Su Haiqiang/Wen
Talking about seal carving with Shenzhen seal engraver Zhou Zhiqun and appreciating his prints, I always felt that he was a little out of place, and always felt that he should be a long shirt and cloth, at least a person living in the Republic of China era. In today's seal engraving circles where craft printing and large-scale freehand printing are popular, Zhou Zhiqun adheres to the middle way of the old ancestors, and seeks ingenuity and craftsmanship in freehand; in the contemporary seal engraving circle where the engraving and printing at most take the Qin and Han seals, Zhou Zhiqun goes straight back to the Spring and Autumn Period, drawing nourishment from the pre-Qin remnants and western Zhou Guding texts; in the contemporary seal engraving trend in which the Indians compete for skills and pay less attention to the cultural connotation of the seal, Zhou Zhiqun has drilled into the "old paper pile", immersed himself in the study of paleography, and is determined to search for DingYi rubbings and their photocopy materials as far as he can. And use the slowly ignited humanities to cultivate the "literary fire" and "boil" out of his Zhou seal carving style.
If you want to innovate, you have to go into the ancient world
In 1998, Zhou Zhiqun came to Shenzhen with his wife and children to work hard, and the family of four basically relied on his iron pen to earn food. In the more than ten years since he first came to Shenzhen, in the face of survival, Zhou Zhiqun laughed and said that the face of the seal carving at that time was completely "looking at the eyes of the market". The customer likes what kind of carving, his "seal engraving art dream", can only be buried deep in the heart. Only in the dead of night did he dare to carefully turn over that dream and secretly make some preparations for it.
In recent years, as the economic situation has improved day by day, Zhou Zhiqun can't wait to "pull out" the dream buried deep in his heart. Although at the request of customers, he also engraved some exquisite craft prints, but the main energy has been used in artistic creation. As a result, his works have been invited to participate in exhibitions, awards, and have been listed in professional and authoritative calligraphy and seal engraving publications. It is through those publications and a few interviews that Zhou Zhiqun's inappropriate image has gradually taken shape in the author's mind.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving: Du Xing
Zhou Zhiqun's inopportuneness was first manifested in his approach.
The so-called method is to learn from tradition. In Zhou Zhiqun's view, tradition is the "root" of the seal carver, just like the "cause" of cause and effect that the Buddhists say.
What kind of method to take and how to take the law are directly related to the artistic vision and artistic style of a seal engraver, and even the final artistic achievement. Since Wen Peng, He Zhen, and others in the Ming Dynasty have carved a large number of stone seals and the genre seals have been indiscriminately coveted, all those who have made great achievements in the history of genre printing have all been those who have found a unique way in taking the law.
The reason why the accomplished sages in the history of seal engraving formed the unique styles we see so far should be of great contingency. Limited by the conditions of the time, the method of the sages depended entirely on their intercourse and eye blessing. If Zhao Zhiqian and Qi Baishi had their artistic roots and profound learning, if Zhao Zhiqian could see and take the Fa Oracle, what Qi Baishi saw was not the "Monument to the Three Gong Mountains" and the "Monument to the Gods of Heaven", but other inscriptions that made him like, and the two seal carvings must be a different face.
It should be said that today's seal carving circle is far happier than the ancients. Nowadays, the developed printing technology and rapid information dissemination have made the golden stone text of the world that can be obtained from the law in full view. If a seal engraver can rely on sufficient humanistic qualities and high insights to take the law from it and eventually form his own unique style, it should be logical.
However, unfortunately, in the face of such unique conditions, today's seal engraving circles seem to be suspected of being violent and natural things.
Seal engravers may take the participation in the exhibition and win the prize as the purpose, catering to the taste of the judges, and the wind is seen from a certain contemporary leader, which is evident from the large freehand prints that are rough and chaotic and constitute no connotation.
Or take the market recognition as the direction, cater to the tastes of the common people, and follow Wang Fu'an, Chen Julai and other exquisite seal carvers all the way. In the author's opinion, the two were not culturally deep in their time. The so-called method of taking the law is only below it, and those who learn two people today have almost made the art of seal carving into a seal carving process.
Or take the ancient method, but at most go back to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and because it is impossible to sit on the "cold bench", in the face of the massive ancient golden stone text materials, "random flowers gradually want to charm the eyes", towards three twilight, and finally lost themselves and personal style is not prominent.
