There are many kinds of seals, which can basically be divided into official seals and private seals.

Official seal: official seal. The official seals of past dynasties have their own systems, not only with different names, but also with different shapes, sizes, seals and buttons. The seal is issued by the royal family, representing power, used to distinguish official ranks and show the rank of knight. The official seal is generally larger than the private seal, cautious and steady, relatively square, with a nose button.

Private seal: the general name of seals other than official seals. The private printing system is complex, which can be divided into many categories from the aspects of word meaning, text arrangement, production method, printing materials made by Qi Baishi and composition form.

1. From the semantic point of view, there are:

Name number printing: the name, table or number of the person engraved with the image. If there is one more Chinese name, print its three words, and if there is no "print", print it. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zhu Wen has been regarded as the positive case, and some people have added the word "teacher" to their surnames. Modern people also have pen names, which also belong to this category.

The official seal of Zhai: The ancients often named their rooms and study rooms, which were often used as seals. Don Li Qin has a seal of "End Room", which is probably the earliest seal of this kind.

Book seal: the name of the seal is followed by "notice", "white matter" and "statement". Today, there are those who "bid farewell", "sincerely seal" and "nod". This kind of seal is specially used for exchanging books and letters.

Collection and appreciation seal: this seal is mostly used to cover the cultural relics of calligraphy and painting. Prosperous in the Tang Dynasty, better than in the Song Dynasty. Zhenguan written by Emperor Taizong, Kaiyuan written by Xuanzong and Xuanhe written by Song Huizong are all used for painting and calligraphy. The words "collection", "collection", "collection of books", "collection of paintings", "rare play", "secret play" and "books" are added to the collection stamps. Appreciation has added words such as appreciation, appreciation, appreciation, appreciation, appreciation, take a look and eyes. The words "revision", "examination", "assessment", "appraisal" and "revision" are added to the revised seal.

Auspicious seal: printed words engraved with auspicious words. Such as "Italy", "daily profit", "Universiade", "Changle", "long fortune", "suitable for future generations", "healthy longevity", "Yong 'an" and "gaining a thousand stones every day" all belong to this category. There was a small seal in the Qin Dynasty. In addition to the disease, Yongkang Hugh, Wan Shouning. " Some people attach auspicious words to their names, which is more common in double-sided printing in Han Dynasty.

Cheng Yuxi: It belongs to the leisure chapter and so on. The seal is engraved with idioms, poems, or complaining about others, romance and Buddhism, which are generally printed on calligraphy and painting. Cheng Yuxi prevailed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. It's hilarious to say that Jia Sidao has "sages before being happy", that the writer has "Zhao Xiyu's family" and that Wen Peng has "stolen my old Peng", all of which are Chinese in Li Sao. Idioms entered India from the printing of Qin, Han and Ji languages. As a temporary game, it should be meaningful, elegant and not fabricated.

Small seal: also known as "pictographic seal" and "graphic seal", it is the general term for seals engraved with patterns. In ancient times, Xiao Zhuan was generally engraved with figures and animals, and the materials were diverse, including dragons, phoenixes, tigers, dogs, horses, fish and birds, and Jane won. Most of Xiao's seal scripts are sketched, some are pure drawings, and some are added with words. In the seal of China, the dragon and tiger or "four spirits" (dragon, white tiger, suzaku and Xuanwu) are attached to the name.

Seal: Also known as "Flower Seal", it is a symbol of engraving flowers and writing names, and it is difficult to imitate it, because it is a proof of winning trust. This kind of seal, which began in the Song Dynasty, generally has no outer frame. Rectangular shapes were popular in the Yuan Dynasty, with surnames engraved on them and Ba Si Ba Wen or Hua Fu engraved on the bottom, also known as "harmony" and "yuan stamp".

2. From the point of text arrangement, there are:

White printing, vermilion printing, vermilion alternating printing, palindrome printing

3. From the production method, there are:

Casting printing, engraving printing, cutting printing and jet printing.

4. From the perspective of smelting and printing materials, there are:

Gold seal, jade seal, silver seal, copper seal, iron seal, ivory seal, rhinoceros horn seal, crystal seal, lithograph seal, etc. Today, there are wood seals, plastic seals and plexiglass seals.

