was not the style he wanted. Some beginners say that a printer like Wu Changshuo must not be able to carve a clean and polished printing surface, which is ridiculous, which is similar to the calligraphy beginner asking a calligrapher with an ancient and thick style and an old and strong pen to write a neat and uniform hairpin flower letter, and making such a request is similar to letting "an old pine have a graceful woman with wind and bamboo at the same time" (Xiong Bingming).
(Portrait of Wu Changshuo)
Every beauty is worth admiring, and seeing which beauty resonates more deeply in your soul. If you have experienced more years, you will find that Wu Changshuo's seal may be more impressive and more vital!
([Pudding Reading] No. 27, some pictures quoted from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)