I. Pre-Qin seal

At present, the seals of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period have not been found, but from the literature records, there is no doubt that there are seals in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period.

During the Warring States period, the development of seals was quite sufficient. The ancient seals in the Warring States period can be divided into three categories, namely, official seal, private seal and auspicious seal. Most of the ancient seals in the Warring States period were chiseled, including cross-border columns or middle boundary columns.

In addition, the official seals of various countries and regions also have their own unique procedures. The private name stamp is smaller than the official seal.

The shapes are square, round, rectangular and irregular geometric shapes, which are very rich and beautiful and natural. Because of the special-shaped characters, there are often many ways to write a word, so the layout of seal script is loose, free and unrestrained.

The official seal is vigorous and tall;

Xiao Xi has another kind of beautiful breath;

Most of Bai Zhu is casting and printing;

Zhu Wenxi s Broad-brimmed Prose;

Baiwen Opera has many borders, exquisite production, vivid and harmonious layout, strange composition and diverse shapes.

Reflected the artistic conception of the printer at that time.

The auspicious seal of the Warring States period is also very vivid, which can be mass-produced and worn by people. Most of their seals are auspicious words, such as "respect", "honest behavior", "good luck", "should have a thousand daughters" and "prosperity forever".

Second, Qin and Han seals

Compared with the seal script of the Warring States period, Qin Zhuan is quite different in form, which is obviously related to the unification of six languages by Qin seal script.

The characters used to manage printing in the Qin Dynasty are called "imitation printing", which is more standardized and square than the characters in the six countries. Using this function to manage printing is stable and peaceful.

The official seal of the Qin dynasty also inherited some characteristics of the seal of the Warring States period. The seals with white characters often have side columns and horizontal columns, which makes the seals more suitable for the needs of squares in Tian Zige, and integrates change and consolidation, thus achieving a harmonious beauty.

Low-level officials in the Qin Dynasty took a half-square shape and printed it in a "Japanese" shape, with the same style

Square official seal.

Private printing in Qin Dynasty is unique to Fiona Fang. Because the characters use Xiao Zhuan, they are influenced by the folk Qin Li.

Even stop, or graceful, or simple, or naive, colorful.

Compared with the Warring States seal, the Qin seal has become strange and righteous, but it is more agile than the Chinese seal and has the characteristics of the transition from the Warring States seal to the Chinese seal.

The number, production technology, variety and style of seals in the Han Dynasty greatly surpassed those in the previous generation. The characters used in printing in Han dynasty developed from Qin seal cutting, which is called Miao seal cutting. Miao seal is more square and full of official meaning, close to the popular official script at that time.

Except that the official seal is difficult to distinguish from the Qin seal in the early Western Han Dynasty, there is no need to mount it in the future. The official seals and private seals in the Western Han Dynasty were mostly carved seals, while the official seals and private seals in the Eastern Han Dynasty were mostly cast seals and jade seals.

This kind of seal strives for fluency in composition and simple and symmetrical strokes.

The official seal of the Han Dynasty was slowly polished with special carving tools, so it was even and elegant, with smooth lines. However, no matter how it is made, the overall characteristics of the official seal of the Han Dynasty can be summarized by the words "flat, square and straight"

Private seal in Han Dynasty includes name seal, table seal and male and female seal.

Privately printed with an all-white character, the strokes are as wide as possible, even close to merging.

It is particularly obvious to deal with empty words with few strokes in this way, which is rare in previous seals.

In the Han Dynasty, four seals of black dragon, white tiger, suzaku and Xuanwu began to appear on all sides of the seal, which were used as the "chapter of crossing the Yellow God" to ward off evil spirits and the written seal of memorial.

Another is the seal of the book of birds and insects. The strokes on this seal are carved in the form of insects, birds, fish and dragons, which is rich and beautiful.

In addition to carving characters, there is also a kind of seal of casting characters, dancing and fighting, which is vivid and concise.

Third, the seal of Wei and Jin Dynasties.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, wars continued, leading to separatist regimes. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although the seal was still the pattern of China and India, after all, the peak had passed and the broad-minded and vigorous wind was gradually declining.

