Title: A History of the Sidebar of Chinese Seals
Author: Wang Benxing
Price: 128 yuan
ISBN 978-7-5010-7080-0
# Editor's recommendation #
A successful seal engraving work should be a work of art in which the printed text and the sidebar contrast, coordinate with each other, and complement each other. The sidebar of the seal is not only the boundary and guardrail of the seal, but also an extension of the seal and an important part of the seal. It is contained in the same inseparable whole of seal art.
The so-called sidebar generally refers to: first, the outer boundary of the seal; second, the dividing boundary column in the seal. The lines that make up the sidebar can be thick or thin, smooth or broken, single-line or double-row, vermilion-white, or diamond-shaped, geometric pattern, and special-shaped patterns can be decorated around the seal for sidebar. There are some Zhu Wenyin only printed text and can not see the sidebar, which is a boundless column seal, in fact, it is also designed in an invisible border to design the cloth white, this kind of Zhu Wenyin often cleverly borrows the dot paintings around the seal as a sidebar.
Throughout the dynasties of seals, no matter which era, the characteristics of its sidebar are always closely related to the overall style of the seal, always consistent with the style of the seal, relying on the denseness of the seal, the virtual reality, the thickness and weight of the line, changing with the changes in the print, red flowers and green leaves, reflecting each other, more perfect. Therefore, the sidebar and the seal have an organic, lips and teeth interdependent integration relationship, the sidebar is produced under the basic style of the seal law, the study of the sidebar problem, to understand and establish the role of the sidebar in the seal art, so as to better develop, carry forward the spirit of seal art, has irreplaceable practical significance.
Among the many theoretical works on seal engraving, the earliest to discuss the problem of seal sidebars is the "History of Books" of the Song Dynasty, then the "Thirty-Five Moves" of Wu qiuyan in the Yuan Dynasty, the volume of He Zhen's "Ancient Texts of Continuing Learning" in the Ming Dynasty, Xu Shangda's "Yinfa Reference", Shen Ye's "Seal Talk", Wu Xiansheng's "Dunhaotang On Printing" in the Qing Dynasty, Feng Chenghui's "Seal Study Pipe View", Chen Feng's "Imitation of Printing", etc., all of which mention sidebars, but there are not many deep theories and creative ideas, and the important role of the sidebar in seals is not studied as a special topic. After the birth of ding jing, Deng Shiru, Wu Rangzhi, Zhao Zhiqian, Wu Changshuo, and other representatives of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many explorations and breakthroughs in the sidebar, but there was no monograph on the sidebar, and Deng Sanmu's "Seal Engraving" was also a brief text on the sidebar issue, and did not discuss the sidebar in depth.
In order to summarize the experience of predecessors, better understand the relationship between the sidebar and the printed text, and its role in the aesthetics of seal engraving art, Mr. Wang Benxing summarized the characteristics of the sidebars of the seals of the past and classified them into categories. With this as the guideline, the various forms of the sidebar were discussed on a special topic, which was studied for more than ten years, and after several additions, it was finally formed into the "History of the Sidebar of Chinese Seals". This book fills the gap in the field of seal engraving.
The book has a total of more than 150,000 words, 6 chapters and 20 sections, and contains more than 4,000 pictures of printing, starting from the border form of pottery, pottery, tools and other utensils in the Stone Age, and running through to the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China. The information received is rich and colorful, all kinds of different types of seals, such as the ancient seals of the pre-Qin Dynasty, the official seals of the past dynasties, the seals of the generals, the seals of the guards, and the seals of the literati, all of which are studied in stages, and at the end of the book, there is a summary of the sidebars of the seals of the Chinese dynasties carefully summarized by the author, so that the reader can see at a glance and is easy to find. This book not only has the form of seal sidebar but also the discussion and summary of the history of seal engraving, is a rich and complete work on the history of seal engraving, and is also an indispensable reference book for the study of seal sidebar art and seal engraving history.
