What is Notation? It is a compilation of the seals of the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties in China, and the seals of the schools since the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is accurately a line-bound version printed on clay paper. Chinese seal art has a history of about three thousand years, but the collection of seals, that is, the collection of these seals into a book, is only nine hundred years old.
When it comes to the seal score, it has always been said that the ancestor of the seal score is the Xuanhe Seal Spectrum. In fact, this is a fictional history, a man-made story. During the Xuanhe years, Emperor Huizong of Song compiled the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation and the Xuanhe Book Genealogy, so people in the late Ming Dynasty took it for granted that they had created a "Xuanhe Printing Notation", which was actually a figment.
Which is the earliest printed score in the history of our country? It is a collection of ancient inges compiled by Yang Keyi, which is a little earlier than the so-called Xuanhe Yin spectrum. However, Yang Keyi's "Ji Gu Yinge" has been mistaken in history, and it has been mistakenly called Chao Keyi's "Ji Gu Yinge". In the early days, there were many false rumors in the history of the seal, and this sealed notation was actually compiled by Yang Ke, which has historical data (1). The Northern Song Dynasty scholar Zhang Qian (文潜) once wrote a preface to his nephew Yang Keyi's Ji gu yingge. There is a sentence in the prologue that "Ke Yi is good, and his father makes up for the love of Yu Du" (2), because there was a famous literati in the Northern Song Dynasty, Chao Zhi, and the descendants crowned "Yang" as "Chao" (3). This preface does not indicate a year, but Zhang Qi died in 1114, and Zhao Tuo's Xuanhe era number is 1117-1125, so it can be proved that Yang Keyi's Jigu Yingge predates Xuanhe and is the first printed book in Chinese history. I came to this conclusion in the 1980s. At that time, one of the editors in charge of "Cihai" was Yan Qinglong, and I raised this matter to him cautiously, so "Cihai" later deleted the "Xuanhe Yin spectrum" entry.
First, the development of the production of the seal of the ancient seal has a history of three thousand years. The tripartite ancient seal excavated from Yin Ruins was not directly excavated, but was discovered by Huang Mao (Bo Chuan) on the Yin Ruins Stall in 1935 (Figure 1). If you take these three-party seals into account, the history of the seal is more than three thousand years. But it is strange that no seals were found throughout the Spring and Autumn period. The seals we see now are all warring states, and there is a gap in between.
I once read a historical material that Tang Taizong liked calligraphy, and he often rewarded several close courtiers who wrote calligraphy well. He once gave Wang Xizhi's party seal to the calligrapher Yu Shinan.
The seals that circulated in the folk, from the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty Yang Ke to compile the seal notation, until the early Ming Dynasty, how many seals appeared before and after? It's not clear. I read about 20 of them, but none of them are included in the Bibliography of Ancient Chinese Books.
It is strange to say that in the long period from the Northern Song Dynasty's "Ji Gu Yingge" to the Ming Longqing period of the "Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals" came out of thin air, during which no one thought of using the original seal to stamp the seal spectrum, they all carved it into the jujube pear wood according to the gourd. Moreover, the people who are engaged in engraving do not understand seal engraving, so the ancient seals in those seals are completely unrecognizable. To put it more seriously, those seals are like we are standing in front of a ha-ha mirror, and their appearance has become deformed (Figure 2). This absurd phenomenon of indistinguishable, similar shape and death lasted for more than four centuries.
The fundamental turning point in the production of Chinese printing was in the Ming Dynasty, using the real ancient seal print handed down from ancient times, using good cinnabar printing clay, and directly to the white linen paper and Lianshi paper (then called Yue paper). The first book in history to use the original seal of the original plutonium was the "Gu ShiJi Ancient Seal Spectrum" (Figure 3) by Gu Congde (Ru Xiu) of the Shanghainese. This seal is extremely important, the first time that the ancient Chinese seal appeared in its original form, published in the sixth year of Longqing (1572).
In the past, it was set in Longqing for five years, so why should I add one year? Because Luo Fuyi published a "Seal Genealogy Examination" during the Republic of China period, which recorded the 146 ancient seal seal notations he read. Among them, the "Gu Family Collection Ancient Seal Genealogy" he saw, which contained only a preface written by Huang Jishui, was in the fifth year of Longqing (1571). But the historical printing of books is very complicated. There were a total of 20 plutonium at that time, and I also saw two other original versions, of which there was a very important version, which had an additional preface—this preface was written by the Ming Dynasty scholar Shen Mingchen (Figure 4), and the year of the signature was the sixth year of Longqing (1572). Ancient books are usually dated to the year of the latest prologue, which is the general rule. So I used 1572 to set the birth year of Gu Pu.
After the Gu's printed score came out, it had a great impact, and the literati's praise for this printed book was simply to the point of cheering and excitement. The 20 printed sheets sold very expensively, at that time it was six or two silver copies, and it was quickly sold out.
In the past, the print scores seen were all out of shape, it was Dong Shi Xiaoyi, and now I see that "Xi Shi" has appeared, which is indeed so artistic and touching people's heartstrings, and everyone wants to get one. However, the number of printed scores of the original plutonium is limited, what to do? Then do the engraving. The engraving cannot be reproduced as indiscriminately as before, and the printing surface is completely different, and we must strive to be close to the original seal. Therefore, three years later, in 1575, a copy of "Yin Xue" (Figure 5), which was also edited by Gu Congde, was published. The circulation of "Indochina" is very large, and it is already a very precious book for today. I read about a dozen of them, some in red, some in ink, and some in blue; there were hand scrolls and albums. Scholars at the time exclaimed that in the late Ming Dynasty, "every household to hand" (4). This is a bit of an exaggeration, but it shows that after the book came out, it touched and influenced the literati and literary and artistic circles at that time, which was unprecedented. The emergence of the "Collection of Ancient Seals" has invisibly changed and accelerated the development of the history of Chinese seal engraving, and the contribution has been great.