Today, according to the names of Wei and Jin dynasties and official names engraved on some seals, it was picked from the seal of China. Although the official seal of Wei and Jin Dynasties is not as exquisite as China's seal, it is also unique, with thin writing, loose rules and natural randomness.

During this period, there also appeared a unique "hanging needle seal" seal, which was more common in six-sided seal.

The vertical pen of each word is drawn long and heavy, and the end is thin, like a needle hanging in the air.

This shows the influence of calligraphy on seals of the same period. At this time, although there are many wonderful seals, most of the lines gradually become thinner, and the production has changed from exquisite to simple.

On the other hand, due to the extensive use of paper, there has been a bamboo slip inspection system on which seals depend.

Change, the mud seal era has come to an end, which is an important reason why the practical seal has turned into a low tide.

Fourth, seal cutting in Tang and Song Dynasties.

The practical seal cutting in Tang and Song Dynasties is a transitional period from seal cutting to literati seal cutting. The seal is used on paper, which is out of the track of sealing mud. Its printing is entirely Zhu Wen, and its size is getting bigger and bigger.

From the Sui Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the size of the official seal was mostly 5-6 cm square, and the words used were based on Xiao Zhuan. The seal is filled with curved and repeated broken lines, and the number of times is not fixed. But in ancient times, there were a large number of them, which were called "Nine Reprints".

Scholars in the Tang and Song Dynasties gradually became good at printing. Because there are collections in both the ruling and the opposition, a large number of "Kaiyuan" seals from Emperor Taizong appeared on paintings and calligraphy.

"Jianye Study Seal" in the Inner House of Southern Tang Dynasty;

Song Huizong's seals of "Daguan", "Xuanhe" and "Zheng He";

Song Gaozong's seals of "Shaoxing" and "Treasure of Imperial Books" —— To painters Zhou Fang, Zhong Shaojing, Chu Suiliang, Ouyang Xiu, Su Dongpo, Huang Shangu, Mi Fei, etc. , have a collection of calligraphy and painting seals.

Due to the extension and development of this trend, seals first appeared in calligraphy works. There are famous seals, font size seals, Zhaiguange seals and so on.

There were also scattered chapters about calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty.

For example:

Ouyang Xiu has the seal of "Six-One Layman";

The Yellow Valley has the seal of "Taoist in the Valley";

Su Dongpo has the seal of Zhai Guan, the seal of Dongpo Jushi and the seal of Zhao's hometown.

Mi Fei has: "Baojinzhai" seal, etc. Influenced by the style of Li Zhuan's calligraphy, the strokes are round and smooth, and the lines are clean and neat, forming a unique "round Zhu Wen" seal.

It had a great influence on later sculptors.

In the Song Dynasty, in addition to seal characters, private seals were also carved as "keepsakes". The so-called "pledge" is a special symbol representing the signature.

5. Seal of Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty was the era of seal cutting's awakening and rapid development. In Preface to the History of India, Zhao Meng put forward the aesthetic view that seal cutting was more important than Han and Wei Dynasties.

At the same time as Zhao, Wu is also an outstanding Indian scholar and theorist who advocates Chinese and Indian. He Wu's theory provided a strong theoretical basis for the development of seal cutting, a school of literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and had a far-reaching impact.

Zhao Meng's attitude is not satisfactory. Huai Pu Cang Ba copied the thin R, and he likes Cang Zhong. Therefore, the literati in the Yuan Dynasty competed to imitate, and its influence extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times, forming a brand-new pattern in history after the ancient seal and the Han seal.

Because Zhao Meng, a painter who plays an important role in calligraphy and painting, is still making fun of hazel's flight to the port. (3) The relationship between reading paper books and plundering calligraphy and painting is getting closer and closer, and the desire of painters to carve their own chapters is getting stronger and stronger. Under the influence of the aesthetics of Han and India, after the mid-Yuan Dynasty, there appeared literati seal engravers who integrated seal engraving and pursued the elegance of Han and India, among which Wang Mian and Zhu Gui were outstanding representatives.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the seal of literati also developed, while the official seal mostly inherited the form of the previous dynasty, with the characteristic that it was easy to change the "ten-fold essay" into "eight-thought-eight essay".

