Wen Peng (1498-1573) Character Shou Cheng, No. 3 Bridge, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was the eldest son of Wen Zhengming, a famous literary artist of the Ming Dynasty. He was once the official Dr. Guozijian in Nanjing, and later transferred to Dr. Guozijian in Beijing, known as "Wen Guobo".
(Text image)
As we all know, if the history of seal engraving is mentioned, especially the history of seal engraving in the Ming Dynasty, Wen Peng will definitely be mentioned, because he is the first person recognized by the Ming Dynasty literati for seal carving, because the seal carving starts from the use of stone materials to use a large number of stone materials, and Wen Peng is the second person to use stone materials to engrave seals (it is said that Wang Guan is the first person), plus Wen Zhengming's name, which is enough to drive Wen Peng to the throne of the first person to seal carving in the Ming Dynasty, because Wen Zhengming's influence is too great.
However, there is a lot of debate about Wen Peng's seal engraving works.
Mr. Yisha Menghai's "History of Printing Studies" (Xiling Printing Society Publishing House, November 1999) records that Wei Xi, a famous collector connoisseur of the Qing Dynasty, once determined that only the "Seal of Wen Peng" and "Wen Shou Chengshi" of the Wen Peng seal carvings that have been handed down to later generations are the works of Wen Peng himself. However, with the passage of time, we have seen in the "Ding Ugly Robbery Yu Yin Cun" (Ding Ren, Gao Shishishi, Ge Changyao, Yu Ren Cui Tibetan Seal Collection) and other famous seals, "The Depths of the Seventy-Two Peaks", "Qin Qiao Leaning on the Pine Playing Crane" and other famous seals, which are also truly attributed to Wen Peng's name.
(Wen Peng's "Qin Gong Leaning On the Pine Playing Crane" physical object)
The famous artists unanimously agreed that these works were written by Wen Peng, and even in the top section of the "QinQiao Leaning On the Pine Playing Crane" square seal, there was also Mr. Wang Fu'an's view. Famous artists and everyone blessed, and had to make people believe that it was really from Wen Peng's hand.
(Crane with style)
In fact, we can put the "true and false" aside to see if this square seal is worth learning and learning from. After reading these prints, Mr. Qi Baishi thought, "Like the three bridges of literature, children of seven or eight years old can cut it." Obviously, he did not approve of Wen Peng's fang print; Mr. Ma Shida, one of the authors of "Seal Engraving", said that "you only need to rely on hard 'grinding' by dead kung fu to be able to do things on your own"; obviously, he also did not approve of this fang print.
But this can be conclusive, because these two masters are all masters who take "freehand" as the creative direction, and their prints along the way of "gongwen" often have "aesthetic prejudices" (gu delusion).
Regardless of that much, let us calm down and carefully read this print:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > the perfect blend of edges and prints</h1>
As shown in the figure above, the side paragraph of this square seal reads:
Yu and Mr. Jingchuan are good, Mr. Beiye (that is, the villa) has an ancient pine plant, two cranes in the inside, the rest of the time, every time with Yu Xiao proud in between, playing with the piano crane, Xun Coke also. Yu both felt Mr. Yu's intention, because of the old stone in the box, the seal was on the top, in order to give Mr. Shu, shu jing and stone and pass it on. Shi Jiajing Ding Weiqiu (1547), Mitsuhashi Peng zhi in Matsuzuru Sai.
Mr. Jingchuan refers to Tang Shunzhi (1507-1560), the character Yingde, the character Yixiu, the number Jingchuan, Wujin (now part of Changzhou, Jiangsu). Ming Dynasty Confucian master and essayist. Tang Shun's career was bumpy, so he planted pines, played the piano, raised cranes, and lived a helpless idle life, Wen Peng befriended him, and the "piano strikes and relies on the pine to play with cranes" described in the printing face is a real literati yashi, and this life is indeed the life that every literati yearns for, so yashi is remembered as yawu, which is enough to be passed down.
(The life of the piano leaning on the pine to play with the crane is the yearning of the literati)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > read print</h1>
In fact, the boundless seal can only be the Zhu Wen seal, and the white seal has a natural edge even if there is no artificial edge. The Zhu wenyin without edges is purely composed of text. Without the edge of the print, one of the direct effects will be that the Chinese characters lack a vertical and horizontal baseline, and the balance and order of the whole print need to be determined with the help of the print itself, that is, whether it stands "stable", whether it has a "sequence", all depends on the layout of the printed text.
Obviously, this seal is stable and has an "order".
(Six characters are evenly printed)
The six characters on the printing surface are evenly distributed on the printing surface, and the blank space between the printed text plans out an equal six pieces, and the stability and order of the printing surface are guaranteed, coupled with the horizontal and vertical vertical of the text inside (the printing text uses a miao seal instead of a small seal, so it is easy to arrange), and there is no problem in the order and stability of this party printing.
Of course, this is simply the most basic thing for the master, but for beginners, there is still learning value, such as the accuracy of the printing surface planning, the stability and accuracy of the knife. It is said that Wen Peng always writes a good printing surface by himself, and the fake handprinter Li Wenfu engraves it on his behalf, we don't have to care whether this square seal is carved by Wen Peng himself, it is enough to learn this "stable and accurate" style.
The second direct impact of the boundless seal without the edge of the seal is that the print will lack the power of reunion, and the printed surface will appear loose. This square seal does not have this problem, the print is reunited but there is no lack of vitality. How?
1. The fragmentation of the four corners of the printing surface. We can no longer confirm whether this kind of damage is a trace of erosion over the passage of time or whether Wen Peng (assuming that it was his own hand) at the beginning of the engraving did such a treatment, even if you look at the high-definition printing surface, you can't see the origin of this kind of damage, for example, the word "play" is on the right horizontal, is it carved off, or bumped off? I don't know.
In short, it has the effect of this reunion. The printed text is grouped in a "circle", without any loose feeling due to the lack of edges.
(Reunited within a circle)
Of course, this kind of mutilation also brings about the "circle" of the printing edge, and also brings vitality and changes to the square printing surface, which is also very important, because it dissolves the sluggishness brought about by the equal division of the printing surface.
2. Dense echo and axis symmetry. On closer inspection, the echoes of at least three groups of elements weaken the looseness of the printed surface:
First, the dense echo of the triangular layout. The three words of "qin, song and play" in this square seal are obviously simple in glyphs, while the three words of "strike, leaning, and crane" are relatively complex, and Wen Peng deliberately left the three words of "qin, song, and play" to form an empty echo and symmetry of the "inverted triangle", and correspondingly, the axial symmetry of the "pin" glyph of the other three characters.
(Dense echo and symmetry)
Second, the narrow parallel line formed next to the "亻" of the word "leaning" echoes up and down with the narrow parallel line in the upper part of the "gong" part of the "loose" character, and this arrangement makes the two rows of text on the printing surface and the bottom related, and the upper and lower lines of the printing surface are more reunited (as shown below).
(Up-down and left-right connections)
Third, the glyphs of "strike and crane" are particularly dense, and the left and right lower corners of the printing surface are separated, which not only makes the central axis symmetry more obvious, but also makes the printing surface more stable (as shown above).
The characteristics of this square seal, as well as the roundness of the line, only look at the seal, will make people feel that it is simply an ivory printing material, but in fact, it is Qingtian stone printing material. In short, the advantage of this square seal is elegance, but also because the elegance has reached the extreme, so often some people think that this square seal is too "craftsmanship", which is no way to do things.
([Pudding Reading] No. 74, some of the pictures originate from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the original copyright owner)