Wu Rangzhi and Ding Jing are not the same, although the two people are old men, but Ding Jing is a bit strange (maybe geniuses are a little strange), he lived long enough, and dared to innovate, and eventually became a generation of masters; Wu Rangzhi is not strange, he is approachable, is an honest person, the previous article said, Wu Rangzhi's success lies in his own unremitting persistence, insisting on working in the same direction, he also lived long enough, and eventually became the leader of the art world, became the "first person in the world of sword law".
(Portrait of Wu Rang)
"The first person to carve the world's sword method" is the name given to Wu Rangzhi by Pudding, and there is no other branch (although my favorite seal engraver is Zhao Zhiqian). This "name" is not necessarily accurate, because "there is no first in the text", and since seal engraving is art, because of the pluralism and subjectivity of aesthetics, it is impossible to have the so-called "first". However, his knife technique is really wonderful, and it has truly reached the realm of "round turning of the knife method, the habit of no fiber man, the weather is strong, and the quality is not lagging" (Wu Changshuo's "Wu Rang's Seal Of Existence", the same below).
Turning back to the main topic, we chose Wu Rangzhi's three-sided seal to read it this time, this three-sided seal is very exquisite, saying that it is exquisite, based on the following two points:
1, one side of the printing stone, three sides of the engraving, the other three sides engraved with the side of the paragraph, therefore, this is a party six sides are engraved seal, three sides of the seal, three sides of the side, as shown in the figure:
(Wu Rangzhi's three-sided print and three-sided edges)
2. This square seal is the earliest print of Wu Rangzhi with a clear chronology to examine, and its historical value is particularly precious. The first engraving is in the year of nongwu, that is, in 1822, this year Wu Rangzhi was 24 years old, and the third side was engraved, and the supplementary money was 1855, and this year Wu Rangzhi was 57 years old. In other words, this is a three-sided seal with a time span of 33 years.
The side section has a lot of story, and the full text is as follows:
This Shiwangjun Winter Nest belongs to the remnant carving "Bu Sheng An", which is at noon. After Dong Weng went, Cheng Junxue asked, Yu could not bear to grind, and carved "Virtual Passing Temple" for it. After Cheng Jun left, he returned to Yanshan and returned to his surname Wang. The three kings are all words, and things have been the same as yesterday in the past thirty years, and they are also sorry. May, let it go.
Initially, that is, in 1822, Wu Rangzhi carved a seal on the side of "Bu Sheng" (the middle side) for his good friend Wang Dongchao (that is, Wang Chaosheng, 1777-1832, the word Ruxin, the number Yu Quan, Yi Zuo Drinking Spring, the First Winter Nest, the JiangEr Zhusheng, Gong Hua, and the fine filler words), and after Wang Dongchao's death (1832), this party was printed in the hands of another friend of Wu Rangzhi, Cheng Xueqing, and let Wu Rangzhi engrave the seal, this time engraving the four words "False Past the Lord" (the left side), carefully calculate, The interval between the two seals is at least 10 years.
In 1855, Cheng Xueqing was no longer there, or this seal stone, Wu Rangzhi's friend (also a student) Wang Yanshan (Wang Zhenzi Yanshan) brought it to Wu Rangzhi again, this time, Wu Rangzhi carved "Sending Heart Lord" (the right side) for him, Wang Yanshan and Wang Dongchao happened to have the same surname "Wang", so there is a sentence of "compound surname Wang" in the side paragraph.
One side of the seal stone, three times to come to Wu Rangzhi's hands, the previous two times the seal is still there, how can not see things and think of people, Wu Rangzhi's third engraving, must be full of emotions.
Regardless of how he sighed, let's look at these three seals:
The first party: "Bu Sheng Lu", when engraving this square seal, Wu Rangzhi was 24 years old, according to the process of learning the seal in order, at this time Wu Rangzhi was exhaustively studying the Han seal, "fifteen years old is to see the Han people do, carefully imitate the tenth year" in the ninth year.
(Design points of Bu Sheng Lu)
Therefore, we look at this square seal, although it is a small seal into the print, but its overall breath is "square and square", in addition to the "Bu" word right pen, this square seal is basically symmetrical distribution, the upper and lower parts of the printing surface and there is a clear dense division, the most complex "盦" word is stable below the printing surface, the bottom horizontal and lower border are only a little spaced, the "sheng" word left and right two strokes on the greeting, such as the upward palm, holding up the "Bu" word, holding up the breath of the whole print, and the "Bu" word to the right, are like the ripples after the "spring water" is thrown into the small stones, Breaking the silence and emptiness, it is all printed in a steady, slightly dynamic.
This is exactly what it looks like after learning the Chinese seal, upright and square, but not at all dull, beginners to learn seal engraving, it is very important to be able to engrave the seal "flat", which is in line with the general artistic law of "beginner distribution, to seek peace and integrity, but to seek peace and integrity, both to know the peace and integrity, to pursue danger, to be able to be dangerous, to return to peace" (Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy").
