Learning seal engraving, like the study of calligraphy, must have a lot of copying learning, but the purpose of copying is to create, in fact, creation is the ultimate goal of copying learning.
Under the concept of "Yinzong Qinhan", most beginners in seal engraving will spend a lot of time on the copying and learning of Qin and Han ancient seals, and then in order to move towards the ultimate goal of creation, they will finally enter the copying learning of "genre seals", because the genre seals are more "close" to creation (strictly speaking, genre seals can be regarded as "seal engraving", and Qin and Han ancient seals are "practical seals"). So, here is a problem, "genre seal" from the Ming Dynasty seal engraving "originator" Wen Peng, there are too many schools to choose from, beginners should learn from where? As shown in the figure:
(Genres mentioned in Seal Engraving)
So many genres, "random flowers gradually want to charm the eye", beginners are easy to find the "road", writing this article, is a little advice we provide to seal carving beginners when learning genre printing, that is: beginners in learning genre printing, it is best to start from the "Zhejiang school" to learn.
We rely on the basic techniques of seal engraving, seal method (including orthography), chapter method, and knife method to talk about this problem from three aspects:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > aspect of "seal law"</h1>
From the opening of the "Zhejiang School" by Master Ding Jing to the seventh Zhao Zhichen of the "Eight Schools of Xiling", the creation of their seal engraving works basically remained at the theoretical level of "seeking printing in India" (until the time of "the eighth family" Qian Song, the seal method of Zhejiang school into the Indian script gradually moved towards "outside India"), and its printing characters basically remained in the stage of "collecting" characters from ancient seals.
(Statue of Ding Jing of Xiling Printing Society)
That is to say, the creation of Zhejiang school seal engraving, its "seal law" basis, derived from the Qin and Han ancient seals, especially the Han seal of the "Miao Seal" (not referring to the "bird and insect seal"), these words, beginners only need to query the corresponding collection of character dictionaries (such as "HanYin Character Signs", "Han Seal Rhymes", etc.) can be found, after finding, it is compared with the seal method in the works of xiling, it is easy to understand the seal law ideas of the famous xiling masters in the creation of works, how to change the shape, how to change the structure, and how to create a dense, etc. It's all gone.
(Inner page of the Chinese-Indian Characters)
In this way, the printing of the Zhejiang school on the side of the party is actually "synchronized" with the process of creating the seal method of the famous zhejiang school masters. These inscriptions may also have the calligraphy transformation of the famous Zhejiang school, but because their basic glyphs are still the glyphs of "Miao Seal", the calligraphy level requirements for beginners are relatively low. Beginners learn Zhejiang school prints, easy to produce results, which is beneficial for beginners to build confidence and maintain interest.
(Ding Jing's "Ding Jing Body Seal")
The method is very simple, that is, after encountering the Printing of the Zhejiang Sect of one party, compare the words found in the Chinese characters from the JiziZi Book one by one, think about the changes in their seal methods, and then seriously think about why this has changed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" >2, "chapter" aspect</h1>
Zhejiang school printing has always been called "han seal with personality", one of the important reasons is that the zhejiang school of printing its chapter law also follows the chapter method of the Chinese seal, that is, "equally divided printing surface, let loose and dense", this kind of chapter law, in principle, the text and the text do not involve interspersed avoidance, there is no tendency to give in, only the glyph is dense and the echo and contrast produced by the same glyph.
(Huang Yi "Yao Lide Zi Gong No. Xiao Po's Book")
Zhejiang school printing, regardless of multi-character printing and four-character printing, its chapter characteristics are basically still the "Han seal" chapter method, basically still evenly distributed printing surface, the dense arrangement of glyphs is tighter to adapt to the space, and the simple glyphs make it loose to fill the space.
(Jiang Ren "true water without fragrance")
The more we copy the Zhejiang school prints, we will find that in fact, the Zhejiang school prints only change the size of the printing space occupied by each word "with the shape of the situation". In addition to the Han seal law, the corresponding literati ingenuity has been added, but its general pattern is still correct and peaceful, and its chapter conception is not difficult to understand. In fact, it is precisely for this reason that the Zhejiang school prints are basically "a serious" "academic" style, and copying the Zhejiang school prints is the same as copying the Qin and Han seals, beginners will not go to the absurd and grotesque "wild road", will not become "wild fox Zen", in fact, this is very important.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > third, "knife method" aspect</h1>
"Zhejiang School" printing, its biggest personality is that these printed knife methods are basically purely completed with "cutting knives" (to Qiansong, began to cut and use), and the biggest feature of "cutting knives" is "short knife length", each knife is carved, at most only the width of the blade, in most cases, it is often a knife cut into a point, the knife shaft is undulating, and finally "accumulate points into lines", and finally form a mottled and simple line.
(Cutting knife line method)
At the same time, the cutting knife of the Zhejiang school is not a simple irregular cutting knife, but a cutting knife with special laws in the beginning and end of the line, the turn and connection of the line, and the shape of the stroke, etc. These laws have been systematically trained, and it is easy for beginners to systematically grasp, and its characteristics (rules) are roughly as follows:
1. The two ends of the stroke basically present a square angle state, in fact, the three directions of the knife together constitute the morphological characteristics of each stroke end. Simply put, it is two words: "square head", "square head" at both ends of the line;
2, the connection of the stroke and the corner, the outer two knives cut into a square, the inner corner of the vertical knife turn blade carved into a circular arc, simply put, remember the four words can be, that is, "outer square inner circle" (this is actually the glyph characteristics of "Miao Seal");
3. Because the direction of force of each knife and knife will not be completely unified, the shape of the stroke is irregular in the shape of waves, which is actually two words: "wave".
(Zhejiang's "eight characters")
Eight words to remember well, carved well, the Zhejiang school of knife method can basically be solved, compared to the complex knife method and complex line characteristics of the Hui school, it is easy to remember more, for beginners, the essentials of "eight characters" are simpler and easier to remember than the complex knife method.
(The position of "Xiling Eight Houses" in the Zhejiang School)
In fact, in addition to the technique, there is another point worth saying, that is, the Zhejiang school has a correspondingly large and similar style and inheritance of the seal engraver group, that is, "Xiling Eight Families", which provides beginners with a corresponding huge copy sample, because their style is close but each has a distinct personality, "Xiling Eight Families" has always been known as the representative of the "Zhejiang School", they have their own characteristics, the time span is long enough, if you start learning from "Ding Jing" along the timeline, all the way to "Qian Song", careful study, In fact, it is equivalent to re-sorting out the history of seal carving in the Qing Dynasty, which is also helpful for beginners to learn the theory of seal carving.