Qian Song (1807-1860) real name Song Ru, word Uncle Gai, number Nai Qing, Nai Qing, Xijiao, Lao Gai and so on. In 1860, the Taiping Army captured the city of Hangzhou, and Qian Song was martyred behind closed doors and died in cloth.
Qian Song has loved jinshi characters since he was a child, and his skills in writing and writing are very deep, and he has high attainments in landscapes and flowers. In Qian Song's experience of studying seal carving, he once copied the Han seal 2000 fang, and his representative remarks were: "Learning seal engraving does not start from the Han seal, and reading books does not read the Thirteen Classics and the Twenty-two Histories." ”
(Kamatsu image)
Zhao Zhichen, who ranked seventh in the "Eight Houses of Xiling", once commented on Qian Song's seal carving: "This Ding and Huang Hou are one, and the former Mingwen (Peng) and He (Zhen) families are not as good as they are. Han Tianheng, a famous contemporary seal engraver, commented on Qian Song in his "Doulu Seal Words":
Although Qian Song was at the end of the eight sons, and took the path to respect himself, he also had the power of copying the Han seal of two thousand buttons, and his talent was high and his skills were thick, so he was not a Zhejiang sect, but he was from Xiling, so he was pushed into the "chair" of the "Eight Houses of Xiling". In my opinion, Qian Song is enough to surpass six and compete with Ding Jing. ”
We think that the value of Qian Song lies in the fact that he actually opened up an invincible road for the Zhejiang school, created a knife method of cutting and using, and like Zhao Zhiqian, he is a master who is in the Zhejiang school but is not confined to the Zhejiang school, and he has actually gradually embarked on the creative route of "Anhui and Zhejiang Hengzhan". Unfortunately, he only lived for 43 years, and in his prime, his life of seal carving came to an abrupt end.
Therefore, we suggest that the Zhejiang school must learn Qian Song, just as to learn seal carving must learn Zhao Zhiqian. In this article, we will study together the famous works of Qian Song, which is the "Landscape and Water Fangzi":
(Qian Song: Shanshui Fangzi)
This party seal was sold in 2013 Beijing Kuangshi Spring Auction 1265,000 yuan, the printing surface is 2.3X2.3cm size, Qingtian stone, side inscription: "Daoguang Heyoudong, Naiqing for xiao Qiandi carved in ManhuaLuo", "Daoguang Heyoudong", that is, in the winter of 1849, that is, this party seal was engraved at the age of 32, just when he was rich and powerful.
The printed text "Landscape and Water Fangzi" comes from Liu Xun's "Wenxin Carved Dragon Ming Poem", the original text: "Song Chu Wen Yong, the body has a cause revolution." Elder Zhuang retreated, and the landscape and water fangzi". The general idea is that the poetry of the Southern Dynasty and the early Song Dynasty has inherited and reformed the poetic style of the previous generation; the ideas of Zhuang Zhou and Lao Tzu have gradually decreased in poetry, but the works depicting landscapes have become increasingly prosperous. In fact, the content of the retreat gradually decreased, the realistic content began to increase, projected onto Qian Song's life, perhaps when he carved this square seal, he suddenly understood something, and felt that the road in front of him was just opening, and life (or art) was moving towards a solid future.
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When this square seal was first seen, it felt that the lines were ancient and thick, the three-dimensional sense was strong, the seal method was round and smooth, and the lines were soft and energetic. Therefore, it seems that the artistic conception is high and ancient, the momentum is extraordinary, and if you taste it carefully, you will find that the reason why this square seal gives people such a feeling is also due to its many characteristics in the chapter.
"Three sparse and one dense" is a problem of seal engraving, the natural density of the four-character text of this square seal is "three sparse and one dense", which is not easy to deal with, because the three sparse words are easy to form irregular blanks on the printing surface, there are too many unstable factors in the chapter, and there are more variables in handling, but in Qian Song's hands, this square seal has become an excellent artistic product.
The first is the equilibrium, this square seal makes good use of the dense contrast, with the stop even (this is actually the Chapter Law of the Chinese Seal) to arrange the four characters, so that the three words of "mountain, water, and square" are connected into one vein, and the "Zi" character is densely contrasted, and the "Square" word is left empty enough, enough to achieve equilibrium with the left space of the word "mountain and water" on the right, thus contributing to the stable chapter pattern of the whole seal. Although the word "Zi" is the visual gathering point of the whole India, its weight is offset by the other three words, and the word "mountain" at his corner is correspondingly reduced, so that, on the whole, the other three words and the word "Zi" are enough to form a gravitational equilibrium, and will not form a "partial sinking" imbalance effect.
(Stop evenly in the pattern of the large chapter)
In fact, "mountain" is the smallest word in the whole India, in order to match the gravity of the word "Zi", of course, in order to make the word "mountain" not appear too thin, the author extended a short pen on the left and right, so that it has the effect of balancing the place with other three words.
Secondly, it echoes diagonally, which is the most abundant means and is the unique ingenuity of this party printing:
1. In this square seal, the words "mountain" and "zi" are a little parallel to the border, and the vertical and horizontal coordinates are set for the whole Indian frame to achieve the stability of the center of gravity, as shown in the figure:
(Full Indian vertical and horizontal coordinates)
Obviously, this diagonal echo is achieved by changing the "seal law". Because the "water" part of the left side of the "Zi" character is simplified to three horizontal without the "Lishu" seal method, the "Zi" character in the lower left corner will have no horizontal strokes, although it may echo the "Water" character on the right, but it will cause an imbalance in the whole India.
2. In this square seal, the words "square" and "water" have no horizontal or vertical strokes, and all use oblique arc lines, which not only achieve diagonal echo, but also make the whole print full of vitality, slightly without stagnation, as shown in the figure:
(The diagonal echo of "water" and "square")
3. In fact, the similar strokes of this square seal and the similar enclosed space block surface are also diagonally echoed, such as the upper right stroke of the "water" word and the upper left stroke of the "square" word, the linear echo; the middle stroke of the "water" word and the middle stroke of the "square" word are also lines. The enclosed space block surface in the lower part of the "mountain" character and the four enclosed space block surfaces of the "Zi" character also form a diagonal echo. In short, they are all diagonal but varied and not rigid. As shown in the figure:
(The line corresponds diagonally to the block face)
In addition, the knife method of this square seal is also worthy of attention, Qian Song once said: "There are cut knives and punching knives in the seal carving, and there are various methods, but if you do it with a pen, you should not be a layman." ("Li Zhou borrowed" side paragraph)
(Qian Song "Three Stone Small Residence" printing surface)
It can be seen that Qian Song believes that the final effect of the printing surface is the most important, and as for how to achieve the final text effect, whether to use a punching knife or a cutting knife is not important. The characteristics of the knife method of this square seal are no longer simple cutting knives, but cutting and using together, but in the end, the three-dimensional sense of the line effect is very strong (this is actually similar to Wu Rangzhi's knife method, and Zhao Zhiqian's vertical stone knife method is slightly different, back to specifically say).
([Pudding Reading] No. 78, some of the pictures originate from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the original copyright owner)