The Yuan Dynasty was a regime established by the Mongols for nearly a hundred years (1271-1368). In addition to the use of Chinese characters, the official seal of the Yuan Dynasty also had the Basi Ba script. In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1269), Kublai Khan ordered the guoshi Ba Si Ba to create a pinyin script, that is, the Ba Si Ba script. Before the promulgation of the Bashiba text, the official seals of the Yuan Dynasty mainly used nine fold seals, such as the "Si Prison Si Yin" and other seals, and the prints were all standard Chinese nine fold seals. The new characters founded by Basipa were developed from the Tibetan language, absorbing the neat and symmetrical and angular characteristics of the Song Seal Nine Fold Seals, but they did not have a certain relationship with Chinese characters like the Liao, Jin, and Xixia scripts, such as "Shaanxi Sichuan Mongol Military Capital Wanhu FuYin" and other seals.
Yuan Guanyin Shaanxi Sichuan Mongol military capital Wanhu Fuyin 56×5 .6cm
One of the characteristics of the official seal of The Eight Si Ba is that the back sections are all Chinese characters, which is the most important basis for us to identify the Eight Si Ba Wen. In addition, the official seal of the Yuan Dynasty is relatively wide, which is a major feature of the composition of the official seal surface of the Yuan Dynasty. Sui and Tang Dynasty official seals and early Song Dynasty official seals, the printing and printing edges are often equal width, the middle and late Song Dynasty Printing edges began to widen, to the Yuan Dynasty even reached several times or even ten times the width of the ink strokes, "Shaanxi Sichuan Mongol Army Capital Wanhu FuYin" is represented.
Zhu Jian of the Ming Dynasty once said in the "Seal Classic": "Printing fang in the Shang, Zhou, and Qin, flourishing in the Han Dynasty, abusing the Six Dynasties, and falling to the Tang and Song." However, there are authors in the generation, and there are no biographies of his people. If the Yuan has wu bamboo house, Zhao Songxue generation, the seal is printed, and the door of the yuan people is opened. At the beginning of the country, the old habits were still studied, and the decline of the pole began to vibrate. The Ming Dynasty Gan Yang's "Seal Collection" said: "In the middle of the right, there is Wuqiu Zixing, Zhao Wen Minzi Ang Zheng's style system, but the fashion Zhu Wen, Zong Yu Zhen, intended to be retro." "The Indians, represented by Zhao Meng, Wu Qiuyan, and Wang Mian, launched a retro movement in the Yuan Dynasty to save the weak wind of seals since the Wei and Jin dynasties.
Zhao Mengfu Song Xuezhai 5×2.5cm
In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu was undoubtedly recognized by the government and the public as an ally of the art world and even the entire literary world, and he not only lived in the official residence, but also achieved remarkable achievements in poetry, painting, calligraphy and other aspects. In the history of seal carving in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu also occupies an important position, and his concept of printing not only influenced the Yuan generation, but also had a profound impact on the development of seal carving in later generations. The Ming Dynasty Gan Yang's "Seal Collection" said: "Zhao Zi Angshan Zhu Wen, all use jade seals, flowing with gods, the national dynasty Wen Taishi imitated it." (See Han Tianheng's "Selected Papers on The Printing of Past Dynasties", Xiling Printing Society, 1999) Chen Lian's "Yin Shuo" said: "Yuan Zhu Wen, Yuan Zhao Song Xue is good at this body, and its circle turns charming, so it is known as Yuan Zhu." To enrich the flow of the gods, like the spring flower dance wind, light clouds out of the clouds. (This is the origin of the term "Yuan Zhu Wen"). Its calligraphy is all workmanship, known as "Zhao Body" by later generations, and its use of Yinduo personal seal engraved by the seal of the seal, and the style of Wuqiu Yan is close, the world is called "Wu Zhao", the seal style created by the two is called "Yuan Zhu Wen" in later generations. This kind of printing style with elegant and flowing glyphs and compact and consistent chapters has become an important printing style in the seal carving creation of the Ming and Qing literati.
