In fact, the last thing I want to write is this kind of article, because writing such an article is bound to mention some bad examples, criticize this matter, many people will not be happy to hear it, the current seal carving such an environment, criticizing others is equivalent to blocking their own road, want to develop again, maybe that day stumbled on a small stone, because you offended him, he remembered.
However, I'm going to write something like this today.
The first reason is that when I wrote the article two days ago, someone left me a message in the background of the public account and said, Pudding, you give some negative examples, so that everyone can learn a lesson, think carefully, give the wrong example, it seems to be more valuable, obvious mistakes are avoided, roughly beginners can come out and point into the good works of the right path, which is a matter of immeasurable merit.
The second reason is that I criticize those masters who died hundreds of years ago, they will not jump out and ban me, the risk is slightly less, at most it is his future generations to follow me out to teach me, which is much shorter than exposing people in person.
The third reason is that Zhu Wenyin, a relatively obvious big pit, was said to beginners in advance, and I privately think it is very important.
In view of the above three reasons, it seems that the sense of guilt has decreased a lot, so I write it down, and the main text comes.
Now the Yuan Zhu Wenyin-style printing, in the seal engraving market demand is relatively large, carving such a chapter is easier to shoot (aside from the artistic pursuit of Ha, from the perspective of making money), so there are many people who learn Yuan Zhu Wenyin, the origin of Yuan Zhu Wen is Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty and Wu Qiu Yan of the same era, which is roughly the important reason why Yuan Zhu Wen is called Yuan Zhu Wen, because he also has a name that is not obvious in the characteristics of the era, "Yuan Zhu Wen", Yuan also has the meaning of Hun Round, the meaning of the beginning, therefore, we still call him "Yuan Zhu Wen", which seems to be more pure.
The Yuan Zhu Wen that originated from Zhao Mengfu is because Zhao Mengfu does have quite good Yuan Zhu Wen works, such as:
(Zhao Mengfu "Daya")
(Zhao Mengfu "Zhao")
(Zhao Mengfu "Zhao's Book Seal")
These are all good works, and there is not much gap between them and the aesthetics of seal engraving that we currently recognize as advocated, and even dense works like this are barely justified:
(Zhao Mengfu "Cheng Huai Guan Dao")
Zhao Mengfu is of course a recognized calligrapher, now often say that so-and-so calligraphy is well written, seal carving so good, it seems that as long as the seal book is written well, the seal engraving will be solved, no, Zhao Mengfu is an example. For example, his side is very famous seal:
(Zhao Mengfu "Water Spirit Palace Daoist")
Many beginners think that such works are good, so they copy hard, in fact, the structure of this square seal is scattered and godless, there is basically no relationship between words and words, and each word is not combined with the rectangular printing surface to change, so the result is neither like seal engraving, nor like calligraphy, board stagnation, no living breath, learn the history of seal engraving to know that he has such a seal, do not follow the study. Teacher Li Gangtian said that the level of this square seal is the same as the level of seal engraving for beginners now.
But why is this the case? One of the reasons may be more personal factors: good calligraphy does not necessarily have a high level of "printing", the professional knowledge of seal engraving is not in place, and calligraphy masters like Zhao Mengfu may also appear to be scattered seal carving works; the second reason is epochal, that is, from the beginning of the birth of Yuan Zhuwen to the historical period of Ding Jing of the Qing Dynasty Zhejiang Sect, the time span is about 450 years, during this period, Yuan Zhuwen did not fully mature, until another calligraphy master Deng Shiru appeared and proposed the concept of "printing from books". The Yuan Zhu Wencai in the seal carving turned a corner and matured.
The reason why Yuan Zhuwen at this stage is immature is of course justified.
Zhao Mengfu lived in the historical period, by himself and Wu Qiuyan put forward the idea of taking the Qin and Han seals as the sect, and the reason they said this was that they advocated the "ancient" of the Han seal, but advocated the promotion, and the social atmosphere of the whole society had not yet formed a creative technique and aesthetic tendency based on the Han seal. Bai Wen is also good to say that there are too many mature white seals in the Han seal, and the amount of Zhu Wen seals in the Han seal is much less than that in the white text, and there are fewer things for reference.
This led to the fact that in the period of history from the Yuan Dynasty to Ding Jing, everyone printed better in white text, but Zhu Wenyin was much worse. For example, Wu Qiuyan's works:
(Wu Qiu Yan "Lu Gun Wu Clan")
(Wu QiuYan "Cloth Daoist")
(Wu Qiu Yan "Wu Yan Private Seal")
Wu Qiuyan's white text seal is very excellent, he directly draws nutrition from the Han seal, there are samples that can be borrowed and inherited, and Zhu Wenyin basically does not see the work, as if there is a party "Zhenbai", not on the map, in the perspective of Wu Yan, Zhu Wen is likely to be the ideological system there is no sample to rely on, the Han seal can not find samples, Tang song and Song are really opposed to it, unwilling to learn, so, empty Zhu Wen this piece.
But everyone is not the same as Wu Qiuyan, after all, when the work has become a fashion in the literati circle, seal engraving is too useful, and Zhu Wenyin with the wide application of paper, but also more than white printing has its unique charm, what to do? It was still a moment, but there was no theoretical support for the moment, and everyone rushed left and right, rushing out of the chaos of Yuan Zhuwen's centuries.
