How to understand the "hot wax nail Zhu" in "Dream of the Red Chamber"?

How to stone the text when carving the stele, that is, how to copy the inscription written on the paper as it is, was the daily work of craftsmen in ancient times, and today it is a curious question.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Republic of China, Chinese inscriptions have continued the inherent technology, but to modern times, traditional technology has been rapidly replaced by new technologies, and today's people are also quite unfamiliar with the ancient inscription process, which is reflected in the academic, that is, the elaboration of related issues is often flawed, which includes both the history of stone carving monographs and the study of important issues, such as the interpretation of the phrase "hot wax nail Zhu" in "Dream of the Red Chamber".

However, although the predecessors did not leave special inscription technical documents, their writings will occasionally involve relevant issues; Cultural relics that reflect actual craftsmanship are also occasionally preserved; There are also people familiar with the matter who have made some recollections in recent years. Synthesizing these materials, we can restore the traditional inscription process, especially the "Shangshi" technique, and solve relevant academic problems (when ancient inscriptions were inscribed, Zhu Mo was written directly on the stone, that is, "Shudan", which is not discussed in this article).

Although the ancient literati were not interested in chiseling stone inscriptions, they were fond of the extension product of stone carvings, the Fati rubbings, and when commenting on the advantages and disadvantages of the inscriptions, they inevitably involved in the carving process.

For example, Zhao Gongguang, a Ming dynasty, said: "Stone and wood have gains and losses. Where the carved stone, the hook ink is lost, the filling Zhu is lost, the upper stone is lost three times, and the vertebral chisel is lost four times. ("Hanshan Broom Talk" volume below)

Sun Wei said: "Whoever imitates the true deeds into the wood and stone has five obstacles: double hook one, fill zhu two, seal zhu into the wood stone three, carve four, and pluck out five." If you re-copy the stele, there are ten obstacles, and there are several true intention survivors. ("Inscription" under volume 2 of "Calligraphy and Painting Trek")

"Tuo out" is a matter after the inscription is done, and it can be removed. The Ming Dynasty engraving process mentioned by the two people mainly has four items, namely "double hook", "filling Zhu", "shangshi (into the stone)" and "chiseling", the first two operations are on paper, the last one is on the stone, and the third is the combination of paper and stone.

Wang Chang of the Qing Dynasty commented on the Ming inscription of the Book of Day Jintang in volume 136 of the Golden Stone Compilation: "When the Ming Dynasty went to the stone, I did not know how to use the method of double hooks. If you use an ink pen double hook on the ink now, and then use a Zhu pen to depict its back, it is a stone, it will not be distorted, and the ink will not be damaged..." Because it is known that the Three processes of the Qing Dynasty engraving before chiseling: "Ink Pen Double Hook", "Zhu Pen Trace Back" and "Shangshi", "Zhu Pen Trace Back" is equivalent to "Filling Zhu" in the Ming Dynasty.

The "double hook" is a paper base pattern made by tracing with an ink pen. As the name suggests, "filling in Zhu" is to use a Zhu pen on the back of the paper to outline the characters and then fill in the vermilion color. After the Qing people's "Zhu Pen Double Hook" is outlined, it is no longer filled in, and the process is simplified.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was also a method of "passing Zhu" for carving stones. When discussing the "method of inscribing tablets" in volume VIII of Fang Yizhi's "Little Knowledge of Physics," he said: "It is difficult to get into the gods with double hooks and over Zhu." What kind of process is "passing Zhu" equivalent to?

Ming Shen Defu's "Wan Li Ye Ye Zhi Zhi" Volume 26 "Small Kai Ink Carving" article said: "Dong Xuanzai carved the "XiHongtang Thesis", which is popular today, but it is in a hurry to complete, it is not very refined, if it is proofread with the real handwriting, it is like a river Han. Among them, Xiao Kai has several lines of Han Zongbo's "Huangting Inner Scene", which has recently been pushed as the first in the Uchi Law Book, and the engraving of "Xi Hong" seems to be lost. After meeting Han Xuanjun, questioning his reason, Han Yue: Dong Lai borrowed, gave fear of his non-return, and responded to more than a hundred words of Lin, and did not double hook and Zhu, but did not expect him to fall into Shi Ye. Because of the phase and the palm of the hand. It is clearly stated that "passing Zhu" is a process after "double hook" and before "entering the stone", which is equivalent to "filling in Zhu". Qing Ge Shouzhi's "General Explanation of Hanxi Calligraphy" Volume VIII Notes Song Jiangkuo's "Continuation Book Genealogy" "Shu Dan" article says: "Hook Dan, Pass Zhu, Gle ancient characters of the law also." It is also clear that "passing Zhu" is to use vermilion to outline the text. Tasting the word "pass" is to let the handwriting "pass" through the paper, so the Suzhou people in the Ming Dynasty jokingly called it "ghost passing method", and the cover is not the right way, through the wall.