The ancient seal materials of the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties are mainly copper, and the literati cannot be engraved. Therefore, in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, many outstanding literati, including Mi Fu and Zhao Mengfu, wanted to engrave seals, but they could not move. The emergence of Gu's seal genealogy, coupled with Wen Peng's initiative to introduce Qingtian ye wax stone into seal carving, the literati flocked in, resulting in a seal carving team with literati as the main body. In the 1970s, the "Ming and Qing Dynasty School Seal Carving" that Fang and I quickly named debuted in a brilliant way.
Before the Gu Family Collection of Ancient Seal Notation was opened, some other ancient seal collectors also began to produce bronze seals of the original plutonium. The Gu Family Collection of Ancient Seals has only 1800 squares. Later, in 1597, Fan Dache, the owner of the Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion Library, collected 3300 square bronze seals and produced a copy of the original "Fan's Collection of Ancient Seals". Later, Guo Zhongchang, a native of Shaanxi, published a very important original plutonium seal book, "History of the Seal of Songtan Pavilion" (Figure 6), and combined the printing and examination.
These three printed books had a great influence on the time and later generations. The three seals added together, the income of the seal is 6300 square, is a large number, for us to learn from the ancient excellent traditions to provide a rich basis, for the introduction of the best model.
After the appearance of the Gu's Collection of Ancient Seal Notations and the introduction of Qingtian Stone into the printing altar, the scribes took pleasure in tapping the stone carvings and printing, and the winds flowed to collect, engrave, and compile the scores, thriving, and competing for beauty. In the more than seventy years from the Gu family's seal to the Ming Dynasty, nearly a hundred kinds of printed scores have appeared one after another.
Figure 2 Shen Runqing inscription
Figure 3 Gu's collection of ancient seals
Figure 4 Shen Mingchen's Preface to the Ancient Seal Genealogy of the Gu Family
Fig. 5 Indo-filth
Figure 6 History of the Seal of Song Tan Ge
Figure 7 Su's imprint
Figure 8 Zhu Weiyang's imprint
Second, the type of edited printed notation is usually said to be printed, except for the original plutonium, that is, the printed version. It's not that simple. I combed through it, and the printed score can be roughly listed in 26 categories, which is not very complete.
1. From the Northern Song Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was a copy of the book, or occasionally a book drawn by hand. The Yuan Dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu liked seals, and he copied two ancient seals, called "History of Printing". This book has long ceased to exist.
2. The ancient seal seal spectrum of the original seal. All three of the previously mentioned parts are in this category.
3. Use the original plutonium to reprint it again. The aforementioned "Yin Xue", the amount of printing is so large that no ancients have ever done so. Because there are only 20 Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals, by the late Ming Dynasty, many people have confused the Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals with the Yin Xue. Some scholars even said that after the "Collection of Ancient Seals" came out, it greatly promoted the development of printing and harmed many people. He didn't know that he had mistakenly taken the Yin Xue as the Gu Shi Ji Ancient Seal Spectrum. The original printed original plutonium and the facsimile of jujube and pear wood, its artistic quality is of course far away.
4. The famous seal engraver at that time copied the seal of the ancients. Seal engravers should also learn from the tradition and copy the ancient seals, and some rich and good seal printers will specially invite the famous seal engravers at that time to engrave seals for him. For example, in 1607, there was a Pan Yunjie, who invited two great seal engravers Su Xuan (Er Xuan) and Yang Shi (Han Qing) to copy the ancient seal 2600 square seals into a "Pan's Collection of Ancient Seals", a thick ten copies. Among them, Su Xuan copied more than 900 parties.
5. Homemade printed scores edited by famous artists. For example, Su Xuan has compiled several printed notations (Figure 7). In the Ming Dynasty, the printed scores were basically based on the Yangtze River Delta region, but there was one exception, that is, Zhu Guangye's "Zhu Weiyang Yinluo" (Figure 8) by Zhu Guangye. The seal he carved, both traditional and turned over some patterns, one of which was engraved with 64 characters, and made some fancy pattern prints, which were pioneering.
6. A collection of seals compiled by a number of famous artists. The earliest was Zhang Hao (Yi Ling) of taicang, who took the seals of more than twenty famous artists at that time and compiled a copy of the "Seal Of Chengqingguan" (Figure 9), and received the seals of Wen Peng, He Zhen, Su Xuan, Yang Shishi, Gui Changshi, Li Liufang and others. The book is rare, and it comes in two versions: one with a print on top and an explanatory text and a printed material on the bottom; and another with the name of the engraver. The ancients wrote more than a few words, which is an extremely important research material for future generations. I wrote an article about it at the time. Chai Zhiying, an old gentleman who studies printing studies, once met me and said: Mr. Han, is the article you published in the "Xinmin Evening News" a bit fictional? I said why? He said, I have seen the "Seal Of the Chengqing Pavilion", which only has an explanatory text on it, and there is no name of the author of the seal. I said that what you saw was the one in Zhang Lu'an's collection, which did not have the author's name on it; you did not see the one collected by the Shanghai Museum, and who carved the stamp on which side of the seal was clearly indicated below.
In 1631, Zhang Hao compiled another copy of the Xueshan Tang Seal (Figure 10), and after two or three years, he expanded it into a thick ten-volume book with 2032 seals. At the end of this printed book, there are more than sixty seal engravers at that time, many of whom were famous painters, calligraphers, scholars, and literati at that time, but they roughly and did not clearly indicate which side of the seal was engraved by whom, which brought us a regret that could never be remedied.
