——Wu Zijian, Chen Meizhang, and Shen Changjian gathered at Shen Yinmo's former residence
(From right to left: Chen Meizhang, Wu Zijian, Shen Yinmo's grandson Shen Changjian, author)
Listening to Teacher Chen Meizhang, the relocation of Shen Yinmo's former residence has been properly resolved through the efforts of all parties. Helen Road was widened, Shen Yinmo's former residence remained unchanged, and it will be temporarily open to the public for renovation and exhibition.
After Teacher Wu Zijian learned about it, he contacted Chen Meizhang and Shen Changjian to visit Shen Lao's former residence. He also said that it was also a revisit of the old place and a temporary farewell to Shen Laozuo.
Chen Meizhang and Wu Zijian met in the early 1960s, one studied calligraphy in the Youth Palace, the other learned seal carving in the Youth Palace, and during the study period, the two became good friends. Under the introduction of Chen Meizhang, Wu Zijian also became a regular customer of Shen Yinmo's family.
According to Wu Zijian, he benefited a lot from Shen Yinmo's home, and his unprinted manuscript engraving method was inspired by Shen Yinmo's teacher. Elder Shen said to him: "Calligraphy and seal engraving are the same, calligraphy does not cross the second king, but it cannot be bound by it, there is no need to deliberately imitate, to make your pen natural and smooth, you seal carving is to replace the brush with a carving knife, and the brushwork and knife method are a truth." Now it seems that Elder Shen's teachings are still unforgettable to him.
Wu Zijian and Chen Meizhang were both young and successful, and when Wu Zijian was nineteen years old, he and Chen Mingwu, Xu Yunshu, and Fang Zhengzhi expanded the "Four Friends Seal Spectrum", and became famous in one fell swoop. At the age of thirteen, Chen Meizhang became a closed disciple of Shen Yinmo, and later he also became a peach and plum all over the world, and taught calligraphy to Japanese universities.
The two also have a characteristic that they are rangers outside the system, Chen Meizhang has been traveling to Fusang for nearly thirty years, wu Zijian is a tourist in Hong Kong, the United States for thirty years, and now they are all Ye Luoguigen settled in Shencheng. Both of them kept Shen Yinmo's teachings in mind and continued to play their own strengths in order to inherit the traditional culture of the motherland.
Teacher Wu Zijian also has an elegant name, called seal carving "hermit", but his works on seal carving are many, and they enjoy a high reputation in the printing altar, and now they are comparable to Han Tianheng. When Wu Zijian was twenty-five years old, Xie Zhiliu wrote an article saying of him: "On the seal of self-reliance, words must be called Han seal, and Zi Jianfang is already like this in his youth, if he has less time off, he will not know that there is a Han."
The year before, Wu Zijian hosted the "Wentao Lecture Hall" at the Li Shutong Memorial Hall in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, and for the first time in his life, he demonstrated the engraving in front of everyone. For the non-printing draft, he said: "When the unprinted manuscript is engraved under the knife, it can be unconstrained by the printing draft, cut freely, no need to deliberately draw lines, more natural and smooth." Although I did not intend to print it, I had already conceived the structure of this seal many times in my mind, so it was not unprepared. Through demonstration and explanation, Teacher Wu Zijian used practical actions to practice the spirit of Shen Yinmo's inheritance of the traditional culture of the motherland.