There is also a breakthrough in folk flower printing, so it is called "yuan gambling" The "inscription" that can be seen now is rectangular, and the upper end is engraved.

Regular script surname, engraved with a flower at the bottom. Flowers and birds, figures, fish and insects printed on graphics are all alive, and Chinese characters printed on graphics are also natural and vivid.

Strange smell.

Six, Ming and Qing seals

Due to the wide application of lithograph materials in printing management and the publication of a large number of ancient printed books with Chinese printing as the main content, printing theory has been continuously developed and reached a climax.

The representative figure in this period is Wen Peng, who is the "originator" of genre seal history.

Wen Peng carved the seal himself, and the style was mostly two patterns of Yuan people.

-Yuan Zhu and Han. His seal once influenced Wang Jiaxiang, Chu Xu, He Zhen and other Indians.

Since then, it has become popular and giving.

Famous seal engravers in this period include He Zhen, Su Xuan, Zhu Jian and Wang Guan.

Seal cutting is a school of literati in the Ming Dynasty. It is characterized by fully absorbing the nutrition of the ancients (especially Korea and India) and making innovations, which has opened up colorful prospects for the later printing industry.

At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, influenced by seal cutting in Ming Dynasty, seal cutting developed. The main schools are Gaopai, Paipai, Yushan School and Putian School. However, Huizhou School (also known as Anhui School and Northern School) has the greatest influence. Cheng Sui, Baweizu, Deng and other important seal engravers of Huizhou School.

Zhejiang School is another major school of seal cutting of scholars who moved to Hangzhou after Huizhou School. Its style is continuous and tends to be closed, and the representative figure is Ding Jing.

After Ding Jing, Huang Yi, Xigang, Chen Yuzhong, Chen Hongshou, Zhao, and other Hangzhou Indians took the lead in Zhejiang and Hangzhou for nearly two centuries, and were called "Eight Schools of Xiling" by later generations.

Their works are steady and rigorous, learning from Ding Jing and having their own style.

Jiang people inherited the obvious form of Zhu in Ding Jing's later years and made it unified. He cut it into pieces with a rough knife, and Huang Yi and Xi Gang were his practitioners, which basically shaped this typical style.

Chen Yuzhong and Chen Hongshou created many typical seals with Zhejiang flavor.

Zhao's kitsch made Zhejiang School enter a rigid stage. Although Song Qian is mostly a Zhejiang school, he often breaks through the framework and forms a vigorous, strong and Gu Zhuo style.

The climax of Zhejiang-Anhui School in the late Qing Dynasty has passed. At this time, the seal engravers were Zhao,, and Wu Changshuo.

Zhao's ancestral home is Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, with the word Bei 'an, Mei 'an and Wu Man. He is very talented and good at poetry, calligraphy and painting, and he is a peerless wizard in poetry, calligraphy and painting.

His seal cutting began in Zhejiang school, and later there were ancient seals, Qin and Han seals,

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Zhu absorbed the nutrition of Baweizu and Deng through hard work and gradually formed his own unique style.

In particular, with the aim of "seeking printing from outside", he widely borrowed more and more inscriptions unearthed in the late Qing Dynasty for printing, which made his printing concept novel and diverse.

In addition, he boldly used Han paintings and statues of the Six Dynasties to print the border coins, which opened up a new world for the border coins. Zhao's road of seeking printing outside India made the printing world in the late Qing Dynasty form a new pattern.

After the Qing Dynasty, Qi Baishi, as an outstanding representative of modern printing, can be regarded as another milestone in the history of seal cutting schools. He is another master of calligraphy, painting and printing in history after Wu Changshuo.

His seal cutting began in Zhejiang School and was influenced by Zhao, Zhou, Wu Changshuo.

After living in Beijing, I met Chen Shiceng. They were very close and inspired each other deeply.

In his white stone seal, he told himself: "I like the monument to the Temple of Heaven, and the knife method has changed. Later, I fell in love with Qin Quan, which was vertical and horizontal, natural and changed a lot. " His printing style is rough, and Wang Yang is willful. He likes to carve with a single knife on the side, which is more urgent and interesting. It is integrated with his freehand flower-and-bird paintings, and the composition is ups and downs.

The density contrast is strong and the feelings are full, which is called Qi Pai.