5. From the form of composition, there are:

Single-sided printing, double-sided printing, six-sided printing, master printing and overprinting

[Edit this paragraph] seal appreciation

The aesthetic value of seal can be summarized into two aspects: the artistic beauty of seal and the material beauty of seal. The beauty of printing art can be divided into four parts: printing, printing, printing spectrum and printing decoration.

Seal appreciation ※

To appreciate seal script, we must first master the characteristics of artistic expression techniques such as calligraphy, composition and knife cutting, and then understand the interest and implication contained in the content of seal script, and then savor it carefully and experience it slowly.

calligraphy

Artists who have been very successful attach great importance to calligraphy. In the previous chapter, we have learned that "no mistakes" is an important prerequisite to ensure the appreciation value of seals. As we all know, calligraphy is the art of writing. If you can't even read, there is no artistic appreciation. The reason why seals have been respected and loved by intellectuals in past dynasties is precisely because of his difficulties and the challenges brought by his difficulties. What is easy to get is neither challenging nor attractive, not to mention the appreciation value. For connoisseurs, understanding seal script has become the primary task. At first glance, seal script is a bit strange, but it is actually very easy to learn and difficult to master. The development of seal script is centered on "shape". Although it later became an "image", there are always tangible traces to explore its origin, so seal script is artistic from the beginning.

The organization and structure of an article

The method of printing articles is the method of position arrangement and overall layout between words. Reasonable rules and regulations can give people high-grade enjoyment, while unreasonable rules and regulations can make people know at a glance that the details are insufficient or even fake. The basic requirements of rules and regulations are balance, honesty, generosity and correctness. Most of the rules and regulations in China and India are based on this, and further require naturalness and vividness for negotiation and pondering.

Cutting skills (in cooking)

It is difficult for the ancients to carve bronze jade, and its technology is more complicated. Good stone is extremely suitable for stress, just like good paper is subject to pen and ink, where the iron pen passes, stone chips are scattered, showing the effect of natural cracking, leaving traces of lines and bearing the vigorous stone flavor of Gu Zhuo. Knife method can be roughly divided into two types: punching knife and cutting knife. Punch and knife moves quickly, rushing thousands of miles, much like the brushwork of calligraphy, which can show vigorous momentum; The cutting knife moves slowly, and it cuts continuously with a short-distance kitchen knife, one step at a time, just like a pen in calligraphy, which can show vigorous, concise, heavy and steady breath. Sometimes the combination of the two knife methods is better.

Interest and meaning

As we know, many writers, poets, painters and calligraphers in the past dynasties have a special liking for seals, and many Indians also serve as painters and calligraphers. They often use some allusions, idioms, poems or rude words as the content of leisure chapters, which are often surprising and interesting. When we appreciate such sentences, we will also find them particularly interesting and interesting.

Appreciation of border currency ※

A boundary is a written record of the name, year and month engraved on the surface or around the seal. According to Zhong Ding's inscription, "paragraphs are concave and knowledge is convex". However, in the field of seal script, regardless of yin and yang, it is usually called boundary or harmony, and few people call the harmony of a seal script in yang as "boundary knowledge"

There were few seals in ancient times, and Wen Peng initiated the custom of double-edged calligraphy. Since then, the Indian artists have shown their talents, making the printing edge quickly become an important part of seal cutting, playing the same role as painting inscriptions. In the block prints with one stroke and one painting, Indian artists' superb knife skills and superb and wonderful calligraphy realm are also displayed, which is worthy of our careful taste and appreciation.

Besides appreciating calligraphy, inscriptions and works of art, some strokes of the seal are highly literary. It records or expresses feelings, or talks about art or taste, which is fascinating and makes people think about that ancient love. The so-called "between square inches, a myriad of weather" not only refers to the seal, but also suitable for brushwork. Both of them have the subtle feeling of gold casting and jade carving, which is equally fascinating, arousing our endless associations and bringing us endless significance.

