Use of seals
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.
History and types of seals
1. Ancient seal of the Warring States Period
Ancient seal is the general name of pre-Qin seal. Most of the earliest seals we can see now are ancient seals in the Warring States period. Many features of these ancient seals are unknown to us now. Most ancient seals in Zhu Wen are equipped with wide edges. The strokes of seals are as thin as hair, and they are all cast. The ancient seal script in white language is made by adding more side bars or vertical grids in the middle, and the characters are cast and chiseled. What are the printed contents of the official seal? Sima? 、? Stuart. In addition to other names, there are all kinds of irregular shapes, and the content is also engraved with auspicious words and vivid objects.
2. Qin seal
Qin Zhuan refers to the popular seal from the end of the Warring States Period to the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, and the characters used are called. Look at its calligraphy style and Qin and Han dynasties, Qin stone carvings and other characters are very similar, are more popular and easy to understand than the ancient prose of the Warring States period. Qin seals are mostly carved in white, with the word "Tian" on the surface, mostly square. The official seal used by junior officials is about half the size of a general square official seal and is rectangular. Day? Lattice, scale? Semi-pass printing? . Private seals are generally rectangular, round and oval, with official names, personal names and Kyrgyz. Cheers? 、? Want to succeed? 、? Harmony? Such as proverbs and idioms.
3. Official Seal of China
Broadly speaking, it is a general term for official seal from Han Dynasty to Wei and Jin Dynasties. Compared with Qin Zhuan, the seal is more neat, straight, square and vigorous in style. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the handicraft industry was very developed, so in the new headstrong era, (? New? The official seal of Wang Mang Dynasty is particularly exquisite and vivid, and seal cutting of Han Dynasty reached its peak, which became a model for later seal engravers to learn. The official seals of the two Han dynasties are mostly white, all of which are cast. Only a few troops are in urgent need of carving the official seal of the brothers instead of casting it, which will be introduced later.
4. Private printing in China
China private seal is a private seal in the Han Dynasty, which is the largest and richest in ancient seals. Not only do they have different shapes, but they are all made of cinnabar and white, or decorated with patterns such as four spirits, and there are also multi-sided printing, overprinter (mother-child printing) and hook printing. In addition to names, printed languages often add Kyrgyz, native place, ideographic characters and? Seal? 、? Private printing? 、? Envelope? And other auxiliary characters, the buttons are extremely diverse, which fully shows the ingenuity of craftsmen in the Han Dynasty. Private printing in the Han Dynasty was still dominated by white, engraving in the Western Han Dynasty and chiseling and casting in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
5. Ordinary printed matter
General seal is also a kind of official seal of China. These seals are often temporary dispatches on the way to March, and they are engraved on the printed surface with a knife, which is also called "urgent printing". Pu Yin's unique style is full of interest and has a great influence on his later artistic style. In the Han dynasty, generals used seals, which are generally called "seals" rather than "seals", which is a major feature of military seals.
6. Han yuyin
The imperial seal of the Han Dynasty is very precious and rare in ancient seals. "Dai Yu" was also an elegant fashion of famous officials and celebrities in ancient times. Generally, the jade seal is well-made, with rigorous composition and rounded strokes. At first glance, the strokes are straight and upright, but they have no intention of stagnation. Because jade is hard and not easy to be cut by a knife, a special seal cutting technique, the so-called "knife cutting method", has emerged. Because jade is not easy to corrode and damage, it has been passed down from generation to generation, which better preserves its true colors.
7. Seal of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
The official seal, private seal and button system in Wei and Jin Dynasties followed the Han Dynasty, but the casting was not as beautiful as that in Han Dynasty. The official seal handed down from generation to generation by brothers is like a knife, and the calligraphy style naturally came into being in Xu Ya-sheng, becoming the representative of seal cutting style in a period. There were not many seals handed down from ancient times in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but the official seal was slightly larger, and the words were hastily carved, but the official seal was not cast.