7. Seal engraving enthusiasts collect the seals of famous artists and then copy them. In ancient times, it was not easy to collect some famous manuscripts. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a Cheng Yuan (Meng Chang), who actually collected more than 5,000 prints engraved by He Zhen (Xueyu), who is known as the originator of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He selected more than 1,500 fine works from more than 5,000 prints, and asked his son Cheng Pu (Element) to copy one side on the other, the level of imitation was very high, but not the original size, and compiled a copy of the "Ninchodo Seal Selection". This book is very rare. During the "Cultural Revolution", I read it in the library of the Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Society, and then I wanted to read it again, but there was none.
8. The imprint of the era. For example, the "Feihongtang Seal Spectrum" (Figure 11) compiled by Wang Qishu in the Qianlong period is also very large, with 3498 prints, and the famous Indians in the Qianlong period are all gathered together. At the same time, he also published a "FeihongTang Yinren Biography", which preserved the outstanding Indian works and biographies of this era. Of course, there are also strange stories here, for example, the "FeihongTang Seal Spectrum" is said to be edited by Ding Jing and Jin Nong, but the strange thing is that in this book, Ding Jing has several square seals but they are fake, and Jin Nong will engrave the seal, but none of them are included.
9. Notation by region. Inside the ancient seal seal, the typical Qilu Ancient Seal (Figure 12) collects seals excavated from the Qilu region of Shandong Province. For another example, Xu Shu and Zhao Yi are both from western Zhejiang and compiled the "Four Seals of Western Zhejiang".
10. Printed notation divided by style. The "Four Seals of Xiling" is a compilation of the works of Zhejiang Pai seals, which is a collection of seal carvings by Ding Jingshen, Huang Xiaosong, Jiang Shantang and Xi Tiesheng. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the early Min Dynasty was compiled into the "Eight Seals of Xiling".
11. Seal of the Literary Endowment. In the form of idle chapters, that is, sentences such as literary endowments and poems, please engrave and print them together. For example, xu Rong (Shifu), a seal engraver in the early Qing Dynasty, used the Song Dynasty scholar Zhang Yan's "White Cloud Words in the Mountains" to engrave a "Valley Garden Seal Spectrum" sentence by sentence, which also opened a precedent.
12. Collect the ancient seals collected by various families and print them into printed recipes. The Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals is a precedent. Gu Congde's collection has more than 1,000 seals, in order to seek completeness, he borrowed prints from collectors Xiang Zijing (Yuan Bian) and others, so some of the seals in the Gu Family Collection Ancient Seal Genealogy were from Xiang Yuanbian and others. However, the largest collection of ancient seals is the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal" (Figure 13). Chen Jieqi, the owner of the Ten Bells Mountain House, was born in 1813, and he had a lifelong habit of collecting ancient seal seals, and constantly produced his own collection of seal seals. The earliest is the "Collection of Seals of Qizhai" (Figure 14), which he compiled when he was 35 years old, and also produced a copy of "The Tibetan Seal of WanyinLou", which I believe was compiled by him when he was about 36 years old. Chen Jieqi spent the rest of his life collecting ancient seals and, of course, bronzes. Ten Bells Yamabota, named after his collection of Ten Bells, is now in the Kobe Izumiya Museum in Japan.
How many kinds of prints did Chen Jieqi produce before and after? It's hard to count. Personally, I have seen more than 30 kinds of books, including various titles and various books. "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal" is a huge production he made at the age of 60. It was not easy for Chen Jieqi to receive seals, and in the late Qing Dynasty, more and more people among literati and bureaucrats liked seals. From Chen Jieqi's 1847 publication of the "Seal of Qizhai" to the time when he was 60 years old and issued a wish to compile the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal", there were at least 30 people in the country who were collecting and editing seal seals, and all of them were non-officials and gentry, and they also had channels. In the second half of Chen Jieqi's collection of seals, there were roughly 40 kinds of ancient seal seals in various compilations. It is not easy for the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal" to receive so many seals. In addition to financial resources and energy, there must also be information and organic opportunities.
"Ten Bells Mountain House Prints", there are also more than a dozen pages, one or two books, 6 books, 12 books, 40 books, 50 books, 64 books, 100 books, 104 books, 191 books, and 194 books, many. Because of its long editing time, various reasons will lead to the compilation of different editions and contents. But in general, there are two major versions: one is Chen Jieqi's "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal Lift" when he was 60 years old, and the other is "Ten Bell Mountain House Seal Lift" when he was 71 years old. The former is the 1872 Nongshen Ben, because it is printed on the layout "Tongzhi Nongshen", usually written in 1872, but it is not so simple. The notation is printed on paper in 1872, but you think, if you want to take so many prints and cover the sheet, and make it into a book, which can be completed in a year and a half? I saw a historical material, written by his descendants, the first three completed parts of the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal" were two years later on the 25th day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar (1874), one was lost, and there were two more, this information is credible.
As for the 104 copies, everyone says that they are manuscripts, and I agree, but I think this is a complete copy of Chen Jieqi's entire family seal. Why? This print score has collected 7958 square meters, which is more than 2000 meters away from the "Ten Thousand Seals Building". It is a summary of the Tibetan seal of Wanyin Lou. The year of the book, in my opinion, should be between 1874 and 1875. Due to his physical reasons, as well as the competition for the collection of so many Tibetan seals, the desire to realize the "Ten Thousand Seals Building" was really slim, and he seemed to have changed his mind, bringing together the ancient seals of his friends such as Li Zhangyu, Wu Shifen, Wu Dayi, Wu Yun, Li Zuoxian, and Bao Kang, and then in 1883, he published 191 copies of the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal". How many seals are inside? 10284 square, that is really called "Wanyin Building".
13. Material imprint. Choose a different material to publish the notation. During the Qianlong period, Wang Qishu had a unique copy of "Retiring To Zhai Printing Class" (Figure 15), which contained gold and silver, copper, jade, stone, rhino horn, ivory, porcelain, bamboo, wood, lacquerware, and bricks... Strange, unexpected, all materials available.
