Original title: Hainan Weekly | Chengmai young teacher Li Zhongshen's seal carving road carved life between the inches
Hainan Daily reporter Gao Yi
"Fingers should be against the stone chapter, the tip of the knife should be tilted upwards to 15 degrees, evenly forced, slowly pushed forward, pay attention to the end of the line to hold the knife." The summer breeze blew a corner of the rice paper, and also blew the corner of Li Zhongshen's clothes, and he was sitting at the table, holding a seal carving knife, intently teaching students to carve words on the printing stone.
Li Zhongshen, a Chinese teacher at Chengmai County Experimental Primary School, carries several square seal stones along with his backpack wrapped lesson plans. Outside of class, if the children are interested, Li Zhongshen will transform into a seal carving master and teach the children traditional seal carving.
Li Zhongshen taught students to carve seals by hand. Hainan Daily reporter Gao Yi photographed
Unswervingly carved the road
Li Zhongshen, 39, has been walking on the road of seal carving for 15 years. From an early age, he was obsessed with fine art and calligraphy, and although his parents strongly opposed him from taking these "unprofessional" courses, he gritted his teeth and persevered.
"In the past, parents were particularly opposed, and even the contradictions once intensified to an irreconcilable degree, and the private seal engraving books were torn apart and thrown into the fire." Li Zhongshen said that now that he is a father, he understands the good intentions of parents, and he is afraid that his children's artistic road is too tortuous.
From obsessing with calligraphy to loving seal engraving, Li Zhongshen's transformation stemmed from a chance.
"At that time, I accidentally broke a seal engraved by my teacher and friend on the ground, but I was in a hurry to stamp my calligraphy work, so I had no choice but to do it myself, and engraved a 'Li' character on the eraser with an art knife, which completed the seal." Li Zhongshen told the Hainan Daily reporter that when he first picked up the engraving knife to try seal engraving, the feeling of wandering between the blade and the fingertips made him suddenly discover that the seal engraving was such a fascinating thing.
At the beginning of his study of seal engraving, the knife often scratched his hand, and a pair of hands were covered with wounds of different lengths, but this did not reduce his obsession and enthusiasm for seal engraving, and often practiced unconsciously until midnight.
Li Zhongshen teaches students seal carving. Hainan Daily reporter Gao Yi photographed
Li Zhongshen's love for calligraphy and seal engraving stems from his pursuit of art, from watching exhibitions of calligraphy and seal engraving to visiting famous artists, from his initial understanding of seal engraving to his later refinement.
"To learn seal engraving, we should print the Qin and Han dynasties, throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, and only by thoroughly eating and understanding the traditional nutrients can we better enrich and develop our own seal engraving skills on the basis of inheritance." Li Zhongshen said that it is necessary to combine the knife technique with the penmanship, use the knife to reflect the feeling of the pen, and fully express the characteristics of the knife method and the penmanship, but also not lose the ancient method; integrate the brushwork into the knife method, and not lose the cheerfulness and simplicity of the knife method in the seal carving.
15 years of experience in seal engraving has given him an indifferent temperament. He used a lot of time to see, read, and approach ancient classic works, on the basis of respecting tradition, according to the aesthetic thinking of modern people, to conceive and create, and gradually went out of his own way to give calligraphy and seal engraving works more vitality.
Visit famous teachers to learn the true biography
Seal carving is an ancient art, and it is said to be ancient because the words inscribed on the bones of tortoise shells and animals in ancient Chinese civilization are the prototype of seal carving. Copying ancient seals is a compulsory course for learning the art of seal engraving, and Li Zhongshen can't remember how many seals and classics he has read, traced back to the roots, sought chapters, summarized skills, and practiced linyin.
Li Zhongshen frankly said that his research is not solely in the field of seal engraving, seal engraving, calligraphy, photography, as long as there is a field or knowledge related to seal engraving, he continues to explore and learn, and refine research.