What is inappropriate about Zhou Zhiqun is that he completely disregards this "fashion" of today's seal engraving circles, but goes straight back to the Spring and Autumn Period, drawing nourishment from the pre-Qin remnants and Western Zhou Guding texts that many people are afraid of, and thus determining the direction of his seal carving. To this end, he spared no effort in collecting relevant materials, and has collected nearly a thousand kinds of pre-Qin remnants and Western Zhou Zhongding text rubbings. Not only that, he also said that he would study all these words to enrich his source of seal engraving.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraved "Ring in the gain"
Zhou Zhiqun said that in the past two or three decades, the most talked about in the seal engraving industry is innovation. Among them, "big freehand printing style" as a phenomenon of the times, is what everyone thinks of as the result of innovation. But in Zhou Zhiqun's view, "there will be very few who can stay in the end." In a national-level "freehand printing style" exhibition last year, Zhou Zhiqun had the honor of being a staff member, after carefully viewing the exhibits on the spot and repeatedly flipping through the exhibition portfolio, he sighed, the same is the big freehand, but the real carving is still a few elderly seal carvers. It is undeniable that the freehand printing style has contributed to the shaping of thinking and the expansion of style. But the problem is that the vast majority of people only talk about innovation, not ancient times. "Seal carvers can only be valuable if they come from tradition, have personality, and have a high temperament." Zhou Zhiqun said.
The art of seal engraving is not a technique
The reason why the direction of the method was determined to be the pre-Qin remnant Jian and the Western Zhou Zhongding script, Zhou Zhiqun had his own understanding of "inopportune".
The amount of words left in the oracle bone is limited, the calligraphy is ancient, it is not easy to print, and it is very difficult to enter the printing, and it is occasionally acceptable. The Warring States script is because of the fact that the various princely states at that time were independent, the writing was various, the orthography was also complex and changeable, and the number of characters in a single princely state was even less than that of the oracle bone, and it was not difficult to enter the indian print. Zhou Zhiqun believes that only the pre-Qin ancient Simplified script and the Western Zhou Zhongding script, first, have a large number of words, which is relatively convenient when engraving and determining the seal method; second, no matter how simplified our current writing, belongs to the Qin script system after Qin Shi Huang's "book and text", and the Qin script is in the same vein as the pre-Qin ancient Simplified script and the Zhou script, and the phenomenon of "word shortage" appears relatively rarely in its entry into India.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "from the beginning"
Zhou Zhiqun further said that the pre-Qin ancient Jian script and the Western Zhou Zhongding script, as official, royal scripts, had special writers different from local writers, and were already very orthodox. Moreover, the pens used in both types of writing are not too complicated, and the writers mainly deal with the structure of the interstitial frame. They are very careful about the grasp and understanding of the structure of the text, so the structure of the frame is very rich and beautiful. In order to enter the printing, it only needs to be printed slightly, and there is almost no need to change the structure.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "Du Xing"
Seal engraving is a comprehensive art, a successful seal engraver in addition to superb carving skills, but also inseparable from calligraphy, history, literature, aesthetics, painting and other aspects of the deep cultivation, as well as solid paleography, epigraphy knowledge. The excellent seal engraving works of one side all show the cultural attainment, artistic insight, writing kung fu, and seal engraving skills of the seal engravers.
That is to say, the seal engraving itself is a profound culture, which must be cultivated with culture. However, due to impetuosity, most of today's seal engravers only have formal composition and craft-style carving techniques under the knife, and it is rare to have the cultural soul that seal engraving should have. What people see, the most common seal engraver "idle kung fu" of the idle chapter content is mostly copied, tampered with the ancients, it is difficult to see self-created content; even if it is self-created, it is rare to see rhymes. Neither "idle" kung fu to self-draft words and sentences, nor willing to spend "stupid" kung fu to delve into literature, philology, epigraphy, etc., "Idle Chapter Language Encyclopedia", "Essential for Carvers - Compilation of Idle Chapter Common Words" and other pamphlets have become their standard. They have a variety of "Seal Engraving Dictionaries" on hand when they engrave, and there is even a "Seal Engraving Online Generator" on the Internet. Before engraving the chapter, either check out the seal characters one by one in the dictionary and then piece them together into chapters; or enter the content into the "seal engraving generator" and then "draw the scoop according to the automatically generated idle chapter". What's more, the seal engraving circle is also popular with fast knife hands, and the seal of one side from the check of the seal method, the layout of the plot, to the final carving, is only in ten minutes.
