In fact, we have summarized the ming dynasty seal carving masters, which is actually the "Five Families of the Ming Dynasty", namely Wen Peng of the "Three Bridges Sect", He Zhen of the "Snow Fishing Sect", Su Xuan of the "Surabaya Sect", Wang Guan of the "Lou Dong Sect", and Zhu Jian of the "Broken Knife Sect" (this is the name of the faction we gave him, because its main feature is the cutting of knives). Because the famous seal engravers of the Ming Dynasty belong to the famous artists of the early rise of seal engraving, the seal law, chapter law, and knife method of the works are relatively simple and primary, so we intend to select as few of their works as possible when selecting the printing of the 180 square [reading and printing] series.
These five families basically run through the entire history of seal carving in the Ming Dynasty, Wen Peng is the originator of seal carving, we have talked about his "piano strike leaning on the pine to play with cranes", He Zhen is the representative of the fierce knife method, we have talked about his "laughter and talk between breath and neon" (although it does not represent his style, but it is his representative work), therefore, we read Su Xuan's work next, that is, this side "flowing wind back to snow":
(Su Xuan and his flowing wind back to the snow)
Briefly introduce Su Xuan as a person.
Su Xuan (1553-?) Zi Erxuan, a character for Xiaomin, was called Surabaya (the origin of the name "Surabaya Faction"), and was a native of Shexian (now part of Anhui) (he had once signed himself as Meishan). Orphaned early in childhood, he encountered unfair things, and he was angry and hurtful, so he fled between Huai and Hai, and Later Wen Peng took him in with the kindness of his family and introduced He Zhen to accept him as a disciple. Later, Su Xuan also studied the Six Books from Wen Peng, and gradually became popular with Wen Peng, and was promoted to Wen Peng's disciple. Later, due to Wen Peng's reasons, looking at the ancient seals hidden by Gu Congde and Xiang Yuanbian, and copying the seals of Qin and Han nearly a thousand buttons, the skills gradually deepened, and gradually became a famous artist, after Wen Peng's death, Su Xuan and He Zhen were equally famous, and even had the reputation of being with Wen and He Dingzu. Later learned from its style, known as the "Surabaya school".
Zhou Lianggong's "Biography of the Indians" says of Wen Pengyinxue, saying that "He Xueyu, a participant in a fierce profit, went to Su Sishui and made a fierce profit." The "exhaustion" mentioned here has two directions of understanding: 1. To Su Xuan, the characteristics of "fierce profit" have been developed to the extreme; 2, to Su Xuan, "fierce profit" has disappeared, and gradually tends to be peaceful. In fact, both understandings are correct. "Fierce profit to the extreme and return to peace" is the law of the development of art.
Su Xuan also made theoretical contributions to seal engraving, that is, he once said in his self-narration of "Yinluo":
For example, the poem is not the lawless Wei and Jin, not the Wei Jin; the book, not the lawless bell and the wang, not the fu bell and the king. It starts with simulation and finally changes. The changers are more than changing, the transformations are more than transformed, and the so-called simulators are more than skillful. (Huang Wei, Editing of Chinese Printing Theory, Rongbaozhai Publishing House, 2010, 867 pp.)
Mr. Sha Menghai believes that "this passage is very reasonable and conforms to the law of literary and artistic development." He also said that Su Xuan "on the basis of taking The French Wen Peng and He Zhen, the distant han and Jin Dynasties, the cheerfulness and the deep charm." He Zhen's fierce wind can also be imagined in his spectrum. (Sha Menghai, History of Printing Studies, Xiling Printing Press, 1999, 108 pp.).
Regarding Su Xuan's contributions and details of printing, see the relevant articles of the [Indian Biography] series, which will not be repeated here. Let's take a look at the "flowing wind back to snow" that this article is going to talk about.
The four-character "flowing wind back to snow" on the printing surface, the simple Chinese-White four-character Indian style, the Chongqing Publishing House's "Printing Wind" series marks the printed interpretation as "flowing snow back to the wind", which is not right, "flowing wind back to snow" has allusions and sources, and "flowing snow back to the wind" does not make sense.
(Part of the Song Dynasty facsimile "Roselle Endowment")
The allusion to "flowing wind back to snow" comes from Cao Zhi's "Roselle Endowment", the original text is:
Its shape is also like a frightening, graceful dragon. Rong Yao Qiu Ju, Hua Mao Chun Song. The hair is like a light cloud covering the moon, and the fluttering is like the snow returning to the wind. Looking at it from afar, it is as bright as the sun rising into the sun; when forced to look at it, it is like a wave of dew.
