After more than 1,000 years of history, China has given birth to many rich and colorful art forms, among which the unique cultural atmosphere such as calligraphy and seals is the most eye-catching.
These treasures of traditional culture not only symbolize the spiritual outlook of the Chinese nation, but also are the distinctive representatives and unique symbols of China's excellent traditional culture.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of Chinese seal art, revealing its profound connotation and its profound influence on China and its associated regional culture.
There is no doubt that the Chinese seal is one of the unique artistic expressions with strong cultural heritage in China.
As early as thousands of years ago in the land of China, those literati and artists who loved life and pursued beautiful things began to explore this spiritual art field.
Through meticulous observation and perception of all things in nature, they create seals of different shapes and create unique artistic images.
Chinese seal carving, known as a treasure in the art of seals, its ingenious design, makes each seal an independent world.
This ancient art is still alive and well today, and countless artists are working tirelessly to Xi and explore it every day, drawing nourishment and inspiration from it, giving new life to these ancient art forms.
The reason why Chinese seals have such strong vitality stems from their profound historical and cultural connotations. Originally, the seal was only used as a token to facilitate the exchange of letters, but over time, it gradually evolved into a cultural symbol with great artistic appeal.
Especially under the brushes of calligraphers and painters in China, seals have been endowed with deeper meanings and have become an important carrier for them to express their thoughts and emotions.
Over the course of its long history, Chinese seals have gradually developed a variety of genres and styles. For example, the Han seal of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the jade seal of the Song Dynasty are all classics in the history of seal development.
At the same time, artists from different fields have also drawn inspiration from the art of seals to inject new elements into their creations.
All in all, with its unique cultural charm, the Chinese seal, which has been honed for more than 1,000 years, has been deeply integrated into our daily life and has become an important part of China's excellent traditional culture.
Although times have changed, these exquisite seals continue to exude charm and inspire future generations.
In ancient China, the use of seals can be traced back to the Yin Shang and Warring States periods, when seal production had reached a very high level.
At the same time, seals played an important role in both life and politics, so the system and norms for seals were formulated.
The development of Chinese characters during the Warring States period can be called brilliant, and two major changes were completed, one was the change of fonts in the late Spring and Autumn period, and later the unification of characters after the unification of the world by the Qin State. At that time, the Qin script was used as the criterion, so that the unification of the script could be realized.
During the Warring States period, Chinese characters appeared in different forms of deformation, with five major systems, such as Qi, Yan, Jin, Chu, and Qin, each with its own unique configuration, which constituted a significant difference between different characters. As a part of the Warring States culture, the seal is also reflected in its writing characteristics.
In addition to the significant radical structure, the configuration of some words in the Warring States period also has regional characteristics. For example, when it comes to the "Fu" scripts, they all show distinct differences in the Qi, Yan, Jin, Chu, and Qin countries. Many researchers have found that the Warring States script often added short and horizontal characters as decoration, which is strongly evidenced by the seal script.
Like the birth of other artifacts, the appearance of seals also requires a deep technical foundation. It has been suggested that the creation of ancient Chinese seals is closely related to the pottery with seals, and that such seal-colored artifacts first appeared in the middle to late Neolithic period. At that time, there were two ways to make pottery ornamentation: by beating or pressing.
As we all know, most of the ancient Chinese seals were made of copper, so there seems to be some mysterious connection between the production of seals and the brilliant bronze culture of China. Combined with the unearthed cultural relics and the level of development of productive forces, the Chinese Bronze Age is likely to be the time when the seal was born.
Initially, the seal was not a purely practical tool or a work of art, but developed alternately between practical and artistic. It was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that seals began to focus on practicality, and their artistic nature weakened, evolving into a practical seal system that did not pursue individual artistic beauty.
Throughout the evolution of Chinese seals, although they have a long history, their essential form and use methods have not changed much, which is really magical. If you want to measure the breadth of a culture, I am afraid that there is no object that can exceed the scope of a seal.
China's seals have a long history, and the ones preserved today are rich and diverse, with more than 10,000 pieces, which have fully influenced various fields in ancient times. Among them, according to the characteristics of the seals themselves, we can simply and roughly divide them into two categories - private seals and official seals.
Western and Chinese seals have been used for thousands of years, and each has formed a unique seal culture in the process of development. In China, seals can be traced back to more than 1300 BC and have become an integral part of Chinese civilization.