Zhou Zhiqun told the author that although the art of seal engraving is not a technology, like other art disciplines, it also needs technology first, but it is expensive in "technology into the Tao".
How to "advance the skill"?
In addition to extensive collection of Xi Pre-Qin ancient Script and Western Zhou Zhongding script, Zhou Zhiqun collected a large number of paleography works compiled by the sages, and as soon as he had time, he went into these old paper piles to systematically study philological knowledge. He said that the number of these two types of writing is limited, and if he encounters a word that cannot be found in the material and needs to be created when engraving, he is afraid that he will make a joke because the created word does not conform to philology.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "tribute"
In order to broaden his horizons, Zhou Zhiqun also read a lot of printed scores and went to see the exhibition as soon as he had the opportunity. When reading the printed score and watching the exhibition, Zhou Zhiqun was very careful, and when he saw the wonderful works, he not only figured out the breath, chapter method, knife method, and seal method of the work, but also tried to spy out the author's path of taking the law. Through reading the seal score and watching the exhibition, he found that compared with the practical seals of ancient times, the independence of seal carving art became stronger and stronger, and the sister art was more and more important for the nourishment of seal carving art. At the same time, as a calligrapher and a lover of Chinese painting, through continuous understanding and practice, the three arts of seal engraving, calligraphy and painting have forged ahead with each other under his wrist and improved each other. Zhou Zhiqun told the author that he is now learning to write old-style poetry, "in the future, I must engrave my own content."
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "plum blossom into dreams"
Zhou Zhiqun even thought of the revelation that the gravitational wave that people had recently discussed about engraving on him. He said that the mutual care and expression of meaning between calligraphy and seal lines are actually a kind of gravitational wave. Under the action of gravitational waves, so many stars in space, not chaotic at all, very beautiful, they are all at peace with each other, each related to each other. In fact, the pre-Qin ancient Simplified script and the Western Zhou Zhongding script are similar in their rules, and there seems to be a gravitational wave between the words. They are like stars, if they move one, due to the change of gravitational waves, the others must also be adjusted, so that they can return to safety.
No style is style
In the face of the common phenomenon of today's seal engraving circles eagerly pursuing personal appearance and forming a unique style, Zhou Zhiqun has an "anachronistic" view. He insisted that no style is style. He only wants to go deep into the tradition and "enter the ancient" in a down-to-earth manner. However, he also believes that the same is "into the ancient", everyone's disposition, understanding, learning, and insight are different, just like "there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people", even if they take the same "ancient" and work hard to "enter the ancient", but the ancient that everyone enters is ultimately the "ancient" in their own eyes. The so-called "twisted melon is not sweet", the establishment of the style can not be deliberate, but should be achieved naturally. "Into the ancient" deep, will be ancient to the present, then, "I" is the style.
We may wish to take Zhou Zhiqun's 5 recent works to appreciate and feel his "no style" seal carving style.
The seal of "Prophecy Shen Dali" is printed with oracle bone, and it appears in the face of the pre-Qin ancient seal, the edge of the seal is thick, and the lines are strongly carved. The upper left corner is mutilated and breathable, breaking the dull pattern that the thick edges may cause. The four words are independent and do not touch each other. Although the whole print appears ethereal, the four words "all are like empty travel and have nothing to rely on", which seems to be scattered. Although the first stroke of the "Shen" character and the inverted "V" shape of the lower part of the "C" are far apart, the two are shaped like mortise and tenon, interspersed with each other; the "Shen" character moves to the right, leaving space for the "Li" character to stagger with the "C" character; the "big" character tilts to the right in an upward trend, and the "Shen" character looks upward, pitching and leaning, and the diagonal echoes each other, gu pans and loves; the long arc pen of the "Shen" character and the long arc pen of the "Li" character are opposite, and the left and right parts of the "Li" are in a trend of embracing each other in the opposite direction, and the calligraphy is vivid between the "big" character and the back; the "big" word moves to the right, so that the left side leaves a large amount of white space, and "Shen" The left, lower, and right sides of the word are left blank to echo; the "C" word takes the horizontal momentum, and the other three words take the vertical potential and increase the contrast; the thickness of the printing edge and the void of the printing heart form a strong contrast, and the virtual reality is born. In the first seal, there are many groups of contradictions such as pitching and leaning, facing and backing, horizontal and vertical, virtual and real, and through interspersing, echoing, concession, contrasting and other means to make them dialectically unified between square inches, which is called wonderful.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "Prophecy Great Ji"
The "No Controversy" print is printed with Zhong Ding characters, the lines are eroded, and the gold and stone are full of gas. The word "no" boldly leaves white space underneath to form a print eye, and then seals the edge with a thick border to avoid discouragement. In contrast, the strokes of the word "contention and sound" are dense, so that the lower left edge is blurred until the edge is broken, so as to form a diagonal echo with the blank space of the upper right eye. The three characters form a right-to-side inverted "U" shape along the upper, left and lower sides, and Wasabi speculates that this may be inspired by the "U" shape composition of the Warring States Brand Horse Seal "Ri Geng Du Cui Che Ma".