8. Bai Zhu printing
Zhu's alternate printing style is very ingenious in China and India. It is said that it originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its ways are extremely diverse, and the position arrangement and word number of Bai Zhu characters can be flexibly changed without restriction. The number of seals cited here can be seen. Bai Zhu's principle is to look at the number of strokes, Zhu Wen is mostly the number of strokes, Zhu Wen is mostly the number of strokes, while Bai Wen is the opposite, thus achieving the harmonious effect of Zhu Bairu and Bai Ruzhu. Most of these seals are privately printed and not used for official seals.
9. Letterpress printing
Mother seal is also called? Seal? Originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty and prevailing in the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, it is a seal made by two or three parties. A person's stomach is empty, and one or two baby seals can be properly inserted to form the shape of a mother's pocket. There are also two seals on one side (such as the right column? Guo Yi? India) is a group of three parties. There are several seals in the volume of one seal, which shows the technical level of ancient printing.
10. Six-sided printing
There are few six-sided prints handed down from generation to generation. This demonstration? Convex? The zigzag seal has a hole at the nose end, which can be worn, and a small seal at the nose end, together with the other five printing surfaces, is called six-sided seal. A typical six-sided printing style handed down from ancient times is white text with edges, each word is a line, dense on the top and sparse on the bottom, the vertical pen of the seal is long and drooping, and the tip is like a hanging needle, so there is? Sting seal? Commonly known as. Although this style has the advantages of stroke stretching and contrast, it is easy to become vulgar, far less than that of China and India, so seal engravers have only done it occasionally.
1 1. Miao seal (with a book of flowers and birds)
There are few six-sided prints handed down from generation to generation. This kind of "convex" print has a hole in the nose, which can be worn, and a small print on the nose, together with the other five printing surfaces, is called six-sided print. A typical six-sided printing style handed down from ancient times is white text with edges, each word is a line, dense on the top and sparse on the bottom, the vertical pen of the seal is long and drooping, and the tip is like a hanging needle, so there is? Sting seal? Commonly known as. Although this style has the advantages of stroke stretching and contrast, it is easy to become vulgar, far less than that of China and India, so seal engravers have only done it occasionally.
12. Miscellaneous seals
Among the seals since the Warring States Period, miscellaneous seal is also a very unique category. Its style is not fixed, ranging from a few inches to a few minutes, and the changes are extremely rich. In addition to the length and width of Fiona Fang, there are concave and convex patterns, squares, circles, triangles, two circles and three round beads, three-leaf unfolded shapes and so on. The reason why miscellaneous printing is only used for private printing is because of its unique humor and solemn and calm requirements different from official seals.
13. Graphic printing
From the Warring States to the Han and Wei Dynasties, there were prints, most of which were in the Han Dynasty. Also known as Xiao seal or pictographic seal. Various forms, concise and vivid, in addition to figures, birds and animals, horseback riding, auspicious sheep, fish and geese and other patterns, the four spirits of auspicious sheep are common. Dragon, tiger, sparrow and (phoenix and turtle) are printed, which is also called "four-spirit seal".
14. Cheng Yuyin
Cheng Yuxi has existed since the Warring States Period, and there are more than 100 proverbs and idioms used. For example, there are many idioms, such as "going straight", "respecting things", "benefiting the sky" and "being lucky in coming and going". The number of words varies from one to two, up to 20, which is used to express good luck and to commemorate the dead.
