A History of Artistic Innovations of Chinese Seal Engraving Schools

The following sections are included:

• Historical Interpretations of the Driving Force for the Development of Seal Engraving Art by Wang Lixiang
• Contents
• Introduction

It was Wen Peng (文彭) and He Zhen (何震) that initiated seal engraving schools of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They lived in a time when official seals in nine-fold seal script of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and lifeless and tasteless personal seals were the main trend in the seal art circle. Tedious and stuffy piling up of the folded strokes of nine-fold seal script and the awfully low taste of personal seals prompted Wen Peng and He Zhen to innovate and create something new. They restored the long forgotten traditional techniques and corrected the erroneous uses of seal characters with their in-depth knowledge of philology. They turned the mechanical folding of strokes in nine-fold seal script into natural calligraphic strokes. They put right the wrongs of the mundane and messy trend of seal engraving by promoting the refined seal style of the Han Dynasty. With their efforts, they started a revolution that fundamentally changed the status of seal engraving that had been dismissed as “an insignificant skill that no valiant men would ever pick up”. They dived into the past and came out with refreshing styles. They discarded staleness and sought novelty. They discarded intricacy and sought simplicity. They discarded rigidity and sought liveliness. They discarded messiness and sought neatness. And in so doing, they eradicated the bad seal engraving practices and opened up the path for seal engraving schools. Besides, a ground-breaking contribution was made by Wen Peng as he introduced Qingtian stone into the seal world. In no time seal engraving art thrived and prospered among the literati because the stone material was easy for men of letters to handle. Thus, Wen Peng and He Zhen established their honorable reputation as the fathers of seal engraving schools of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The following sections are included:

• Cheng Sui: Weeding out the obsolete, bringing forth the quaint and vintage style
• Lin Gao: Refined and graceful, connecting the old and the new
• Gao Fenghan: Vigorous and forceful, bold and unconstrained
• Further Notes: Zeng Yandong — A man with an unruly mind
• Ding Jing: A smart learner of the classics, the founder of Zhe School
• Further Notes: Xiling Masters — Jiang Ren, Huang Yi, Xi Gang, Chen Yuzhong, Chen Hongshou and Zhao Zhichen
• Qian Song: Quaint appeal and ethereal spirit, unrivaled in history
• Further Notes: Zhang Yanchang — Introducing Feibai into Seal Engraving
• Deng Shiru: Integrating calligraphy in seal engraving, the founder of Wan School
• Further Notes: Wu Xizai — Carrying forward Wan School, building leisurely spirit and imposing momentum with the shallow peeling-cut technique
• Further Notes: Wu Zi — Integrating sacrificial vessel inscriptions in seal engraving, archaically beautiful and lucidly elegant
• Further Notes: Xu Sangeng — Creating an exceptional style of elegancy, enjoying a high reputation in Japan
• Further Notes: Zhao Mu — Refined and ethereal, expressing vintage charm
• Zhao Zhiqian: An enthusiast of classics and a keen explorer, a blooming talent and an unceasing innovator
• Wu Changshuo: An excavator of the ancient and the modern, creating the style of archaic solemnity and unrestrained vigor
• Further Notes: Hu Jue — A devotee of jade seals of the Han Dynasty, weeding through the old to create the new
• Huang Shiling: Incorporating bronze inscriptions, unadorned in form and graceful in spirit
• Further Notes: Li Yinsang — A keen learner of pre-Qin seals, an inheritor of Yishan School
• Further Notes: Deng Erya — Adhering to the tradition of Yishan School, exploring new forms of expression
• Further Notes: Yi Dachang — Unrestrained in style, avant-garde in composition
• Further Notes: Qiao Dazhuang — Quaint and graceful, in pursuit of ornamental effect

The following sections are included:

• Qi Baishi: Forthright in artistic spirit, fervid in artistic presentation
• Seal Engraving Art in Shanghai: Young talents with distinctive strengths, opening a new era in modern seal art
• Zhao Guni: A brilliant disciple of Wu Changshuo, turning the round to the square
• Deng Sanmu: A student of Zhao Guni, exceeding his teacher in fame
• Qian Shoutie: Vigorous and unrestrained, bold and lofty
• Lai Chusheng: Free and succinct, vivid and expressive
• Wang Fu’an: Serene and profound, exquisite and well-balanced
• Fang Jiekan: Elegant and vivacious, creating a new style of bird-worm seal script
• Chen Julai: Neat and graceful, unequalled in Yuan-style seals
• Qian Juntao: A successor of Zhao Zhiqian and Huang Shiling, combining elegance with boldness
• Fang Quji: Uneven and unconventional, remolding the artistic styles of seals of the Qin Dynasty
• Lingnan Seal Art: Breaking through the tradition of Yishan School, striving for innovation
• Jian Jinglun: Introducing oracle bone script into seal engraving, uncomplicated and relaxing in style
• Ding Yanyong: Delving into the ancient, merging western art with Chinese seal tradition

The practice of inscribing texts on seal sides originated from the bronze vessel inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. According to the extant seals, the earliest seal side inscription appeared on the half-square seal “Hao Shi” (郝氏) of the Qin Dynasty which was collected in Zhenqin Study (珍秦斋) in Macau. The four sides of the seal are inscribed with “Fen” (忿), “Shen” (罙), “Yu” (欲), “Wu Si” (毋思), etc., words that express emotions. The characters are engraved in Qin-styled seal script and are inlaid with silver. The earliest side inscription on official seals appeared in the Sui Dynasty. The head of the two official seals “Guang Na Fu Yin” (广纳府印) and “Guan Yang Xian Yin” (观阳县印) are chiseled with “Made on October 1st in the 16th year of Emperor Wen’s reign” and “Made on October 5th in the 16th year of Emperor Wen’s reign” respectively. The two inscriptions are the seal craftsmen’s records of the emperor’s reign title and the specific date of the production. The side inscriptions of official seals of the Tang and Song Dynasties not only recorded the production date, but also added notes to the seal inscriptions, names of the foundry, serial numbers, etc. Most of the early inscriptions on the sides of official seals, as it were, were nowhere near “art”. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties personal seals began to be widely used among men of letters and a few of them had side inscriptions. A two-sided overturned bucket-shaped bronze personal seal “Zhang Tong Zhi Yin ·Ye Fu” (张同之 印 ·野夫) was unearthed from Zhang Tong’s tomb of the Southern Song Dynasty in Huangyue Ridge (黄悦岭) in Jiangpu County (江浦县), Nanjing in 1971. The four sides of the seal are inscribed in seal script with a note that reads: “Born on December 14th, he and I share the same birthday. So I call him ‘Tong’ (同).” However, this kind of records on seal sides was still rare among personal seals of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the creation of side inscription was very scarce. It was not until stone seals were introduced into the seal art world in the Ming Dynasty that seal side inscriptions evolved into a real art form. Since then, the stone materials have been extensively used and seal art has shown a significant difference from its tradition established in the Zhou, Qin and the two Han Dynasties…

The following section is included:

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