14. Ancient history is broken. For example, Luo Zhenyu's "Collection of Official Seals Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties" and "Collection of Official Seals of Western Xia" belong to this category.
15. There is a print of the side section. Before Jiaqing, all the genre seal masters did not have the ink Tuobian style, mainly because they did not think that they could introduce the method of Tuobei into the Tuobian style. It was not until jiaqing that there was a side note in the seal. I have seen two copies: one is the "Seal Of the Four Houses of Xiling" and the other is the "Huang Qiu'an Seal Book" (Figure 16) from my collection. At that time, the side section was not extended on the entire sheet of printed sheet paper, but the cutbook after the expansion. Since Jiaqing, Zhu Ju has become popular in printing and attaching ink to the edges.
16. Full-shaped rubbing spectrum. In 1924, Zheng Hefang, a Shaanxi native, produced a copy of "Wanggu Zhai Seal", he made each side of the bronze seal into a full-shaped extension, exquisite and elegant, Zhu Mohui, the first to open the atmosphere.
17. Copy genre notation. First appeared in the Jiaqing Era, Cheng Zhihua copied the printed notation of the four great masters of the Hui Sect, Wang Zhaolong, Ba Weizu, and Hu Tang, which is also a pioneering work.
18. Community seals. This is a relatively recent thing, like the "Seal Spectrum of the People in the Xiling Printing Society" and so on. Nowadays, such prints abound.
19. Collectors compile the printed genealogies of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Start with "Ding Ugly Robbery Remnant Seal" (Figure 17).
20. Towel box print score. Now it is popularly called pocket book. This kind of printing is a unique production of Wang Qishu in the Qianlong era, called "Jinbao Yinlin" (Figure 18), which is 6.2 cm high and 4.2 cm wide, and can be placed on the palm of the hand. On the other hand, the largest printed score in the folio was the 1893 Gongmo Zhaizang Ancient Seal Seal Notation (Figure 19), which was a full 26 times larger than the "Jinnan Yinlin".
21. Pseudo-fabricated notations. In addition to the "Xuanhe Yin Spectrum" mentioned above, there is also the "Xuanhe Ji Ancient Seal History" (Figure 20) compiled by xiaoshan people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which is also forged. More recently, there is a copy of the "Seven Seals", which was forged in 1901 and bought by a very rich Ningbo native Yan Xinhou, who was very proud. There is the seal of Zheng Banqiao inside, in fact, the seal of Zheng Banqiao will not be engraved. This was a bureau set up by two influential Indians at that time to cheat him of money.
2 2. Printing spectrum of the flower transfer elderberry type. The printed score is generally true, but it is divided into several pieces. For example, Chen Yuzhong (Qiu Tang), one of the eight families in Xiling, went to Chen Hongshou's (Mansheng) house and saw a copy of the Four Sons' Seals. After Chen Qiutang read it, he said that this was good, these seals all had the taste of Qin and Han. In fact, it is to take the seal engraved by one person, divided into four people's names, the seal is true, the name is assigned to others, which appeared in Jiaqing. After that, there was a "Dongba Wang Huhui Engraving Seal", which was carried out by the Shanghai Wu clan, and he divided the seal of the Ba Wei Zu into four, some of which belonged to the name of Ba Wei Zu, and the rest were signed by Wang Zhensheng, Hu Tang, and Dong Xiaochi, so it was called "Dong Ba Wang Hu Hui Carved Seal Spectrum". If you say that it is false, it is indeed the true carving of Pasteur; if you say that it is true, for the other three, it is a fake, a flower transfer, and a fool of the reader.
23. Forged genealogies of famous artists. I have seen two such seals at the end of the Qing Dynasty, one of which is "Liaozi Yu zhai seal", in which Zhao Zhiqian's seals are fake. The person who wrote the book is not honest and a little honest inside, Zhao Zhiqian's printing he can't get, make a fake, play with it himself, so it's called "Talking about Self-Entertainment Zhai Seal Spectrum". People who don't know the goods, when they really buy it, they are deceived.
24. Prints made of copper and zinc plates. The seal is covered with cinnabar plutonium, which is very close to the original seal spectrum of the original seal. Shanghai Xiling Printing Society did it in the early days. For example, as everyone knows, there are eight copies of the "Zhao Zhiqian Seal Spectrum", which are basically sold as the original plutonium seal score. At that time, it was Western photography that was introduced to China, and he took a picture of the seal, and then rotted into a copper plate, and a piece of wood on the copper plate was dipped in the printing clay, which made people feel that it was the original plutonium seal. Low cost and high profit.
25. Chroma and lithograph notation. This appeared in the early and middle period of the Republic of China, and in 1921, the Commercial Press Han Fenlou produced 12 copies of the "Ten Bell Mountain House Seals" were printed by Colo and printed well.
There are a large number of such prints in the Zhengshu Bureau, including Yang Longshi, Ding Jingshen, and Jiang Ren, most of which are bad zinc editions, including side sections, and the printing is very poor and shoddy. There are also lithographs, which are lackluster.
26. In addition, we would like to say a special kind of seal genealogy, that is, the later people who have a heart will collect the remnants of the ancient times that have been burned by fire, water erosion, insect moths, and the scattered prints of collectors that they have seen successively. For example, the "Collection of Copper Seals Seen Before the Beginning of the Si Dynasty" was compiled by Zhang Yunjin with many years of energy successively compiling the bronze seals of many Tibetan printers in Yushan. More typical is Xu Xi at the end of the Qing Dynasty and Later Ding Fuzhi, who respected the ancient relics and successively compiled the clippings and pastes they encountered into a thick volume of "Qin han seal play" (Figure 21), and the ancient seal seal reached 3351 squares, and the stock was second only to the "Ten Bell Mountain House Seal". Some of these imprints can be seen as scorch marks of fire. This spectrum is like a hundred coats of armor, although it is a combination of remnant stars, it is not wasted, and its value is no less than that of the complete ancient seal seals of each family.
