No matter how good a single seal engraver is, he cannot form a "genre" of seal engraving alone, and he must have followers and supporters of the seal style.
After Ding Jing, the seal engraver who made the "Zhejiang School" truly established and perfected was Jiang Ren. Jiang Ren is the second of the "Eight Families of Xiling", he is not Ding Jing's disciple, but he is deeply impressed by Ding Jing, he chooses to start with "simplicity", the pursuit of "jerkiness", the printing surface is as simple as possible, but the spirit is not reduced, the printing style is calm, mellow, concise, but full of simple and elegant atmosphere.
On the occasion of the New Year, let's read the Zhejiang school print that is most suitable for copying the Spring Festival, which is the "auspicious stop" of Jiang Ren:
(Jiang Ren's "auspicious stop" and its side paragraphs)
Jiang Ren (1743-1795) was tai, and his character was ping. Yes, his original name was not Jiang Ren, the reason why he changed his name to "Ren" was because he obtained a Han Dynasty "Seal of Jiang Ren" copper seal when he was in Yangzhou, so he decided to change his name to Jiang Ren, which is very similar to Wang Guan, they are all "printing idiots". Like Ding Jing, he is also a native of Hangzhou, he is also a lifelong cloth cloth, but also Jingyi does not engrave with people, the difference is that Ding Jing had his own liquor store before his death, there is a source of livelihood, but Jiang Ren has a bit of a "hermit" personality (his source of life is to be a doorman and teacher of others), so he eventually died of poverty and only lived for 53 years. There are not many works left by Jiang Ren, but from these works, we have repeatedly seen his reverence and nostalgia for Ding Jing, which shows that he is the one who stood behind Ding Jing and fought against the "Habits of the Ming Dynasty", of course, it is precisely for this reason that the "Zhejiang School" finally formed a genre.
Back to this square seal.
The printed text of this seal is "auspicious stop", from "Zhuangzi • Human World": "Those who look at the other side, the void room is white, and the auspicious stops." The word "sheep" here is used the same as "auspicious", and the second "stop" here should be read as "zhi", because the "stop" and "zhi" in the seal book are similarly written and should be "auspicious stop". The "que" in front of this sentence is according to the "Explanation of Words": "Que, the matter has been closed." "Mao's Poetry Biography": "Que, Shi Ye." Therefore, the complete understanding of this sentence should be: Look at the man who rests behind closed doors after his work, in his empty inner chamber, it always seems that light has been born, and all auspicious things have poured into his heart. In fact, people who rest after work are full of auspicious light!
(People who return from labor)
In the side paragraph, Jiang Ren mentioned Ding Jing again:
Xin Ugly Chinese New Year's Eve, and the Grinding Room made this seal for the Naran resident. Quite super easy, unfortunately blunt Ding old man can not see also. Female bed mountain dweller Jiang Ren lantern under the note.
This seal was engraved when Jiang Ren was 39 years old, that is, in 1782, at this time Ding Jing had died 17 years ago, obviously, this is Jiang Ren's proud work ("Female Bed Mountain People" is his nickname, "Mo Du Jian Room" is his Jai number), how he hopes that Ding Jing can see this seal in person, Jia Yin is rewarded, helpless Si people have passed away, in vain sigh!
This square seal is a typical "Zhejiang school" Zhu Wen seal, the orthography (Miao Seal), the seal law (seal combination), the chapter method (evenly divided printing surface) are all taken from the Han seal, generous, plain, concise, simple.
1. Orthography. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the printing surface of practical seals (especially the official seal with a square printing surface), due to the needs of the printing face seal method, the font gradually changed from the vertical and slender "small seal" to the glyph square "Miao Seal" (this name only appeared in the New Mang Period), Miao Seal, most of the glyphs are square, which is very suitable for the average distribution of square printing surfaces, and forms a dignified, generous and flat printing pattern.
(Miao Seal collected in the "Chinese Seal Of Characters")
The characters used in the "Zhejiang School" basically follow the Miao Seal of the Han Seal, and adopt this kind of square glyph, such as the four words of "auspicious stop" in this square seal, each word is square and square, showing a generous and upright atmosphere. This is actually equivalent to choosing the Chapter of the Chinese Seal: "Equally Divided Printing Surface".
(Miao Seal in the Chinese Seal)
2. Seal law. The biggest disease of the "Ming people's habits" is that they are carved and coiled too much, and the seal law of the Zhejiang school corrects this atmosphere, they strive to be simple, in the seal law, do not seek to bend, do not overly carve, these words, how the lines presented in the orthography, the Zhejiang School of Indians simply put them into the printing surface, do not increase the coil to fill in the gaps, do not increase the decoration of the seal law, only seek the ancient clumsy state of "as it is". The four characters of this square seal are simple enough, according to the usual method of the "Ming people", they will often either bend to make the printing surface dense, or decorate to make the printing surface text have the beauty of decoration, or select the ancient characters of Qiwen to make it highlight the ancient ao, but Jiang Ren's square seal is simply to put in these four simple Miao seals, and then do not do more processing, which is a significant feature of the "Zhejiang School", especially the early "Zhejiang School".
But it does not mean that it is dull and monotonous, the author in this square seal, through the calligraphy of the corresponding strokes between the brush contact, by adjusting the square circle at both ends of the same stroke, through the same glyph of the two words in the same position of the square change to make the text rich changes, therefore, although it is simple, but not simple.
(Changes in penmanship and changes in square circles)
The two horizontals in the upper part of the "Ji" character, the author's first horizontal tail has "huifeng", the second horizontal head has a "reflection belt", which strengthens the contact between the two strokes, so the two places are also rounded, and the other end of the two horizontals is treated as a "square head", so this square seal has both the meaning of pen and ink and the interest of the knife and stone. In the same way, the lower part of the "sheep" word is two horizontal, the starting pen is different in circumference, and the two "stops" are mostly "seeking differences" in the same position, and the circle sees the pen, and the square sees the knife. In fact, this has jumped to the level of "knife method", and the knife method and the seal method are of course related.
3. The characteristics of the "Zhejiang School" formed by the knife method. Zhu Wen of the "Zhejiang School", in order to reflect the characteristics of the "combination of seals and subordinates" of the "Miao Seal" seal method (the square is not square and not round), often forms a regular and rhythmic knife method trace in the knife method treatment, such as: (1) the connection or corner of the stroke, the outer side is processed into a square, and the inside is processed into a circular arc (simply put, "outer square inner circle") ;(2) The shape of the stroke presents an irregular wave shape.
(Outer inner circle and wave brick are obvious)
The same strokes and the characteristics of the knife method at the junction make the "Zhejiang School" printed outside the "Chapter Law", forming a knife method means that makes the printing surface more holistic, simply put, because of these characteristics, the "Zhejiang School" printing has a natural "integral" advantage.
Because the content of this seal is "auspicious and stop", this is the most suitable "Zhejiang School" print that is best copied and studied by one party during the Spring Festival.
([Pudding Reading] No. 99, some pictures from the Internet)