This is what he describes Roselle as a princess, saying that her form is like a flying goose, a dragon swimming like a swimming dragon. Radiant like chrysanthemums in autumn, lush like pines in the spring breeze. She appears like a light cloud cage moon from time to time, floating like a whirlwind of snow. In the distance, it is as bright as the rising sun in the morning glow; when it is close, it is as bright as a new lotus blooming between the green waves.
Since it is the order of the words "flowing wind back to the snow", then, this square seal is the "palindrome print", we do not recommend that the "word print" use the "palindromic print" format (the emergence of the palindromic seal, is the special format of the Chinese seal when engraving the name, in order to ensure that the two words of the person's "two-character name" appear on the side of the print at the same time and specially designed the style, to the Ming Dynasty, some people began to use the "palindromic print" style to engrave the word seal), is afraid that this misreading will be formed.
Copying this seal, at least the following three points should be noted:
First, the small seal is printed in white, and the lines have a clear "sense of expansion". Friends who are familiar with the history of seal engraving know that entering the white text seal with a handwritten small seal is a big problem, this problem was not solved until Wu Rangzhi of the late Qing Dynasty, and the method is not complicated, that is, the use of the "cloaking" knife method to achieve the full expression of the line for "ink meaning, pen meaning", so that the line has a relatively obvious "sense of expansion", this "sense of expansion", so that due to the circle of the line and the excessive irregularity formed on the printing surface disappears, replaced by the full "pen meaning" embodiment of the white line.
In short, the lines are written like a brush, full of penmanship, with a strong "ink" meaning, which offsets the messy feeling brought about by the irregular "red" of the printing surface (in fact, it is also the visual contrast brought about by "full white"). For example, in this square seal, there are many lines with strong ink meaning:
("Ink" full of lines)
This kind of "inky" line, the line boundary of each line is no longer stupid and straight, but full of changes, and even "rises" to both sides in general, which in addition to squeezing out the irregular "left red", it also brings more abundant aesthetic elements.
Second, at the junction of the lines, there is an obvious "handover" performance. Writing a text, which stroke is written first, which stroke is written after, often reflected very clearly in the calligraphy work, that is, calligraphy can show enough "sense of timing", and in the seal, the lines are often modified to connect the whole thing, and the "sense of timing" is not visible at all (that is, which line is engraved first, which line is engraved later), which is the craft work characteristic of the craftsman engraving seal (they even engrave it as a picture when engraving the seal), but in the seal engraving works of the literati, we often see obvious strokes "handover". This kind of "handover" is the meaning of calligraphy, the rhythm, the change, and the aesthetic element that makes one party's rigid seal into a seal engraving work. In this square seal, there are many obvious traces of "handover". As shown in the figure:
(Obvious "handover" point)
At the junction of the two knives marked by the blue dot in the figure, there are obvious traces of "handover", which makes this "handover" completely different from the old seal and has become a standard seal engraving work, which has a clear literary flavor (which is not found in most of He Zhen's works), and it is a work "written" by the literati with a knife on the stone. This is very important, and it can even be said that to Su Xuan," the conversion of "seal" to "seal carving" was completely completed, before that, it was only the literati who were carving "seals", not the real meaning of "seal carving".
Third, in addition to the ink intention, there is also sufficient "knife intention". Yes, this is a real "knife and pen" work.
(Knife Trace Calendar)
In addition to the ink marks "expansion", this square seal also has a knife mark calendar, pay attention to observe the details we mark with yellow, because of the rapid or slow use of the knife to leave a lot of knife marks, Su Xuan did not deal with these engraving process formed "knife marks", but let it be retained, which actually emphasizes that it is carved out of the knife, it is a party seal engraving work, emphasizing the properties of stone carving, increasing the "golden stone gas".
(Zhao Zhiqian "Julu Wei Clan" and side section)
Many years later, it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that the genius Indian Zhao Zhiqian put forward the theory that "ancient printing has pens and ink, but modern people have knives and stones" ("Julu Wei"). In the Ming Dynasty, Su Xuan's square seal has made the "equal emphasis on sword and pen" very decent, and it can even be said that this square seal is a model of "equal emphasis on sword and pen" (the reason is very simple, because Su Xuan copied a large number of qin and Han ancient seals), of course, Zhao Zhiqian is also very powerful, and it is not a simple thing to practice to the purification of theory, but people who do it such as Su Xuan are obviously also masters, because although Zhao Zhiqian recognizes this principle, he is still "left in his heart" when he engraves the knife (see the side section of the picture above).
([Pudding Reading] No. 86, some of the pictures originate from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the original copyright owner)