Figure 9-1 The "Chengqingguan Seal Notation" does not have an author's name
Figure 9-2 The "Chengqingguan Seal Notation" has the author's name
Figure 9-3 "Chengqingguan Seal Spectrum"
Figure 10 Gakuyama Hall Seal Score
Figure 11 Fei Hung Tang Seal Score
Figure 12 Qilugu Seal
Figure 13 The shadow of the Ten Bells Mountain House and its beginnings
Fig. 14 Collection of seals
Figure 15 Retired seal class
Third, the earliest seal in the history of the history of the "most" seal is the Northern Song Dynasty Yang Keyi's "Ji gu yingge", which was also called "Book Spectrum" at that time. The ancients also called seals books.
The earliest ancient seal seal original seal spectrum is the Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals in 1572. The years are merciless, and only one of the Gu's Collection ancient seals has survived in its entirety at the time of Daoguang. I have read three fragments, this one I did not see, in the hands of a large collector in Wenzhou, Xie Leiming, in his later years he handed over to his son, and now it is estimated that he is still in Shanghai. In the 1980s, I told Ma Chengyuan, director of the Shanghai Museum, that this printed score was an orphan book in The Sea, and it was best for the museum to accept it, but it did not get what it wanted. From 1962 to 1963, I was a soldier in Wenzhou and visited Xie Leiming. An old man in his 80s, thin, long bearded, silent. He was once a great collector of rich zhejiang and southern Zhejiang, and a fire in 1922 burned all his belongings. This book escaped the disaster because he asked Fang Jiekan to take him to Shanghai to ask a large number of celebrities, including Zhao Shuru, Wu Changshuo, Tong Danian, Zhang Daqian, Gao Shixian, and a large number of celebrities, which was a great fortune in misfortune. Xie Shi told me that this "Collection of Ancient Seals" is something that Sha Menghai wants to see, and I will not show it, because you are a student of Jiekan and can show it to you. Fang Jiekan was a student of Xie Leiming and had a little artistic blood relationship. In order to read this book, I went to Mr. Xie's house four times, but I didn't see it.
What is the earliest personal seal engraver's personal seal? In the past, wen Peng had a compilation of scores, which were all pseudo-trusts. Judging from the historical materials seen, it is He Zhen's "Selected Seals of He Xueyu", and there is only one fragment, which is the ancestor of the Indians' own compilation of printed genealogies, probably around 1590, and it is not known today.
In history, the longest time to edit a printed score was the "Feihongtang Seal Score" compiled by Wang Qishu in the Qianlong period, which took a full 31 years until 1776 to compile it, of which 3498 square seals were collected, which was unprecedented in the genre print.
Speaking of the seal score, each envy is called "Three Halls of Seal Spectrum", that is, the "Seal Score of Xueshan Tang" edited by Zhang Hao in the Ming Dynasty, the "Seal Score of Lai Gu Tang" edited by Zhou Lianggong in the Kangxi Dynasty (Figure 22), and the "Seal Score of Feihong Hall" edited by Wang Qishu in qianlong. It took me more than 20 years to get the three scores together. 20 years ago, when I was in Japan, in a bookstore in The town of Jimbo, the owner mysteriously took out the "Raikodo Seal Book", which I saw as a good thing, but it was also mutilated. He asked for 230,000 yuan at the time.
The richest seal of the ancient seal of the compilation is the "Ten Bells Mountain House Seal", which is the energy of Chen Jieqi in the second half of his life, and also brings together the seals of six other collectors, collecting 10284 square seals, ancient and modern.
The longest-engraved Indian in history was Wang Ruizhang of the Yongzheng Period, who lived to be 97 years old. At the age of 89, he also published a printed book, which is the only one in previous history. Now there are several people over 90 years old who can engrave, which is not unusual.
The earliest sealed mud seal is Wu Shifen's "Haifeng Wu Clan Tibetan Han Sealing Mud", which was compiled very early, probably in 1822. At that time, people did not know that this was a clay seal that was glued to the Jian Mu with an official seal during the Qin and Han Dynasties, and they all thought that it was a seal fan. Zhao Zhiqian also believed that it was a yinfan, and did not pay attention to it. Wu Changshuo is very wise and keen, and has drawn a lot of artistic nourishment from the sealing mud.
Historically, there are six seals who are obsessed with seals to the bone, and I summarize them.
The first is Zhang Hao of the Ming Dynasty, who has already talked about his story. The second is Zhou Lianggong in the Kangxi period, and the third is Wang Qishu in the Qianlong period, who is the person who has compiled the most printed scores in Chinese history. These seals are original prints, they are completed with the strength of one person, and they are all in their own hands. Wang Qishu compiled 28 kinds of original plutonium seals in his lifetime, and no one has surpassed him so far. The fourth Chen Jieqi, the fifth Ding Fuzhi in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and the sixth is Zhang Lulu.
These six idiots also have different angles. Zhang Hao of the Ming Dynasty, he mainly played with genre seals and stone seals; Zhou Lianggong also played with genre seals and stone seals; Wang Qishu was playing with ancient seals and genre seals; Chen Jieqi was playing with ancient seals; Ding Fuzhi was playing with Zhejiang seals; Zhang Lulu played with ancient seals and Ming and Qing school seals, in addition to collecting famous Ming and Qing seals, and devoted himself to the research and production of printing clay. Zhang Lulu collected more than 500 kinds of printed scores in his lifetime, of which 433 were donated to the Xiling Printing Society. Of the 4,000 types of seal notationS I have read, about 600 are ancient seal notations, and more than 3,000 are genre prints. These six people are the biggest seal idiots in the history of Chinese seal engraving, and it seems disrespectful to call them seal idiots, in fact, they are all printing scholars who have made great contributions and deserve respect in the history of Chinese seals.
