Chen Jieqi (1813-1884), also known as Shouqing ,,簠斋,Late Haibin Medical History,was a native of Weixian County (present-day Weifang City).
2013 Chen Jieqi 200th Anniversary Commemorative Postmark
In the Qing Dynasty, the study of epigraphy flourished in the world, and this trend was not exhausted until the end of the Qing Dynasty. On the contrary, at this time, many famous collectors of gold stones appeared, such as Ruan Yuan, Wu Dayi, Weng Tonghe, Duan Fang, Wang Yirong and so on. Among them, Chen Jieqi is undoubtedly a leader, and he and Pan Zuyin, a Jiangsu scholar who once won the Great Lu Ding, are known as "South Pan and Northern Chen".
Chen Jieqi was admitted to the Daoguang Twenty-fifth Year (1845) Examination, and for the next ten years, he served in the Hanlin Academy, which was an idle job, which was a rare opportunity for him who loved cultural relics since he was a child. He consulted Ruan Yuan, a famous epigrapher and calligrapher at that time, and also had close contacts with He Shaoji, Wu Shifen, Li Fangchi and other golden stone scholars, often talking about gold stones and collecting, broadening his horizons, increasing his knowledge, and improving his level of appreciation. On the other hand, he is in the capital, quite close to the water tower platform to get the moon first, many rich mansions, rich in materials, providing him with convenience. The Liuli Factory in Jinghua is a place he often visits, where he sees cultural relics from all over the country. For many years, Chen Jieqi has walked this cold collection road, and has poured almost all his body and mind. After years of unremitting exploration, his collection has been quite large, only three generations, Qin and Han ancient seals have collected nearly 10,000 squares. Many of these ancient seals were obtained in The Capital, and later he compiled the "Basket Zhai Seal Collection". In the 30th year of Daoguang (1850), he built the "Ten Thousand Seals Building" in Weixian County, and hid the ancient seals he obtained in it. The building is still in existence and has been opened to the public.
Western Zhou Mao Gongding Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
In Chen Jieqi's collecting career, the increasingly rich collection often made him overjoyed, but the most ecstatic thing for him was in the days when he got Mao Gongding. The Ding was excavated in Qishan, Shaanxi province in the last year of the Qing Dynasty, and the inner wall has 479 characters of the Golden Text (Great Seal) of the Zhou Xuan King, which is the artifact with the largest number of words in the bronze vessels unearthed in China so far, and has high historical and artistic value, and is known as the crown of the Hai Nei Ji Jin. It is also the most precious piece in Chen Jieqi's collection. It is said that after obtaining this ding, Chen Jieqi personally escorted it back to Weixian County, and the Chen family collected Mao Gongding for more than half a century. For Chen Jieqi, Mao Gongding should be a milestone in his collection, and while he was pleased, he examined the golden stone characters on the ding several times, and expanded them into pieces and distributed them to relatives and friends in the sea.
In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), Chen Jieqi's mother died of illness. He returned home on the occasion of his mother's funeral, never stepped into the official field again, and began a 30-year long research and writing work.
According to incomplete statistics, he had 1 Shang and Zhou ancient bells, so he changed the "Ten Thousand Seals Building" to "Ten Bell Mountain House". He also has "253 pieces of Bronze Ware of the Shang zhou Dynasty, more than 80 pieces of Qin and Han artifacts, as well as more than 10,000 fine pieces of Qin and Han carved stones, ancient money, pottery, porcelain, bricks and tiles, steles, statues, ancient books, calligraphy and paintings" in the Collection. With such a wealth of artifacts, he did not lie on it and sleep, nor did he "lose his mind as a plaything". Every thing and every object he gets, he must investigate its origins, or archive it, or record it, conscientiously and meticulously. When he talked about his experience in governing science with the epigrapher Wang Yirong, he said: "The matter of learning is all in analysis, not in generality, but in general, it is not analyzed, and the analysis draws ten paths. On a piece of His Chinese brick rubbing, less than a square foot of paper, he wrote nearly 200 words densely. His rigorous attitude towards learning can be seen from this.
Cicada Wing Extension
Chen Jieqi, as a collector at the end of the Qing Dynasty, was already famous in the government and the opposition at that time, but he was able to put down the shelf, ask questions without shame, and enthusiastically make friends and learn from peasant brothers, which is rare in feudal society. At that time, there was no photography, and people engaged in the study of gold and stone often needed to "push and expand", and only vertebral tuo could copy the object truthfully, so that pushing and expanding became a very important method. Chen Jieqi and the pioneer Liu Mou, after repeated research, created a method called "Cicada Wing Tuo". In this way, the rubbing not only has a strong sense of three-dimensionality, the word mouth is clear, and the ink color is uniform, such as "light cage moon". Perhaps because of this method, Chen Jieqi has left us a large number of rubbings, from which we can see his discoveries and creations, and at the same time, it often reminds us of this old man who has struggled for the cause of cultural relics in the motherland all his life.
Chen Jieqi wrote more than 30 kinds of works in his lifetime. There are more than ten varieties that have been officially published. Chen Jieqi's calligraphy is quite profound, and the seal book is very personal. The name is seal book, which is actually written in the kaifa, and the middle is also referred to as the meaning. In particular, its knot body is long, the thickness of the strokes varies greatly, and some people comment on it as "taking the method of mixing the style of the late Northern Dynasty", so it is full of interest and endless charm. (The author Xu Kaiyang, Jing Yiweng, is a member of the China Collectors Association)
Chen Jieqi seal book
(Jing Yi Weng on Collection [3] Collector's Fun Facts No. 3: Mao Gongding Collector Chen Jieqi)