15. Huayin
Flower seal, also known as "gambling word", flourished in Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, so it is also called "Yuan gambling". Yuan bet is mostly rectangular, generally engraved with regular script surnames, and engraved with Ba Si Ba Wen or Hua bet. In practical sense, most of the seals of past dynasties have the functions of preventing rape and distinguishing forgeries. As an individual's arbitrary writing, the changed "betting words" (some of which are not words, but personal symbols) are naturally more difficult to imitate and achieve the effect of anti-counterfeiting, so this kind of betting words has been used until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
16. Sa
Mud seal, also known as "mud seal", is not a seal, but a precious object preserved from the remains of ancient seals-a dry and hard mud mass covered with ancient seals. Because the original seal was a negative seal, the clock became a positive seal on the mud, and its edge was a mud surface, so it formed a wide edge and different edges. Pipa was used from the Warring States Period to the Han and Wei Dynasties, until after the Jin Dynasty, when paper, silk and silks gradually replaced bamboo slips and wooden slips, pipa could not be used. Later seal engravers borrowed these precious seal engraving rubbings for printing, thus expanding the range of seal engraving methods. Basic training and creation
17. Button system
Most ancient seals had buttons, so that the buttons were punched and tied to the belt. This is the ancient way of "wearing a seal". Since the Han Dynasty, emperors and officials have distinguished themselves by buttons such as tortoise, camel and horse. For example, the turtle button, camel button and snake button used in the history of senior officials were common button systems for granting official seals to brothers in the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties. There are many forms of buttons in past dynasties, among which altar buttons, nose buttons and multi-bucket buttons are the most common. Now, some buttons are listed on the right.
Official seal since sui and Tang dynasties
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, official seals began to increase. With the wide application of paper, Zhu Wen gradually replaced Bai Wen. Many official seals began to engrave year numbers on the back. In terms of characters, Sui seal was used more, and the "ten-fold text" printing was started (the number of "nine" in ancient times was the ultimate, and there was no need for a ten-fold. Can be changed with the simplicity of the sketch) in order to fill the printed surface. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, official script printing was started, and Manchu was used as official seal in the Qing Dynasty. Both Chinese and Chinese are used, engraved in a seal. The official seals left by the ignorant peasant regimes in the Qing Dynasty are also revolutionary cultural relics worth cherishing.
19. Song Yuanyuan Zhu Wenyin
Since Wei and Jin Dynasties, paper and silk have gradually replaced bamboo slips. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the use of seals had directly covered the printing cymbals. In the Yuan Dynasty, during the heyday of literati painting, the seal written by literati seal had been integrated with poetry, calligraphy and painting, which played a distinct role and was loved by calligraphy and painting. At this stage, firstly, Zhao Mengfu, a painter and calligrapher in the early Song Dynasty, advocated seal cutting. Due to the influence of Li Zhuanshu on calligraphy, the seal style is smooth and beautiful, resulting in a unique seal-"round" seal, which was adopted by later seal engravers.
20. The imprint of brotherly national character
Under the influence of Han culture, since the Song Dynasty, brother nations have created their own characters based on China's calligraphy, and used their own characters as official seals, which rarely spread. The seals they have seen are Jin Guo (Jurchen) book, Yuan Dynasty Basiba script and Xixia script, many of which are still unknown.
2 1. Today's style seal
In China's calligraphy, seal script has become the main body of seal cutting because of its strong decoration. However, after the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the development of calligraphy, seal script is not the only calligraphy used for seals. In addition to the seal of Kai Lee in the Tang and Song Dynasties and the seal cutting in the Yuan Dynasty, there was a precedent of Li Jieyin in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Since the Qing Dynasty, seal engravers have also begun to try to print in modern styles (official script, regular script and cursive script), among which there are many excellent works. This makes us realize that the embodiment of seal cutting is not limited to the use of a certain style, but the key lies in the high application ability of composition, calligraphy and knife cutting.
22. Collect seals, lent seals and leisure stamps.
As an appreciation art, seals developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and began to appear for collection, appreciation and modification. There are many kinds of clocks in the calligraphy and painting collection. "Zhai official seal" is a seal engraved with the nickname of "building, pavilion, pavilion, nest, courtyard, Zhai, porch, hall" and other literati's study and living room, but in fact, many nominal seals (Wen Zhiming said that most of his bookstores were built on seals) are just the expression of intellectuals' ideological spirit. Leisure seal originated from ancient auspicious seal. These works printed with poems, idioms, famous sayings and proverbs have further developed seal cutting from a simple practical art of engraving official positions and names into an independent appreciation art with literary significance, which complements poetry, calligraphy and painting.
Main design of seal
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 copper seal workshops here, where skilled craftsmen gather and gather the essence of royal craftsmanship. Fireworks are kept on all day and night, providing sufficient supply for the seal market in Beijing, from copper 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.