Du Fu said: "Articles hate destiny", in the old times, an artist, most of the situation is poor, engaged in literary creation of artists, engaged in calligraphy, painting, seal carving is also about the same.
Ding Jing is a true master of seal carving, he created one of the two major schools of modern seal carving, "Zhejiang School", he ranked first in the "Eight Houses of Xiling", when we seal carving newcomers take the pilgrimage to xiling seal society to see, Ding Jing's seat is one of our must-visit attractions. He has, in a way, become a representative of a class of old-fashioned artists, a symbol of Gengjie Yashi, and when we appreciate his work, we are actually approaching his spirit.
Ding Jing never entered the army in his lifetime, was a seal engraver but never sold a seal in his life, and his source of livelihood was the winery he took care of every day, so we think he is a very "pure" seal engraver. Therefore, those who receive his gift are considered "outstanding".
(Statue of Ding Jing of Xiling Printing Society)
His position in the history of seal engraving may be derived from the combination of his Gengjie's character and the poor life. If he is like Zhao Zhichen, who has been busy with socializing and printing all his life, then his seal engraving art will inevitably be disturbed by the world, and then flow into the world, and a large number of stylized and superficial works will appear, and the real art often needs to be painstakingly and diligently pursued.
The "Zhejiang School" created by Ding Jing is the result of his continuous inheritance and continuous innovation.
Ding Jing has a "lifelong friend", that is, Jin Nong, Jin Nong and Gao Fenghan belong to the "Yangzhou Eight Monsters" (Jin Nong is the head of the Eight Monsters, and Gao Fenghan belongs to the marginal figures of the Eight Monsters), Ding Jing is 8 years younger than Jin Nong, 12 years younger than Gao Fenghan, jin and Gao belong to the "Four Phoenixes and Eight Monsters" school engraved on the seal, is the real Huizong seal family, Ding Jing is certainly influenced by huizong seal science. However, under the continuous influence of Jin Nong and these people, Ding Jing created a new school of seal carving, the "Zhejiang School", before Deng Shiru (Ding Jing was 48 years older than Deng Shiru) created the peak of the Hui School.
The work of Fang Dingjing that I want to read in this article is actually the work of Ding Jing's predecessors, that is, this Fang "Yuan Zhishui" (some people interpret it as Yuan Zhishui, which is a different understanding of the word order):
(Ding Jing and his "Yuan Shi Shui")
Yuan Zhishui, we did not find out who exactly it was, but according to Ding Jing's personality and communication, the "Stop Water" here is likely to be a nickname of Yuan Ming, because Yuan Ming's official time is relatively short, and later the number of "Stopping Water" is possible (of course, this is just speculation), as mentioned above, it is not easy for ordinary people to obtain Ding Jing's gift seal. However, this is not the focus of our reading.
This side is printed with a side paragraph, saying: "Ding Jingsu imitates Song Xueyuan Zhu", obviously, this is a party to learn Zhao Mengfu Yuan Zhu Wen printing style of the work, but unfortunately there is no clear year, I don't know which year it is.
There are three major characteristics of the Yuanzhu Wenyin: small seal printing, Zhuwen thin line, and text edge. It can be seen in this square seal.
In terms of knife techniques, with this square seal, we can know that the Indians who later studied the Zhejiang School (such as Xu Sangeng and Zhao Zhiqian) carved yuan Zhu Wenlai, which was also a teacher. The cutting knife of the Zhejiang school, after being used skillfully, can still carve the works of Yuan Zhuwen that are graceful and flowing, and Wu belt is the wind. For example, Xu Sangeng's "do nothing":
(Xu Sangeng and his "somewhat do nothing")
This kind of printing in Ding Jing's prints is of course another kind, because Ding Jing's Zhejiang school prints are more imitation Han works, with Miao seals into the print, the glyphs are square, there is no line adhesion between words and words, words and borders, and the style is simple and ancient, old and healthy, such as:
(Ding Jing and his "Ding Jing Body Seal")
However, even if the knife technique is skilled and sophisticated, the performance of "Yuan Zhu Wen" with a cutting knife must have the spotted knife marks represented by the short-range cutting knife, which is determined by the unique physical characteristics of the knife method of the cutting knife. Therefore, this side of the "Yuan's stop water", although the seal law, the chapter law is completely yuanren demeanor, but the knife method shows the unique thick and spicy taste of the Ding JingZhe school, when we zoom in to observe the traces of the printing surface, everywhere you can see the "burrs" shown by the continuous cutting knife, these "burrs", like the cracked bark of the old tree, and like the wrinkles on the face of the old man, naturally embody the meaning of "old Cang".
In short: the "smoothness" of the punching knife and the "hairy" of the cutting knife point to two different aesthetic directions.
("Burrs" everywhere)
In terms of chapter law, the biggest feature of this party seal law is "diagonal echo", as shown in the figure:
(Diagonal echo)
The upper part of the "Yuan" character "soil" (easy to describe, temporarily seen as "soil"), and the lower part of the "clothing" are deliberately relaxed, and the whole word is elongated vertically, forming a diagonal echo with the longitudinally elongated and horizontally widened "water" character; the squashed "clan" and "stop" form another set of echoes.
In terms of the seal law, the upper part of the word "Yuan" has been changed, elongating the left and right, the left stroke inserts the right part of the word "stop", and the right stroke is connected to the side to stabilize the center of gravity; the lower part of the "clothes" is also treated, but the left side is connected with the "water" and the right side is connected. The treatment of the left part of the word "Yuan" is to strengthen the communication between the left and right halves of the printing surface, so that the printing surface is more united, and the upper and lower sides on the right side are connected in order to make the printing surface more stable. Correspondingly, the right side of the word "stop" is coiled and stretched into the territory of "Yuan", and the lower right stroke of the word "water" also reaches into the "land of the word", and the left side of the two words is treated as a joint, in short, all the sides are the same as the purpose of interspersing and interspersing: to seek stability and reunion.
(Edges and interspersed, lap points)
Two points also need to be said: 1, the reason why the word "water" does not overlap with the word "clan" is to avoid affecting the integrity of the seal law of the word "clan" and avoid "harming the meaning of words" (that is, affecting the correctness for the sake of beauty); 2, carefully observe a horizontal pen in the middle of the word "clan", its posture is really beautiful and graceful, which is the "soul" of Yuan Zhuwen.
([Pudding Reading] No. 95, some pictures from the Internet)