The first manifestation of the chaos is that everyone's Yuan Zhuwen works are seriously crafted. Like what:
(Yuan, Xianyu Shu "Tiger Forest Hidden History")
(Yuan, Zhang Yu "Sentence Qu Wai Shi")
(Yuan, Zhu Derun "Juyang Family")
(Yuan, Zhao Yan "Zhongxiao Hunan First")
(Ming, Wu Zhong "Yunan")
The first three parties above are roughly to find a solution for Zhu Wen in the Hanyin white text, but Zhu Wen is not the square equilibrium of the white text after all, and the small seal is different from the Han Miao seal; the fourth party is simply like the folk craft characters we see in the rural market, a bit of "lacquer book", of which the three words of "first", "one" and "home" are folk writing methods, I don't know why the literati will choose them to enter India; the fifth party is basically a geometric method completely copied, although the line knife method is a bit of a shadow of the Zhejiang school, but the decoration is too strong, and the meaning is lost Even the last curved pen of the feather character cannot twist the rigidity of the whole square seal.
Of course, the problems of these literati are rooted in the historical era in which they lived, in their time, the ancient seal has not been fully excavated, the ancient seal of the chapter law naturally can not be seen, even the big seal is only based on the appearance of the ancient text of the "Explanation of Words", saying that the Qin Xiaohuan on the text is obviously unable to meet the pursuit of "craft beauty" in everyone's heart, so everyone has done things on their own, and there is a kind of "Qiwen" that does not have the graceful beauty of the small seal, nor the thick beauty of the Miao Seal, nor the ancient beauty of the Golden Text.
However, this kind of strange text also appears in the white text seal from time to time, than how to shock this side of the work:
(He Zhen "Dengzhi Xiaoya")
He Zhen's fierce profit can no longer find a shadow here, full of curves, like earthworms, you must not believe that this is the work of the master. Or, for example, the work of this Fang Gong:
(Yuan, Gong Xuan ,Gong Zi Respects Father")
Gong Zi's head is big and small, some of them run to the middle, the left side of Jingzi also moves to the middle, and the two parts merge to the head of the zi zi, and the chapter method is undesirable, and there is neither a knife nor a pen.
This kind of "Qiwen" and the beauty of craftsmanship, posterity also has the consciousness to solve, some of the works that have tried have gone to extremes, simply coded the words neatly on the printing surface, everyone does not interfere with each other, and moves towards another integration, such as the works of Gan Yang in the Ming Dynasty:
(Ming, Gan Yang "East Sea Qiao Gong Bi Hou Father Seal")
Gan Yang is a great sealer, his works are of course worthy of attention, this side is estimated to be a tentative work, but now it seems that such a carved Yuan Zhu Wen, what art can be said, everyone turned over the "Explanation of Words" to learn craftsmen. The example of "Qiwen" entering India has never been extinct, such as this fang work of Ming Ren Hu Zhengyan:
(Ming, Hu Zhengyan "Qi Shen Jing Le")
Looking at the brushwork knife method, it seems to be a bit of an ancient seal, and in some places, it is slightly like a small seal, teacher Li Gangtian said that it is "not a donkey and not a horse", and "ghost drawing symbols" do not wronged him at all.
This problem of Yuan Zhuwen's left-and-right rush to find a solution to Ding Jing seems to have been solved, because he used the broken knife Xu Jin to the extreme, and Yuan Zhuwen temporarily sought a more decorative "artistic" need under the cover of the knife technique.
(Ding Jing "Ding Jing Body Seal")
But you will suddenly find that this is not the kind of Yuan Zhuwen who originally pursued the idea of putting a small seal into the seal and taking the elegance and elegance as the artistic appeal.
The real problem is Deng Shiru, whose history of seal carving in China is really too important, and the important thing is that he put forward the creative concept of "printing from books", waking up the literati from the heads of "seeking curiosity from the ancient times" and "seeking india in india".
(Deng Shiru "the river has a sound, the broken shore is a thousand feet")
(Deng Shiru "Rain Silk Wind Piece Smoke Wave Painting Boat")
Finding the big problem of Yuan Zhuwen in calligraphy and pictures, Deng Shiru called it a turning point in the history of Chinese seal carving, which is of great significance. However, according to the evaluation of posterity, the real solution to Zhu Wenyin is not Deng, but Wu Rangzhi, who has studied Deng Shiru all his life, let us recall his tripartite seal with the same content:
(Wu Rangzhi's "Sea Watchers Are Difficult to Water")
Wu Rangzhi, who spent his whole life guarding a seal from the book and finally found the best solution for Yuan Zhuwen, deserves our memory.
We pull the topic back, beginners can easily fall into some ancient seals with poor chapters, bad calligraphy, and poor seal law to find the beauty of seal carving, and when the horizon has not been broadened, they may go to some Yuan Zhuwen works that are actually not good. But aesthetic this thing, subjective, my opinion is not necessarily reliable, if my opinion you do not accept, this article throws aside, but I always have to finish my opinion.
My opinion on the study of Yuan Zhuwen: Looking at the Yuan zhuwen of the Yuanming Yin people, the Yuan Zhuwen of the Qing Dynasty Deng Shiru, Wu Rangzhi and the Yuan zhuwen of the Indians after them, there are many famous artists, and they will not be listed again.
([Old Li Carved Hall] No. 113, part of the picture from the Network)