Appreciation of printed music ※

Print spectrum is the carrier of seal and coin identification. Qian Tuo's exquisite printing spectrum not only allows us to appreciate excellent works, but also is a work of art in itself. During the Daoguang period, the seal of the printed spectrum was only inked and inked, but not inked. It was not until the later period of seal cutting's prosperity in Xiling that Lin Yun Tower printed Zhao's ink by rubbing and put it behind the printed spectrum. Since then, everyone has followed suit and become a common practice. The engraving of printed spectrum is divided into two steps, one is the engraving of printed text, and the other is the inking of seal. High-quality inkpad must be selected for Zhu Zhong printing. Good inkpad is fine and shiny, oil-free and non-deteriorating, thick and even, and has a three-dimensional effect. Zhu Zhong's printed spectrum lasts as long as new, bright and pleasant. The operation of ink rubbing is complicated. On the one hand, you need skilled skills, on the other hand, you need to grasp time, care and experience. Generally speaking, the printing spectrum is first rubbed with ink, and then bronzed with ink. Ink can be divided into ink rubbings and wax rubbings. Wax rubbings are not as delicate and clear as ink rubbings, which can only meet urgent needs and are not suitable for making music. Ink extension can be divided into "Wujin extension" and "cicada extension" according to the shade of ink. The former is strong in contrast and full of luster, while the latter is plain and clear, and does not hesitate to be elegant. The spread of printed spectrum is directly related to the expression of printed text and money, so there is a saying that "the work of engraving is six and the work of extension is four", which shows the importance of printed spectrum extension. Exquisite printing and binding, simple and generous, the paper uses pure leather paper, single-sheet paper and even historical paper. Every paper and every industry has printing, and the main touch and Zhu Danxuan ink complement each other and are pleasing to the eye. In addition to watching, you can also study and discuss, thus becoming something valuable for people to appreciate and collect.

[Edit this paragraph] The artistry of seal design

As a work of art, the value of seal is generally manifested in two aspects. One is its shape design, that is, the design of printed buttons, casting skills and later higher-level deep processing skills. The second is the calligraphy of printed characters, seal cutting.

At first, the design of printed buttons was mainly practical, which was used to tie ribbons around the waist, such as tile buttons and nose buttons. The main forms of printed buttons in ancient China are as follows:

Nose button: This is the most common seal button in early ancient China, and it is named after the hole is as small as the nose. This form was widely used in the official seal and private seal in the pre-Qin period. After the Han dynasty, the official seal nose buckle became larger, so it was also called tile buckle and bridge buckle.

Turtle button: Turtle button is also the most common button system in official seal. The combination of tortoise and snake is called Xuanwu, which is a personality god and has evolved into a famous place of martial arts. In addition, the tortoise is homophonic with your name, which is a symbol of longevity and good luck.

Snake buckle: Snake buckle is rare, but the seal awarded to the king of Yunnan is snake buckle.

There are records of sheep buckle, horse buckle and rabbit buckle sent to other ethnic leaders.

In addition, animal buttons such as deer buttons, turtle buttons and fish buttons are also found in historical records and unearthed cultural relics. It is particularly worth mentioning that the tiger button, also known as the tiger button, is used by both emperors and queens. Spine is a kind of dragon. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor's seal used the shape of a thorn as a button.

Due to the extensive and in-depth use of seals among officials and people and the diversification of printing materials, a broader space has been created for the design and manufacture of printed buttons. Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, seal cutting gained unprecedented prosperity. The design of the seal button also breaks through the above button system, and all kinds of animals, insects, birds and flowers are also reflected in the design of the button. In this form, copper seal, as a printing material handed down by China for thousands of years, has not declined in the competition with lithograph materials appearing in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, but a large number of exquisite copper seals have entered the market and passed down to future generations. According to the memory of the predecessors of Beijing Seal, copper seal firmly occupied 70% to 80% of the Beijing market during the Republic of China. There are several famous bronze seal workshops here, where skilled craftsmen gather and gather the essence of royal craftsmanship. The fireworks are not extinguished day and night, which provides sufficient supply for the Beijing seal market, from bronze seals paid by apprentices to peerless masterpieces played by royalty, literati and collectors.