Similarly, seals have been deeply imprinted in the history of civilizations in various regions, from Mesopotamia to ancient India to ancient Egypt, and although early architectural carvings may have disappeared, we can still get a glimpse into the life and wisdom of the ancients with the help of these fragmentary seals.
Regardless of the region, the seal originated from a simple impression, which was originally used to decorate vesselsIn the West, however, it is no longer the only sign of a region, family, or individual, but reflects the initial form of the seal.
In China, on the other hand, impressions have evolved to become a special tool for making characters, so the text in seals often takes on proprietary characteristics.
Throughout the development of ancient Chinese seals, it can be roughly divided into four stages. The period before the Yuan Dynasty is defined as the "germination period", and although there have been some sporadic theories of seals, they have generally not been fully formed.
In the Yuan Dynasty, with the rise of literati seal carving, the theory of seal science began to take shape and began to thrive. In the late Ming Dynasty, the art of seal carving became more mature, and theoretical research became more and more prosperousAt the same time, the wide application of stone printing materials and the circulation of ancient seals may also be an important reason for the prosperity of seals in this period.
Finally, the Qing Dynasty is known as the first era of the development of seal theory, and many incisive views and appreciation theories of seal science are generally reflected in the edge of seal spectrum and seal.
The extensive involvement of literati has made the theory of printing closely related to the literature of Zaide. From ancient times to the present, Chinese literary and artistic trends have been deeply influenced by literature, especially music theory.
Since the Han Dynasty, literature has gradually established its own unique aesthetic value standards, not only inheriting and promoting the authentic concepts of traditional culture, but also beginning to pay attention to the role and performance of emotional aesthetic elements in creation.
Influenced by literature, Indian school theories often show the reflective concept of promoting justice and overcoming **. This is mainly because the rich and diverse literary theories have provided rich ideological resources for the Indian school theory.
Although the theory of the Indian school started a little later, in its early stage, literature was quite mature, and its profound way of thinking deeply influenced the formation of the theory of the Indian school.
Orthodoxy, the core idea of Confucian classics, originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, and it had a strong influence on the traditional view of history.
Orthodox words are often used to indicate the legitimacy and correctness of a certain norm or rule, and things that deviate from the orthodox track are often not recognized by society.
Every innovation in literary and artistic theory means to promote the current literature and art to a wider application, and to make it conform to a higher level of artistic pursuit.
The ancient trend of thought can be traced back to Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, who preferred to return to old Xi customs at a time when princes were reforming and seeking innovation.
Since then, the ancient trend of thought has become an inherent consciousness in people's hearts, although the ancient trend of thought may be slightly different from ancient times to the present, but the mentality of respecting ancient traditions and yearning for ancient style has never changed.
Traditional Chinese art emphasizes the sincere expression of emotions, and seal art is no exception. In Indian theory, lyrical themes are emphasizedIt draws on the theoretical essence of "The Preface to Poems" and "Music Notes", and at the same time is closely connected with literary thought, so as to make its connotation more colorful. The discourse of emotion in Indian theory can be divided into two categories: temperament and expression.
Among them, temperament focuses on the joys, sorrows, and sorrows of human life;The expression emphasizes the vibration and feeling brought about by the collision of the person's inner spiritual qualities and seals.
Just as literary works are often characterized by emotional overflows, emotions are always the most instinctive part of human nature, so lyricism has become an important means of literary expression. The lyricism of the Indian school theory also comes from this.
However, seal is an art form that uses Chinese characters to express itself in a limited space, and it is highly abstract, and it is difficult to depict lyricism more delicately and concretely, which is why it is difficult to resonate widely.
Whether it is words, poems, songs or dances, it is an expression of people's psychological and emotional world. Although the seal is only a small object, it can also express the author's heart.
The change in the art of seals lies in the fingers, and to understand it is to experience it with the heart. So in the process of seal carving, will there really be such a rich emotional experience infiltrating it?Can the viewer feel the "breath" behind the various emotions, and the subtle differences between them?
Yang Shixiu of the Ming Dynasty has a deep understanding of this, he said in his book "Yin Mu" that if emotions can touch people's heartstrings and integrate them into the seal, they will be as magical as magic, and achieve the effect of unintentionally inserting willows and willows.
In the theory of ancient books in China, the relationship between the theory of printing and the theory of books is inseparable. From the point of view of theory or form, the Indian theory has a trade-off between the book theory, and the form is especially significant. For example, the "Seal Law" of the Ming Dynasty imitated Su Dongpo's discourse.
In addition, the famous passages in the book theory are also similarly reflected in the seal theory, such as the famous words of Tang Sun Guoting in the "Book Pedigree". This shows that the Indian theory is also influenced by the book theory in terms of language expression.