The earliest overseas editor of Chinese prints was Ota Kotaro in Japan, also known as Ota Yumean, who published an ancient seal seal book "Dream An Tibetan Seal" in 1921. In the Qianlong period, in 1761, a Chinese Shi Chengjin compiled a printed book in Japan called "Heirloom Lonely White". No one has ever seen this notation, but I read it when I was visiting Japan.
One of the best printed books in history is Wu Shifen's Double Yu Ju Zhai Seal (Figure 23). We say that we do the best, one is the binding form, and the other is to print the original plutonium. It has two kinds of small books and large books, the large books use the finest white cotton paper, the printing mud is the best, and each side of the printing is accurate and out of the blue, and the official seals are marked with materials and buttons.
The most patriotic book is "Ding Ugly Robbery Yu Yincun". In 1937, when Japan invaded China and carried out a large bombing in Shanghai, collectors in Shanghai suffered great disasters. 1937 was the year of Ding Ugly, and two years later, Ge Changyao, Ding Fuzhi, Gao Luoyuan, and Yu Shuwen were all collectors of genre seals, and they gathered together the stone seals that had not been plundered by the Japanese and were not completely damaged, and produced a 20-volume large print book "Ding Ugly Robbery Remnant Seal". Only 21 books were published, and the number was based on the 21 characters of "Zhejiang Xiding Gao Ge Yu Four Houses Collection of Seals Tuo 20 and Another Book of Self-Death Chuncheng". That is, the first part is called "Zhejiang", the second part is called "West", and the third part is called "Ding"... There are 21 in total.
Figure 17 Ding Ugly robbery remnants are preserved
Figure 18: The Inverse Forest
Figure 19 Seal of the Ancient Seal of The Ink Zhai Collection
Figure 20 Xuanhe Collection of Ancient Indian History
Figure 21 "Qin Han Seal Play"
Fourth, the knowledge of the printing of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rare book printing notation, the orphan book printing spectrum, why some of them sold as expensive as the song and Yuan ancient books? People are Song and Yuan, you are Ming and Qing, and it is reasonable that the more ancient you are, the more valuable you are. Why can print scores be sold so expensive?
First, the seal is not easy to come by, and the price is not cheap. For example, one of the branded horse prints has been published in hundreds of ancient and modern prints, which used to be called "Ri Geng Du Cui Che Ma" (Figure 24). Anyone who engages in seals knows that in fact, this "Ri Geng" is a word. When this square seal is composed, "day" is written on the top, and "geng" is written on the bottom, which is actually a geng character next to the Japanese word, which is "". It's called "All the Cars and Horses". "It was a very small vassal state in the north during the Warring States period. When this seal was first unearthed, it sold for 600 gold, that is, 600 taels of silver.
Genre prints are equally expensive. Deng Shi had five seals of "Shou Su Xuan" and "Gu Huan" (Figure 25), which was 500 gold at that time. You think, how can the print spectrum that is expanded with such an expensive printing plutonium not be expensive?
Second, the original plutonium printing spectrum, plutonium printing is to have technology. Unlike book printing, you line up, and after the ink goes up, just brush it. Seal cover is not so simple, is a highly technical work, the average person can not do it.
Third, the Song and Yuan versions brush more, and the words are not easy to break. Ancient seals have been printed into the soil for more than 1,000 years, and have been corroded and weathered, especially the seals unearthed in the Jiangnan region, which are basically "skin and egg green", and the texture is relatively crunchy. I myself have suffered this bitterness, dipped in the printing mud to print the spectrum, sometimes the printing is taken out of the printing mud, there is already a piece of something stuck to the printing mud, the square seal is damaged, or even scrapped.
We say that it is difficult to print the seal, but the difficulty lies in showing the true face of this square seal and expressing the spirit of this party seal. Wei Jiasun was an expert in plutonium seals and tuobian styles, and he taught the technique to Mao Geng (Xi Tang). Mao Geng made the printing notation, and the plutonium seal and the tuobian model were even more clever than Wei Jiasun, and he tuotuo a printed score, thinking that the unsatisfactory and scrapped printing paper was enough to pile up a room. If I want to publish the printed score myself, sometimes I have to choose one of them. Two days ago, a friend wanted to publish a book, asked me to borrow a tripartite seal plutonium, I looked at it and said you hurry to change the printing clay, this printing clay can not be used, the taste of the printing knife out of the plutonium cover is lost. People who don't understand should ask, what is the smell of knives? What's the difference between a thick point and a thin point? Definitely not the same! The printing clay of the plutonium printing should be selected well, not too bad, and not too dry. Whether it is Zhu Wen or Bai Wen, the thickness error should not exceed one-tenth of the original line, which is much thinner than the hair, which can be called accurate. Besides, how expensive is a good clay? Because the best printing clay is made, the best moxa is used, and the things planted must be the best, the longest silk, and the most resilient. Cinnabar, now cinnabar is more expensive than gold. In the past, wash the cinnabar and wash it, wipe out the dirty things, and after washing a pound, there will be one or two left. In addition, good printing clay should use good oil. This oil is to be carefully dried in the sun for three years with castor oil. A good printing clay should also put pearls, corals, gold, ice chips, the so-called "eight treasures printing mud". In addition to these, it is also necessary to make it with a master of masters. So good cinnabar printing clay is more expensive than gold.
Fourth, the number of original plutonium prints is sparse. It is different from the Song and Yuan versions of the book, the Song and Yuan versions can print three or five hundred copies, and only one or two less printed books. Wei Jiasun went to Taizhou to find Wu Rangzhi, and the Seal of Wu Rangzhi (Figure 26) only covered 2 parts, one for himself and one for Shen Yunchu. Too many seals will be damaged. The Qing Dynasty scholar Gong Ding'an (Zizhen) obtained a Han Dynasty jade bird and insect seal "Jie Ling Concubine" (Figure 27), which he concluded was the seal of the Han Dynasty beauty Zhao Feiyan. How much does it cost for a good deed to go to him and make a seal? 3 two silver. He was so proud that he got this seal and built a "Baoyan Pavilion". In fact, this seal had nothing to do with Zhao Feiyan.