Compared with other printing materials such as stone, wood, horn, ivory and plexiglass, copper printing materials are durable, handed down from generation to generation, rich in artistic forms and suitable for processing. The color of copper seal is more solemn, which can be more detailed and hollow than the above-mentioned printing materials. With the surface deep processing technology such as wrong gold, wrong silver, bronzing and carving, the bronze seal can show the royal eternal, lasting, solemn and noble style at a higher level.

Today, the design of bronze buttons has been further developed, such as birthday girl, Buddha statue, dragon and phoenix, lion, Swiss beast, tiger, bran, zodiac and so on. As the representative of seal culture in China, bronze seal needs to be further understood and re-recognized.

[Edit this paragraph] Taboos of printing

Calligraphy and painting should be signed and sealed, and the seal should not be larger than the word. Of course, it is natural to stamp a big seal and a small seal.

Chinese painting is stamped under the lettering, down to the bottom corner, and corner seal is not allowed. For example, the upper right corner and the lower left corner can be stamped with leisure stamps, and the upper left corner and the lower right corner can be stamped. If the above words are printed near the lower corner, there is no need to stamp the leisure stamp.

Chinese painting chess pieces have inscriptions, and the left and right corners have borders, so you can't stamp them casually. Square leisure stamp can be affixed to the upper right corner, square leisure stamp can be affixed to the lower left corner and square leisure stamp can be affixed to the lower right corner. If there is no need to stamp a leisure stamp here, it will be self-defeating if you barely stamp it.

Rectangular, circular, rectangular leisure chapter, can not cover the square corner of the leisure chapter in the lower corner. You can't cover the square-inch leisure chapter on the upper edge of calligraphy and painting, otherwise, you will pretend to be the master.

Chinese painting is engraved in a straight line, and the characters at the end of the line are different from other lines, so it can't be neat, and so is the seal.

There are two seals, one round for each side, which can't match. Isomorphic prints can be matched.

Two seals, one large and one small, don't match. The same size can be matched.

Two seals, one rectangular and one oval, don't match. Isomorphic prints can be matched.

Under the seal, you can't sign any more. If there is a word constraint on the seal, the natural phenomenon will be lost.

Calligraphy and painting have been stamped with a signature stamp, and you can't give it to others after signing it, otherwise it is disrespectful.

Flower heads, bird tails, branches and hills are not allowed to be stamped. This is the painter's basic common sense, which is indispensable.

Artisans carve seals, which cannot be used for calligraphy and painting. Artists need to carve seals, and the carved lithographs are the best.

Ordinary inkpad, not suitable for painting and calligraphy, should use Babao inkpad.

Cover it with two seals, not too far or too close, only one seal apart.

Seal, seal, composition and knife method are different and cannot be matched. Carve the seal with the same knife method.

Don't paint limericks, for one thing, the knower makes fun of them, and for another, the works are vulgar.

You can't put a stamp on the top of the preceding paragraph, and it is on the head of the person's name. People are taboo. One is impolite, and the other is to destroy the picture.

The corner stamp should not be too small. The rice paper is surrounded by square stone prints, about three centimeters, which is relatively moderate.

Cover the corner, but not both sides, one side is just right. The distance between the seal and the edge is about 1. Five centimeters is moderate.

Except in special circumstances, the inscription does not need to be stamped, but should be covered around the inscription and separated from the line to become a painting.

Don't stamp the calligraphy and painting, it will become a huge bomb, destroy the beautiful picture and make people look terrible.

Small paintings can't be written in big characters, and big paintings can't be written in small characters. Small space can't have more inscriptions, and large space can't have fewer inscriptions.

The name of a painting and calligraphy should not be stamped more than three times, but should be stamped twice or printed properly.

Calligraphy and painting cannot be stamped at will. It is better to cover less than not properly, and it is best not to cover the seal with bad ink.

Cover two seals, don't stagger them, how to cover them, how to use force and how to maintain the seal inkpad are all problems that can't be ignored.

You can't write vulgar words on a painting, which will affect the aesthetic feeling of the picture, so it can't be avoided.

The first picture of calligraphy is in quadruplicate, the first small long chapter can be covered on the upper right, and the rest can't be covered. If it is covered, the gas will go out.