(Part of the Book Notation)
Second party: "The False Lord". Regarding the emotional layer, Wu Rangzhi's four words of "Yu can't bear to grind" have been exhausted, and there is no need to say more. This square seal must have been engraved after 1832, at this time Wu Rangzhi, learning to print to the stage of "first seeing the Work of the Baishan People, abandoning their learning and learning", we can find obvious Deng Shi such as "traces" in this square seal. Like what:
(Design points of the virtual master)
Although it is still printed with "small seals", the small seals in this square seal have fully entered the state of "handwriting", and gradually began to have a clear Deng Shiru calligraphy style, with rounded and flowing beauty in the pen, although the layout is basically correct, but also began to add more literati elegance, the four characters are divided into two columns in the longitudinal direction, the text echoes diagonally in size and complexity, the dense coordination and symmetry, the word posture interspersed with the bite of nature (such as the adhesion of "virtual" and "盦", the bite of "over" and "盦", the welcome of "over" and "lord", etc.). The printing surface is evenly filled with the blank space of the lower part of the word "pass" to highlight Deng Shiru's "sparse place can walk, the secret place does not make the wind permeable" chapter creation principle, leaving an obvious open space, so the contrast between the denseness of the whole print is obvious, plus the upper part of the "main" word appears in the form of "block face", which becomes the finishing touch, and the thicker printing edge with the thicker bottom edge sets off the lightness and agility of the seal.
Third party: "Sending hearts to the Lord". When the seal stone was handed from the third master's hand, Wu Rangzhi must have sighed a lot of emotions at his first two works, the so-called "thirty years have been the same as yesterday", the past gushed into his heart is an involuntary thing. At this time, Wu Rangzhi, who was 57 years old, came to Taizhou to avoid the chaos of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Wang Yanshan had learned the art with Wu Rangzhi (Wu Rangzhi carved more seals for Wang Yanshan), and jointly lived in Yao Zhengyong's "Chi Yun Shan Pavilion", at this time Wu Rangzhi's seal style has been formed, people are old, swords and pens are familiar, and the fingers between the swords are real, it can be said that his printing at this time has reached the realm of casual waving is a masterpiece. In his hand, the stone surface is the paper, and he uses a "knife" to "write" on the stone. Therefore, the "writing" meaning of this square seal is even stronger, and Deng Shiru's "printing from the book" has reached perfection in his hands, which is also the reason why Wu Changshuo said that "after learning white, it is better to take the path to let Weng go".
(Design points of the heart of the master)
1, the word "盦" in this square seal is enlarged, occupying the largest printing space, not only is it lengthened vertically, but in fact, there are strokes that break through the vertical bisection line (especially the lower part) horizontally, the upper vertical length maintains the original width and breaks the vertical bisection line of the "send" word overlap, the lower part protrudes into the lower space of the "heart" word, forming a bite, its role lies in the left and right bite, "send" and "heart" bite, then both stably pull the unstable "heart" word, but also make the printing surface bite up and down, the two "bite" effect is in the reunion of the printing surface, produced "Sense of wholeness"; 2, the head of the "send" character processed by the special "fanghua" slightly has a slight lishu attitude, so that the whole print has the effect of "mutual use of square circles, rigidity and softness"; 3, the flowing and flowing "send, heart" two words are extremely beautiful, "Wu belt when the wind", with the printing surface invigorated; 4, the "main" character changed the seal method, with gold text into the print, not only adapted to the space, but also showed the visual effect of "sudden appearance of the block surface", increased the "golden stone gas", stabilized the full Indian atmosphere, and together with the "heart" character to form the "void" of the lower part of the printing surface. In short, this square seal is a wonderful product that uses both square and round circles, and the virtual reality is born.
Pay attention to the border of the three-sided seal, the first side of the printed text is quiet, so the border is thinner, and the last two sides of the printed text are more dynamic, so the thick border is used to keep the printing surface stable and reunited, eliminating the instability brought about by the handwritten seal method.
(Wu Rangzhi's six-sided seal)
The difficulty of the three-sided seal is that when the two sides are engraved, the front side or two sides have been fixed, if there is a mistake, there is no chance to grind off the re-engraving, so it must be completed again, there is no opportunity to modify, the knife method is more demanding, the knife practitioner is inevitably cautious and excessive, hurting the printing surface breath, but Wu Rangzhi is a real sword master, he can carve the effect he wants from the manuscript, and he does not show any restraint and tightness (in fact, he also has six-sided seals), which is very rare, not to mention, in these three-sided seals, there are three "盦" characters, two "lords." The characters, wu rangzhi handled differently, shows that he uses the word knot to seal the artistic attitude of "seeking new and seeking change", in fact, this is the real artist (like the twenty-eight completely different "zigzags" in Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface").
([Pudding Reading] No. 110-112, some pictures from the Internet)