In the process of ancient stone carving, the back of the ink sample was double hooked with vermilion or a physical object called Zhu, which occasionally survived. A set of Qing Guangxujian "Qing Gu Zhi Zhi Tong Feng Dafu Yan Yun Envoy Jiangsu Special Use Dao Liu Gongyuan with Lady Qin Enjin Feng Yipin Lady Liu Mu Hu Lady Epitaph", including the epitaph ink book, the back of the Zhu pen double hook and the stone carving rubbing. Liu Gong was a Jiashan man, Liu Wendi, and his wife Hu died in the eighteenth year of Guangxu. The epitaph was written by Lu Maozong, Shen Jingxiu Shudan, and the Suzhou Tang Renzhai carved stone. After the carving, Tang Renzhai returned the epitaph to the Liu family together with the ink book, and opened a detailed account to settle the price. The ink book has been framed into an album, but it can be seen that behind each word is outlined with a Zhu pen, that is, Wang Chang's so-called "using a Zhu pen to draw his back". This epitaph reflects the whole process of the inscription process from paper to stone.

So, after passing zhu (filling in Zhu), how should the complex upper stone (entering the stone) be operated? When talking about the old topic of paying attention to the distortion of Thetuo in studying calligraphy, Wang Qiangang of the Republic of China said: "The method of covering ink engraving begins with a hook, then uses Zhu Hook on the reverse, and then grinds wax on the stone, prints the stone with Zhu Ben, starts playing the knife on the real handwriting, and changing hands three or four times, and the authentic handwriting under it is more than the first class."

"Grinding wax on the stone, printing the stone with Zhu Ben" is a specific explanation of the shangshi (into the stone) process, which echoes with Sun Yiyun's "printing Zhu into the stone", and tells the function of the Zhu pen to outline the back of the paper. Unfortunately, the "Guancang Pavilion Narrative Book" only saw the banknotes, was not widely circulated, and failed to produce academic influence.

In recent years, Chen Guangming, a descendant of Chen Yunting, a monument artist in Beijing, has repeatedly recalled the inscription career of his predecessors. In the article "The Last Inscribed Family in Beijing: Let the Years Freeze on Stone", he described the inscription process as "selection of materials, polishing, brushing ink, ironing wax, hook characters, zhu, hammering, hanging glue, engraving, and rubbing" (Beijing Youth Daily, March 6, 2006); In the article "A Brief Discussion on the Engraving Art of the "Sanxitang Fati" and Its Influence on the Art of Inscriptions in Beijing", he details the specific practices of scalding wax, double hooks, over-Zhu, shang-samples, and hanging glue, which are the "hammering" mentioned above and the "Shangshi" said by the ancients (Wenjin Liuyan, No. 40, ed. of the National Library of Ancient Books). In short, the whole process is to apply a thin layer of wax to the stone, cover the paper pattern that has passed the Zhu on the stone and beat it, let the paper back vermilion be transferred to the stone, and then dust the glue to protect the Zhu character. This process is somewhat like a stamp, so Sun Yi and Wang Qiangang are called "Yin Zhu".

Echo after the process. However, the above statements are all aimed at engravings and cannot be applied to all inscriptions.

As far as the upper stone is concerned, for paper samples that do not need to retain the original, they can be directly engraved on the stone. For example, the "Huangting Inner Scene" post in the "Xihongtang Thesis" was directly on the stone without passing zhu. Another example is that in a letter to Cai Yuanlu in the late Ming Dynasty, Huang Ruheng said: "Qiangqi is a tomb watch for his brother ... I don't know if my brother has ever had a good hand? If not, it must be engraved directly on it. (Yu Lin Ji, vol. XXVIII) This shows that "passing Zhu" is an important craft, but it is not the only craft, and if it does not need to be very detailed, or the workers do not have a good grasp, they can also use simple methods.

As far as the writing sample is concerned, the engraving of the Fa Ti must be "double hooked" to copy because of the protection of the original, but the engraving of the new stele, after the inscription is written, can be directly past the Zhu Shangshi, and there is no need to outline it again on the front of the mask paper. For example, Huang Ruheng wrote a tomb watch, as well as the epitaph of Lady Liu Muhu, all of which were directly behind the original Zhu.

Through Zhu and Yinzhu, the writing was stoned, and now it seems that it has become popular in the Southern Song Dynasty as late as possible. The "Copying" chapter of Jiang Kui's "Continuation Book Genealogy" says: "The method of double hooks must be so that the ink cannot be blurred outside the word, or the outline is filled in, or the back of Zhu Qi, and the body of the fat and thin is obtained." Although it is especially expensive to be thin, so that the workers can carve it, and thus scrape it, the thin person will also become fat... Fu Feng MangGui horn, the spirit of the word, more or less double hooks lost, this must be Zhu Qi's back when a little greeting. "Zhu Qibei" is obviously what later generations said about "passing Zhu". From the perspective of the production of monuments and the application of paper, this process should be very early and can continue to be traced.

The phrase "hot wax nail Zhu" in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is found in the twenty-third "Xi Xiang Ji Miao Words And Jokes Peony Pavilion Yanqu Police Fangxin". After the Yuan Concubines were provincial, Jia Zheng ordered everyone to chant in the Grand View Garden, so he selected Seiko, "one day hot wax nail Zhu, move your hands." For a long time, the red academic circles have misunderstood this cold word, and now compared with the clear inscription process, it can be seen that "hot wax" is "grinding wax on the stone", "nailing Zhu" is "printing on the stone with Zhu Ben", which is the beginning of the stone work after the end of the paper work, so the stonemason "moves his hand". In the Qing Dynasty, this craft had its own name, and Chen Guangming's "hammering" may be written as "hammer nails".