The printing score can not be more plutonium, less than one or two, more "Gu Shi Ji Ancient Seal Spectrum" is 20, more in modern times, at most about 100. The printed spectrum is more popular than the Song and Yuan versions, which are later but often die first, and are particularly vulnerable to damage. All these factors add up, and the original plutonium print is particularly precious.
From the advent of the original seal of the "Gu's Collection of Ancient Seals" to the Republic of China, how many seals have there been? I read about 4,000. I certainly haven't finished reading it, and there are many books that I haven't seen. However, the total number of printed scores in the ancient world, I think it will not exceed 4500 (not counting the quality of too low). In the 1980s, I went to the Tianjin Library to read books, and one of my students accompanied me. I said I wanted to read the printed score, and the administrator asked me to write the title of the book, but I said I couldn't write it. The administrator was a little upset, he said you can't write the title of the book and what book to read? My student immediately said it was Han Tianheng from Shanghai. He actually knew me, and he said Mr. Han, you're not kidding, right? How come you don't even know the name when you read a book? I said that I have basically read the books that can be named, and I just want to read the books that I can't name, what the ancients called "books that have not been read." He suddenly realized, received me very politely, and showed me all the bibliographic cards in the storeroom. My eyes lit up, and I actually found two copies: one was a seal book carved by Li Shutong (Master Hongyi) in the early years of the auction house a few years ago, and it was copied and returned to the family, and I took notes. There is also a book that corrects the error in the "Biography of the Yinren" in our current dictionary, and the title of the book should also be called "The Biography of the Yinren of the Laigutang Beiji". There are many interesting stories in reading.
Let's talk about another piece of my past when I searched for a seal. In 1985, a gentleman surnamed Xu in Changshu sent a copy of the "Book Of Deep Liu Tang" (Figure 28) engraved by Fu Majesty (Yusheng) in the Kangxi Period, which is an unseen and isolated copy. He said he wanted to change my calligraphy, and of course I was happy to do it. I wrote to him again, hoping he would look for it again, and maybe there was still a copy. He wrote that he had found a copy and was going to send him a picture of mine, and that he would send him the book. As he wished, he wrote a letter saying, "The book was not found, but I lied to you, because I liked your painting and forgave you." "Long Wang Shu, there are not so many good things in the world."
In 1986, I went to Jiyazhai in Guangdong to hold a personal exhibition of calligraphy and paintings, and I saw that there were a lot of books there, which had been bought by the Japanese and waited for shipment. I flipped through two books: one was the original copy of Shen Shiyou's (Gong Zhou's Yanlin) in Shen Shiyou. Wu Changshuo carved more than 150 stones with inscriptions on him, of course, some of which were not carved by Wu Changshuo himself. I said that this book could not be sold to the Japanese, and I knew that there were only 4 copies at that time. There is also a copy of the "Seal of Filial Piety" that has never been clear in the history of India, Luo Fuyi did not figure it out, nor did the Japanese Ota Kotaro figure it out, it has always been a confused account, and it was actually seen in this pile of books. I said that these two books could not be sold to the Japanese, that this was very precious and that they should remain in The Country. But because the Japanese paid all the money, after the manager's mediation, I bought the "Seal of Filial Piety" for 20,000 yuan (Figure 29). Later, it was found out that this book was actually compiled by Huang Xiaosong's father Huang Shujie (Huangshan).
Since there are about 600 kinds of ancient seal seals in more than 4,000 seals, how many ancient seals are still in existence? The three seals of the Ming Dynasty mentioned earlier, the ancient seal is printed with 6300 squares. Now it's not much to have an average of 600 square prints per spectrum, right? If you calculate according to this, as of before liberation, then the ancient seal that exists in the world should have 360,000 square meters, right? In fact, there are not so many ancient seals, the collection is only three generations, and the owner of the seal has been changing. After one hand, a new book is produced; another person is replaced, and one more or even several new books are produced.
For example, in 1738, Cheng Conglong compiled a copy of the Cheng Lijiang Seal Spectrum. After his death, his children sold the seals to Pan Youwei in Guangdong. This batch of seals (not all) was published in 1808 in a book called "Looking at the Bronze Seal Of the Seal Building". After about twenty years, all these seals were given to his nephew Pan Zhengwei, who re-printed the stamps and renamed them "Tingfanlou Bronze Seal Collection" (also known as "Qin and Han Bronze Medal Collection"). This batch of seals was sold to He Kunyu 30 years later, and He Kunyu compiled a copy of the Jijinzhai Bronze Seal Genealogy. After two years, He Kunyu sold these seals to Chen Jieqi, and he also went to Chen Jieqi to "work" to help him compile the "Ten Bell Mountain House Seals". Where is Chen Jieqi's batch of seals now? All scattered. A large part of it is in the Palace Museum, and some of it has gone to other collectors. So it is still these seals, and the printed score has added a large number. I estimate that there are less than 100,000 ancient seals left in the world, and the new spectrum is mostly old faces, the so-called makeover, "change the soup without changing the medicine." Speaking of three seals of the Ming Dynasty, the ancient seal is printed with 6300 squares. Now it's not much to have an average of 600 square prints per spectrum, right? If you calculate according to this, as of before liberation, then the ancient seal that exists in the world should have 360,000 square meters, right? In fact, there are not so many ancient seals, the collection is only three generations, and the owner of the seal has been changing. After one hand, a new book is produced; another person is replaced, and one more or even several new books are produced.