Zhao Mengfu has great appeal in the literary and artistic circles of the Yuan Dynasty, and the seal engraving he advocates "ancient elegance" and "simplicity", and opposes the customs of "novelty and conservatism" and "sparing no tricks", which is very consistent with the concept of "painting is expensive and has ancient meaning, if there is no ancient meaning, it is useless to work". Zhao Mengfu theoretically emphasizes retro, taking the Han and Wei seals as the law, but what really reflects the level of his seal engraving is the Yuan Zhu Wen printing style he created, which permeates his aesthetic tendencies, and the smooth and refreshing aesthetic effect of the Yuan Zhu Wen Yin is in line with its mellow and beautiful book style and quite ancient painting style. His Zhu Wenyin follows the lines similar to the jade seal commonly used by the Tang and Song dynasty official seals, while strengthening the sense of movement of the strokes, the printing text is connected to the edge of the printing, and can capture the simple and luxurious atmosphere in the sparseness, giving people a sense of stability and fullness. Sun Guangzu, a Qing Dynasty sealologist, said in the "Ancient and Modern Printing": "Qin, Han, Tang, and Song are all emperors who imitate seals, and those who have no use for jade are useless." Zhao Wenmin (Meng Fu) is known as Zhu Wen, Gai Qin Zhu Wen is trivial and not solemn, Han Zhu Wen is solid but not loose, jade is meteorological, fluent in points, and has a literary quality. Ming is used as a seal, especially in terms of scale. ”
Wu qiu yan Wu Yan private seal 2× 1.9 cm
At the same time as Zhao Mengfu, Wu Qiuyan was also a master of seal printing, and the seal book had the reputation of "contemporary solo step" and "exquisite is not under Qin and Tang Erli". At that time, Wu Qiuyan and Zhao Mengfu together called for the return of the seal to the Han Wei indian style, but from the perspective of advocating the Han seal style, Wu Qiuyan was more practical than Zhao Mengfu, and his "Study of ancient compilations" written by the professor's disciples was mostly derived from practice, and clearly proposed to take the Han seal as a refuge, discussing the specific operational issues such as the seal law and the chapter law in the seal. Zhao Mengfu and Wu Qiuyan both printed their own seal manuscripts, which is naturally inseparable from their achievements in seal books, and the Yuan Zhu wen printing style created by the two soon became the mode of printing by literati, which directly improved the cultural taste of seal engraving.
Wang Mian Hui Ji Jia Shan Shui 2.1× 2.1cm
In the process of the evolution of Zhu Wenyin in the Yuan Dynasty, thanks to the advocacy of Wuqiu Yan and Zhao Mengfu, the seal carving of the literati in the Yuan Dynasty has been greatly developed, especially wuqiu Yan opened a museum to teach apprentices, trained many disciples, so that the literati seal carving continued continuously, and became a popular trend in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among Wu Qiuyan's disciples, the more famous ones were Zhao Qiyi, Ye Sen, and Wu Rui, and Wu Rui was the most famous. At the same time as Wu Rui, the Indians also had a crown, whose first was engraved with anther stone (i.e., flower milk stone).
In addition to Wang Mian, many painters in the Yuan Dynasty intervened in the creation of seal engraving, such as Ke Jiusi, Yu Ji, Zhang Yu, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zhan, Yang Weizhen, Zhu Derun, Wei Yuanyu, Xian Yushu, Lu Juren, etc., all using the methods of Wu Qiuyan and Zhao Mengfu. It can be seen from their seals that the form of the Yuan Zhu Wen Seal has been established: the seal takes a small seal, the Zhu text thin line, and the text is connected... Very few literati seals of the Yuan Dynasty have been handed down, but they are of great significance in the history of seal carving. The participation of the literati was a sign of the establishment of an artistic stance by the Chinese seal, a milestone in the distinction between seal engraving art and practical seals, and this important historical transformation was completed in the Yuan Dynasty. (Yang Yong)
Source: Fine Arts Newspaper