Since the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, seal elements are often added to paintings, sometimes in the corners, sometimes on the picture, the bright red and black just meet the unique aesthetic taste of the Chinese, so people are easy to accept and love. The increasing influence of seals in calligraphy and painting has made more exchanges and blends between painting theory and seal theory.
The so-called "Yi, God, Wonder, and Energy" both originated from paintings, and were later inherited and carried forward in prints. During the Tang and Song dynasties, painting criticism adopted the method of dividing works into different grades according to the four criteria of "Shen, Miao, Neng, and Yi", among which "Shen, Miao, and Neng" were refined into three categories.
In the evaluation process of stamping, we focus on gestures and knife skills. The four criteria of God, Wonder, Ability, and Yi that we propose are entirely centered around knife technique and gestures, which provide a deeper perspective for understanding the art of seals.
When it comes to the difference between the north and the south in ancient seal theory, it has to be mentioned that the distinction between the north and the south is the difference. Whether it is the comparison between the northern and southern schools in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, or the difference between the north and the south in Zen Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, or even the northern and southern sects of landscape painting in the eyes of the literati of the Ming Dynasty, they can all be regarded as vivid cases of the difference between the north and the south. In the field of Indian theory, there is also a division between north and south.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jian, in his book "The Book of Seals", clearly divided the seals into "craftsman seals" and "literati seals".
Among them, the elegant taste of the "literati seal" is undoubtedly a kind of sublimation and transcendence compared with the plain and practical taste of the "craftsman seal". Zhu Jian's above-mentioned views were obviously influenced by the north-south sectarianism of landscape painting.
Talking about specific examples, Ye Erkuan's "Imitation of the Seal and the Passing of the Lamp" in the Qing Dynasty is a clear proof. The book directly imitates the six methods of painting evaluation in the "Catalogue of Ancient Paintings" of the Southern Qi Dynasty, and applies them to the appreciation of seals with slight changes.
The first seal art of the Yuan Dynasty is in the transition stage from prosperity to decline. Although the official seal has become larger and uses ancient calligraphy such as the Nine Stacks of Seals, the resulting visual effect is relatively monotonous and lifeless.
In contrast, private printing shows a process of innovative exploration, which undoubtedly shows new vitality and points of interest.
Due to the ruling class dominated by the Mongol aristocracy, the Yuan Dynasty formed a feudal regime composed of high-level leaders of various ethnic groups.
In order to adapt to this political structure, the Yuan Dynasty made extensive use of the Ba Si Pa script created by the lamas on official documents and official seals. Even so, the back of the flag seal still retains the engraved Chinese characters.
Since the unification of China by Yuan Shizu, the form of the official seal has been larger than before and the border has been widened. However, due to the use of more nine-fold seal fonts and large blank areas, many of the printing surfaces are laid out in a regular manner and lack of artistry, which affects their value. In contrast, private printing has a good artistic achievement in the process of originality and exploration.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the government carried out some innovations in the selection of seal materials and carving. In fact, although the shape of the official seal of the Ming Dynasty was large and some of the handwriting was stiff, and the artistic presentation tended to be rigid, the private seal of the same period made great progress at the artistic level, especially after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
The literati incorporated more elements into the seals, such as patterns, regular scripts, cursive scripts, official scripts, and pressed scripts, so that the works were both stable and unrestrained, reflecting a unique aesthetic experience.
The so-called famous style comes from the active participation of literati. This trend has spurred the expansion of the field of seals and opened up a whole new world of art for future generations.
At the same time, the input of scholars and artists has also diversified the scope and subject matter of the seal. Private printing has also been an important development during this time, setting a record of fine products in the seal industry and opening a new chapter.
The invention of Wang Mian's use of stone to create seals improved the environment for literati to create calligraphy and painting seals. With the change of seal materials, artists have more choices, thus opening a new era in the Chinese seal industry. In the late Ming Dynasty, a large number of literati artists devoted themselves to seal carving, which strengthened the cultivation of writing art and inherited the tradition of seal learning since the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Their unremitting efforts have made the connotation of seal art richer and more artistic.
Although some traditional cultures may have been dormant in the long river of history with the changes of the times, as the descendants of the Chinese, we have the responsibility to continue to discover and pass them on.
Handmade seal carving has a history of thousands of years and has become one of the independent art forms. Through seals, we can trace the history of history, and also gain insight into the great changes in society and the evolution of culture and art.