Figure 22 Lai Gu Tang Seal Spectrum
Figure 23 Double Yu Pot Zhai Seal Storage
For example, in 1738, Cheng Conglong compiled a copy of the Cheng Lijiang Seal Spectrum. After his death, his children sold the seals to Pan Youwei in Guangdong. This batch of seals (not all) was published in 1808 in a book called "Looking at the Bronze Seal Of the Seal Building". After about twenty years, all these seals were given to his nephew Pan Zhengwei, who re-printed the stamps and renamed them "Tingfanlou Bronze Seal Collection" (also known as "Qin and Han Bronze Medal Collection"). This batch of seals was sold to He Kunyu 30 years later, and He Kunyu compiled a copy of the Jijinzhai Bronze Seal Genealogy. After two years, He Kunyu sold these seals to Chen Jieqi, and he also went to Chen Jieqi to "work" to help him compile the "Ten Bell Mountain House Seals". Where is Chen Jieqi's batch of seals now? All scattered. A large part of it is in the Palace Museum, and some of it has gone to other collectors. So it is still these seals, and the printed score has added a large number. I estimate that there are less than 100,000 ancient seals left in the world, and the new spectrum is mostly old faces, the so-called makeover, "change the soup without changing the medicine."
Figure 24 All the cars and horses
Fig. 27 Concubine (with rough)
Figure 25 Deng Shiru "Ziyu", "Leilun", "Yanyitang", "Gu Huan" and "Shou Suxuan" five-sided seal (with side section)
Figure 30 [Qing] Deng Shiru The river has a sound, and the shore is broken, thousands of feet (with rough stones and side sections)
V. What is the use of the seal score? First, artistic and historical. These seals, whether it is the seal, the seal, the layout, the brushwork, the use of knives, and even the style, realm, and concept are all senior and beautiful. Admittedly, it is not easy to truly understand and grasp it, and it is beyond the scope of this article. However, it is the source of the Indian genre and the root of innovation. The seal score is a teacher for the seal engraver, and it is the foundation of the seal that must be inseparable. For those collectors, zhu ink is colorful, the preface is tiring, the ancient road is modern, and the ancient is full of fun. These ancient seals are their favorites. In addition, for seal collectors, the seal spectrum is often the basis for tracing its origin and investigating its authenticity.
In particular, it should be pointed out that with the birth of the Ming and Qing dynasties of seals, the stone seal became the main body of the printing material, and the four sides and tops of the stone seal can be used to engrave the text (side section). This is far greater than the volume of the Indian surface, giving the scribes a new space for the Indians who are the main force to exert their talents and ideas, which is enough to give play to the literati's good words, good thinking, seeking novelty, and expressing the feelings of literary thought. Or poetry, or discussion, or showing off the art of calligraphy, greatly expanded the multi-faceted expressiveness of seal engraving art, and also added to the rich connotation of humanities and human affairs that ancient prints did not have. For example, Deng Shiru, the founder of the Anhui School in the Qing Dynasty, once carved a stone chapter that reads "The river has a sound, the broken shore is a thousand feet", and its side text is carved into a strange irregular shape. The text reads: "A stubborn stone ear." 癸卯菊月客京口, the apartment building is fine, Qiu Duo Shu Huai, nai ordered the boy to put a fire, ansi stone in the furnace, pouring stone out, like the face of the red wall. If you see Mr. Su Hair in the middle of the smoke and water. belch! Chemical ingenuity is also like Sifu. Lanquan resident Wu Youye, the festival "Chibi Fu" eight characters, sealed in the stone gift. This text, the time, place, weather, people, scenes, and even specific to the fire roasted stone, the stone even turns red, like a red cliff, inspired by the process of engraving the edge of the money on this red "red cliff" according to the color block, and making a detailed record (Figure 30). This example alone shows the richness and variety of the humanities, arts, historical materials, and exchanges contained in the side paragraphs, which can be called "micro-shaped inscriptions and small works of calligraphy". This is also a major difference between the ancient seal seal and the genre seal.
Second, the printing spectrum is not only artistic, but also related to learning, related to the history of Chinese civilization, related to philology, history, geography, and system. Luo Zhenyu once said that it is beneficial not only to primary schools, but also to geography, to official history, and to the learning of various schools. For example, the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha was excavated during the "Cultural Revolution", and the owner of Tomb No. 1 is known to be Hou Licang, but the owner of Tomb No. 3 has not been clear. A few years ago, Sun Weizu, a researcher at the Shanghai Museum, went there to investigate, and found a small piece of broken mud seal from the excavation of Tomb No. 3, which contained the lines of the seal book. Based on these lines, he examined and restored that this was a "feng" character. Because Li Cang's son was called Li Feng, it was proved that these three tombs were the tombs of Li Cang's son Li Feng.
There is also the recent excavation of the tomb of the Marquis of Haixia in Jiangxi, and at the beginning I always guessed which generation of the Marquis of Haixiahou could not implement the tomb owner. Until the two seals of "Great Liu Jiyin" and "Liu He" were excavated, it was known that it was the first generation of Hai Xiahou, who had been emperor for 27 days. Do you think that this little seal of this side has a great significance? Because in the Western Han Dynasty, individuals did not have tombstones and epitaphs, and they only appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and epitaphs flooded during the Sui and Tang dynasties. A small seal on one side, academic value is often very important. Therefore, Gong Ding'an said that "the official seal wants its history, and the private seal wants its history" (5).
In addition, from the Ming Dynasty genre printing began to engrave the edge model, to Jiaqing after the side section can be expanded with ink. These side writings not only greatly enriched the art of seal engraving, but also greatly expanded and developed in literature and art, and also had a very important literary and historical data value.
In the past thirty years of development, the art of seal engraving, whether it is creation or research, has entered an unprecedented period of prosperity. The flourishing of seal engraving art is the inheritance of traditional art and provides a lot of fresh historical materials for art research. Seal engraving is no longer an unpopular and neglected discipline, it has completely shaken off the indifference of the past and presented an unprecedented lively scene.