Zhu Jian is the most noteworthy seal engraver in the "Ming Five Families", he is not only a practitioner, but also a theorist, our reading series once said that his side seal "and heavy to cultivate energy", that is one side of Zhu Wenyin, if you want to understand the works of a seal engraver, always Zhu and Bai Wen each look at one side of the good, therefore, we come to read Zhu Jian's other side of the white seal, that is, this side of the "Tang Xianzu Seal":
(Zhu Jian: Tang Xianzuyin)
This is a four-character seal in the style of Han and White Chinese, the owner of the print is Tang Xianzu, 20 years older than Zhu Jian, and is also one of the most famous opera singers and writers in the Ming Dynasty of China, his masterpiece "Peony Pavilion" ("The Book of Returning the Soul") is regarded as a treasure of world theatrical art, and he himself is also called "Shakespeare of the East" by the Western world (Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare are contemporaries). Obviously, this is another private seal engraved by a celebrity on the side, so we can basically be sure that this is Zhu Jian's intention.
(Bronze statue of Tang Xianzu)
We deliberately singled out this square work because this square seal incorporates a large number of calligraphy elements, which is a work that strives for the realm of "sword and pen fusion", which is relatively rare in the white text seal made by the seal engravers before Zhu Jian.
We know that Zhu Jian made great contributions to the theory of printing, one of which was his "Seal Classic", which has such a passage:
The knife and pen are blended, there is no trace to be found, the divine product is also; there is a pen without a knife, the wonderful product is also; there is a knife without a pen, and the product is also; outside the knife and pen, and there is a different kind of fun, yipin also; there is a blade and like a sawtooth swallowtail, and the outer road is also. No blade and like ink pig iron wire, philistine also. (Zhu Jian's "Seal Classic", "Selected Papers on Printing in Past Dynasties", edited by Han Tianheng, Xiling Printing Press, 1999, 138 pp.)
It can be seen that Zhu Jian's criterion for judging seal engraving art works is the principle of combining "knife" and "pen", there is a "knife" and a "pen", "knife" can fully express the "pen", and finally reach the integration of the knife and pen, there is no trace to be found, this is the highest realm of seal carving, there is a "pen" without a "knife" can only be called a "wonderful" product, there is a "knife" without a "pen" can only be called "can" product, we can even say that Zhu Jian in the relationship between "knife" and "pen", he is more focused on "pen", that is, he emphasizes more "calligraphy" characteristics, Although we cannot yet find works that have reached the realm of "sword and pen integration" in Zhu Jian's works, we can find traces of his hard work in his works, so his works have the meaning of reference. For example, this side of the "Tang Xianzu Seal" -
It clearly leaves traces in the engraving of the printed text, which is used to indicate the timing of writing, so that we can see that the printed text is "sealed" and "written" in one stroke, not just "carved", the most obvious intentional, reflected in the treatment of the "Ito" part of the left half of the "Xian" character, as shown in the figure:
(Itobu's writing timing)
Zhu Jian took the initiative to disconnect the middle of the "Ito" department, and he seemed to want to make it clear: the words in this square seal were "written" one by one. This can not be seen in the works of the predecessors of the same treatment, the treatment of the predecessors, when encountering such words, under normal circumstances, is to open up the connection between the lines, we can examine the processing method of the "display" character in the Chinese seal, whether it is Zhu Wen or Bai Wen, the treatment of the "Ito" part, or disconnected into two separate "mouths", or connected together, but does not show the order of writing. As shown in the figure:
(Treatment of the word "display" in Chinese and Indian)
Of course, this is to present the "pen meaning", this active pursuit is actually Zhu Jian's second reproduction of the archetype of calligraphy art, and there are also the following points that also reflect the pen meaning:
(Treatment of calligraphy attributes)
1. The "hidden front" at the beginning of the line. The most obvious one is the bottom horizontal of the right part of the word "zu", and there is an obvious Tibetan front treatment at the beginning of the pen. In fact, the middle vertical of the left "show" of the "zu" character is obviously bold, which is also to represent the "Hidden Front" of the starting pen, and other strokes, if carefully considered, many of them are expressed with the action of the Tibetan Front.
2. The "back front" at the end of the line. The most obvious one is the last "back front" treatment of the "claw" part of the upper part of the "seal" character. In fact, the last stroke of the "soup" word "water" part also has an obvious "back edge", similarly, many strokes, careful consideration, or flat collection, or back front, have obvious "pen meaning".
3. Deliberate marks at the overlap of the lines. This is actually to express the "pen meaning", such as the right side of the "tang" character "昜 (yáng)" is folded horizontally, and there are obviously subtle traces at the junction with the oblique apostrophe, do not underestimate this trace, it is the "three hairs on the cheeks" that reflect the taste of calligraphy.
4. The rhythm of the pen expressed in the middle of the line operation. The seal book was originally rounded and flowing, with roundness as the beauty, but after the Miao Seal of the Han Seal, a lot of Lishu meaning was added, so the running rhythm of the middle of the line was reflected in the Miao Seal calligraphy, and Zhu Jian also clearly expressed this, such as the "Zu" character, the "show" part of the left vertical pen came out of the curvature, and the "two vertical pens, especially the left vertical pen with a clear sense of rhythm." In fact, the reason why the Han seal is changed in plainness is because of this reason, it has both the regularity of the seal book and the flow of the wind god of the book.
5. Pause at the turn of the line. In fact, this is also the calligraphy used for seal engraving, such as the first stroke of the "soup" character "water" part, and the penmanship is obvious.
(Manuscript)
When we talk about the history of seal carving, we once said that Zhu Jian not only inspired Ding Jing in the sword technique, he even inspired Deng Shiru to some extent (we specifically discussed the differences and relationships between them, Zhu Jian was actually the forerunner of "printing from the book"). We emphasize Zhu Jian's square seal, and point out so many details containing calligraphic meaning, in fact, the focus is to require everyone to pay attention to the improvement of their own calligraphy level, we can say that the level of calligraphy of the seal engraver determines his choice and trade-off of the prototype of the seal engraving, but also determines the level of his writing "printed manuscript", emphasizing the role of calligraphy in the seal engraving, which means that when creating, it is no longer just a simple description of a correct seal character and filled in the printing grid, but similar to the writing process of calligraphy creation.
Without thinking about it, this not only increases the freedom of creation, but also increases the aesthetic elements of the printing surface.
([Pudding Reading] No. 88, some pictures from the Internet)