In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, several seal engravers, including Xu Sangeng, Zhao Zhiqian, and Wang Fu'an, all of them had wonderful works by Yuan Zhu Wenyin, in fact, they were all Yuan Zhu wen masters (Wu Changshuo and Huang Mufu did not specialize in Yuan Zhu Wen, Wu Rangzhi was a typical Hui sect), and we also have to think about it, they actually have one thing in common: they are all from Zhejiang (in fact, we can see Wang Fu'an's seal style in this seal).
Therefore, we can conclude that whether it is the cutting knife of the Zhejiang school or the punching knife of the Hui school, it is also possible to create wonderful Yuan Zhu Wen prints. Therefore, after reading Xi Gang's "Longwei Mountain House", it is necessary for us to read the seal of an early Zhejiang Indian, that is, the "Lu Xiao Wei Seal" of Chen Yuzhong.
(Chen Yuzhong "Lu XiaojianYin")
As we said, there are three main characteristics of the "Yuan Zhu Wen Yin": 1, the indian character is a small seal; 2, the Zhu Wen thin line; 3, the text adheres to the printing edge. Then, we can be sure that Chen Yuzhong's side of "Lu XiaojianYin" is the standard "Yuan Zhu Wenyin".
The side section of this square seal is worth mentioning, the existing three-sided side section is actually from three people, and does not include the author Chen Yuzhong himself, the first side section, signed as "Shuangquan", this is the word of Gao Qi, Gao Que is Chen Yuzhong's friend, Zhejiang Renheren, calligrapher, seal engraver; the second side of the side section, signed as "Sanglian Liguan", this is Chen Hongshou (character Mansheng) Jai number, Chen Hongshou is also listed in the "Xiling Eight Houses", there will be articles to say again; the third side of the side section, signed is "Xiangbo", this is Guo Lin, a contemporary poet, also inscribed , but the name is not obvious.
(Three celebrities in the side section)
From this point of view, this seal is related to at least five celebrities. The owner of the printing, Lu Xiaojie (of course, he is also a celebrity), the author Chen Yuzhong, and the three friends of the relevant supplements. From this point of view, in addition to the artistic value of this square seal, it even has cultural relics value.
We discuss its artistic value more here.
The most intuitive chapter feature of the "Lu XiaoYin" square seal is "diagonal echo", which can be seen with a little attention: the "Lu" character in the upper right corner and the "凫" character in the lower left corner are obviously complex glyphs, and the "yin" in the lower right corner and the "small" character in the upper left corner are obviously simple in glyphs, thus constituting the chapter feature of "diagonal echo", of course, this "diagonal echo" first uses the sparseness of the glyph (this point is called "not bad treasure" by Zhao Zhiqian, who is a little later).
(Diagonal echo of the rules features)
But in fact, this diagonal echo is not simple, the author at least made the following adjustments (that is, the author's creative ideas) to rationalize this "diagonal echo":
1. The order of the printed characters was changed to "back to the word order". Because if you don't use the word order, you can't achieve "diagonal echo";
(Back to the adjustment of the word order)
2. Adjustment of the seal law. The end horizontal seal of the "Lu" character is curved, leaving more space for the "yin" character; the "yin" character is changed from the usual upper and lower structure to the left and right structure, so as to adapt to a relatively small space, if it is still used as an upper and lower structure, the seal method will appear more cramped and stubborn.
(The Impact of Seal Law Adjustment on The Chapter Law)
Whether it is the order of the words or the adjustment of the seal law, it is ultimately to achieve the "diagonal echo" pattern of the printing surface, which is also the basic creative means we mentioned earlier.
The thread quality of this square seal is also worth mentioning, which is the "thread quality" completed by the knife. The quality of the lines of this square seal is obvious and has a sense of strength, which is the predecessor of the later Wang Fu'an iron wire seal. This linear simulation is often mentioned in calligraphy "cone painting sand" and "house leak marks", in the process of line travel, there is a sense of stagnation caused by the friction between the pen and paper, and thus contains the power generated by the timing of the line inside the line, which makes the line more elastic and more powerful.
(stumped lines and if there is no border)
There is also the sense of vicissitudes caused by the residue. In this square seal, some lines are even directly cut off, such as the lower arc of the "Tian (By)" part of the center of the "Lu" character, and then the middle pen of the "claw" part of the "yin" character, etc., with intermittent, incomplete, if there is no border, combined with the soft and gentle small seal book style, together to create an ancient but beautiful and feminine printing atmosphere.
([Pudding Reading] No. 118, some pictures from the Internet)