During his studies, Li Zhongshen had more time to study the art of seal engraving. As long as he had free time, he would either go into the library to concentrate on learning the knowledge of seal engraving, or copy the Chinese seal in the dormitory.
After work, every summer vacation, he would visit famous teachers in the mainland. He successively invited good teachers such as Dai Jiamiao and Feng Li.
"Seal carving is not a simple thing, from the choice of stone materials to the unification of the text seal law and the composition of the chapter, it takes efforts!" In terms of stone selection alone, Li Zhongshen chose Qingtian stone when carving seals, which is more warm and crisp in texture, good control of the knife when the seal is carved, which can well express the line language of the seal carving, the printing surface appears to be hard and energetic, and the Qingtian stone has the reputation of "gentleman in the stone". After the stone is selected, it begins to be smoothed, and only if the stone is polished well can the words be carved correctly.
Li Zhongshen's seal engraving works. Respondents provided
The most troublesome thing at the beginning of the seal engraving was the need to practice reverse words, but this was not difficult for him. "We must dilute the consciousness of positive and negative, not to practice the reverse of the word, but to change the direction." Li Zhongshen said that in order to make the seal more natural and simple, he tapped and carefully tapped around the seal, and finally felt very satisfied, and the seal was considered to have completed the seal carving.
Li Zhongshen's study is simply furnished, the desk is full of various engraving tools, and the bookshelf is neatly displayed with various books and seal engravings. In a corner of the bookshelf, he piled up various seal stones he had purchased, the walls around him were covered with seal-engraved and framed print screens, and the desk was stacked with seals that had not yet been engraved on the shelves, and the whole room seemed to be silently telling its owner's dedication and exploration of art.
Talking about the exploration experience of more than ten years, the former "Shanghai Museum Seven-Day Tour" still makes him remember it deeply. "At that time, in order to see an ancient seal, I rushed to the Shanghai Museum to get a glimpse of the real face, and as a result, I became addicted, and every day I stayed in the museum from the opening to the closure of the museum, but I couldn't see enough." Li Zhongshen told the Hainan Daily reporter that in order to better and more clearly see the texture and direction of each side of the printed surface, as long as conditions permit, he will make a special trip to the museum through the thick glass and enjoy immersive viewing.
Passing on the skills to cultivate peach and plum
Li Zhongshen has many labels on his body, a member of the Hainan Calligraphers Association, a member of the Seal Engraving Committee of the Hainan Calligraphers Association, and the vice president of the Hainan Printing Society, but his favorite is the identity of the seal engraving teacher, behind each "romantic" seal, is a teacher's insistence on tirelessly teaching the art of seal engraving. Under his guidance, 5 students, including Huang Yingyang and Luo Jun, were admitted to professional calligraphy colleges.
"The romance of the seal carving is between this horizontal and vertical, one side and one circle." This is what Li Zhongshen often said to his students. He constantly explored various ways to pass on the seal carving skills to students, opened calligraphy and seal carving courses for students free of charge, mobilized social benevolent people to donate materials, and set up a calligraphy and seal carving room in Chengmai County Love School to teach calligraphy and seal carving to children who have lost their relatives. Many people familiar with Li Zhongshen said that his life was very simple, every day at two o'clock, school and family, his ambitions were all placed on that side of the seal stone, but also on the young students.
Li Zhongshen picked up half of the students' works and reviewed them. "The wonderful thing about this half-and-half creation is that there are three flat and one change, three very square fonts, plus a font composed of circles, indicating that the children are very creative, and the overall printing surface looks solemn with a hint of liveliness." Li Zhongshen said that there are many kinds of romance in seal carving, and liveliness and freedom are one of them.
Sometimes looking at the students who are seriously practicing calligraphy and seal engraving, Li Zhongshen will occasionally think of his past. Li Zhongshen's greatest wish is to let more students feel the beauty of seal carving art like him and pass on the seal carving skills. (Gao Yi)
(Hainan Daily)