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "no controversy"
"Get Big and Free" is printed with Zhong Ding characters, and the lines are strong and simple. There is a huge disparity in the number of four-character strokes, the frame is in the field grid, and the printing surface is suddenly regular. However, under the tone of the overall regularity, it is bold to create dangers: the field character grid like the pillar of the building tilts vertically to the left, and with the serious left tilt of the "inch" part of the "get" word, the thick "eye" part of the top of the Taishan is pressed, so that the center of gravity of the "get" word is also tilted to the left, and the sound of the "rumbling" collapse of the building is faintly heard. At this critical juncture, the word "self, in" stepped forward, and the body tilted to the right of the pillar to block the danger. There are more "big" characters stretching out their left "hand" to drag the column, and extending the left "foot" through the column to support the position, and finally turning the crisis into safety.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "get big and free"
The "Du Xin" seal is also written in zhong ding characters, which is a semi-pass seal. The semi-pass seal originated from the Qin Dynasty, which clearly stipulated that the printing system differed according to the size of the official position, and the low-level officials used a square to print half of it, so it was called the semi-through seal. Semi-pass printing mostly uses a Japanese glyph border, the text position is divided into two, the layout is generally divided according to the number of strokes of the text, and there are also methods of painting less places and painting more places. Although the number of strokes of this seal is very different, it is still evenly divided. The line of the word "Du" is vast, and the word "faith" is majestic and slightly contrasted. The center of gravity of the word "Du" is on the right, and it is seriously leaning to the right, showing a downward trend; the center of gravity of the word "faith" is on the left, slightly leaning to the left, showing a looking up trend, and it is full of humor.
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "Firm Faith"
"Worry-free" printing method pre-Qin ancient Jane, the line is strong. The two words have a slightly contradictory meaning, and the word "none" is mentioned, accounting for only one-half of the position on the right, just like a person and an ass pier falling from the sky. After the two "people" of "nothing and worry" greeted each other, the word "worry" was about to walk away, and when they turned back to see the word "none" fall, they quickly extended a "hand" to save each other. That "hand" not only saved the word "none", but also added two more words to be intimate, thus saving the situation in which the entire Printing Surface might be centrifuged and detached from morality if there was no "hand".
Zhou Zhiqun seal engraving "worry-free"
Looking at Zhou Zhiqun's 5-square prints, the printing style is simple and strong, both the exquisiteness of the brush and the rhyme of freehand, the work is not lost in the board stagnation, and the writing is not lost in the grass. Most of them are based on the pre-Qin ancient Simplified script and the Western Zhou Zhongding script, each knife mark has an ancient law, and the chapters of each seal can faintly find the shadow of the ancients, which can be said to have come from itself. Moreover, the rules and regulations of each seal are different, which can be described as one seal and one ingenuity, one seal and one wind.
Is this Zhou Zhiqun's seal engraving "style without style"? But Zhou Zhiqun said: "With the deepening of learning, the calligraphy in my heart is getting richer and richer, I am still changing, there is really no style, 'I' is not obvious, but I believe that there will be my style in the end." I hope that in a hundred years, there will still be a copy of my printed book in the world. ”
As a bystander, the author also hopes that Zhou Zhiqun can persist in going "out of place" and eventually walk out of a path that is appropriate for history.
Review: Yu Fanghua