At the beginning of the new year, the chill of the land of China gradually faded, and the spring color was about to appear, and people welcomed the new beginning in various ways, including many artistic creations full of humanistic atmosphere. Seal carving is a unique art form in China, which combines the formal beauty of Chinese characters and the image beauty of images. Let's make a seal with a combination of words and images, and carve the expectation of the New Year together in this diverse, rich and profound culture.
Qing Dynasty Zhu Ruzhen "Jiachen Bangyan" Shoushan Stone Seal Collection of the Palace Museum.
Chronological seals are a large category of seals, which are printed in the sexagenary script. The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are the ancient Chinese chronological calendar, which combines the heavenly stems (A, B, C, D, E, G, G, XIN, NON, and Gui) with the earthly branches (Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) to form a trunk branch, each stem branch is one year, and sixty years is a cycle. Because the starting stem branch is "Jiazi", it is called "Sixty Jiazi". The chronological seal is mostly used as an idle seal, and the seal is usually two characters, and the most common form is a semi-pass seal. The size of the semi-pass seal is a commonly used seal (both length and width are 2.).5 cm square) and can be designed in a variety of styles.
Jiachen Bangyan "Shoushan Stone Seal."
Self-engraved and self-used chronographs are often more ingenious. For the same printed text, if the composition is different, the font choice is different, there will be thousands of changes, we can find a wealth of styles in ancient seal notation and calligraphy and painting works. The chronological seal can be combined with the zodiac seal and the auspicious language seal. The zodiac seal is printed with the image of the 12 zodiac animals; Through concise and elegant words, Ji Yuyin integrates the beautiful meaning into the printing surface and the beautiful expectations for the new year. You can also list the years that are very important to you or the years in which important events occurred, and engrave them into idle chapters, such as Zheng Banqiao's "Bingchen Jinshi" seal is to engrave the year and achievements of your participation in the scientific examination into the seal. This "Bingchen Jinshi" seal is printed with brick text, the text is taken from the brick inscription of the Han and Jin dynasties, the glyph is between the seals, rough and simple, the side section is deliberately processed into a distressed effect, rounded corners, and the printed strokes are not deliberately modified, suitable for use in the freehand style of the work.
Zheng Banqiao "Bingchen Jinshi" seal.
Since the age of 51, every New Year, at dawn, he burns incense and sits, and engraves the year seal. This custom continued until his death, and it was never interrupted. Zhao Shuru engraved the "Jiazi" year seal, wide side Zhu Wen, choose the ancient seal seal style, the square corner border is wide and thick, the text chooses the gold text of the same period, the overall stability, both square and round. The source of the text recorded in the side paragraph is a work of good calligraphy and engraving, which is intriguing.
Zhao Shuru's "Jiazi" seal.
Lai Chusheng is good at carving the zodiac seal, that is, integrating the zodiac and the year into one. His seal was made at the age of forty-seven. This "癸卯" zodiac rabbit seal has a thin edge Zhu Wen, rounded corners, elegant and comfortable, and the shape is very classic, suitable for use in more neat works.
Come to Chusheng "癸卯" seal.
As an essential part of calligraphy and painting works, seals can not only make the formal beauty of the work more complete, but also enhance the visual effect of the work, and can also be enjoyed as an interesting work alone. 2024 is the year of Jiachen in the lunar calendar, and the year seal of Jiachen can take a variety of seal characters, with different printing styles, and can carve works of different forms.
Wide-sided Zhuwen "Jiachen" seal.
Thin edge Zhu Wen "Jiachen" seal.
The brick inscription is printed with the "Jiachen" seal.
Horizontally arrange the "Jiachen" seal.
Although the seal is mainly square, the composition can be varied. The simpler ones are tile and gourd. The tile shape seal can take the semicircle of half a tile, and the gourd-shaped seal can be connected by two circles, which not only enriches the form of expression, but also adds the interest of the seal. The "Jiachen" seal of the half-tile retains the way the tile is printed in the center and the grid, the text rotates with the shape, radiates from the center point to the outer circle, the vertical lines are concentric circles, the composition is stable, and the strokes are uniform. The gourd-shaped "Kochen" seal can be designed according to the shape, making the seal extremely decorative.
Half a tile as a "Jiachen" seal.
Gourd-shaped "Jiachen" seal.
Wei stele body is attributed to regular script, the body is handsome, the pen is longitudinal, the style is unique, and it is also commonly used to govern the seal. The printing material selected for the "Jiachen" seal of the Wei stele body is made of grinding ancient bricks, and the effect of the seal is more rugged.
Wei stele body "Jiachen" seal.
The bead seal is engraved with two words in one side of the seal, leaving a blank space in the middle, and the visual effect is like a combination of two square seals, which is also a common printing style. When engraving, not only can the seal characters be taken in many ways, but also Zhu Wen and Bai Wen can also be in one side of the seal at the same time.
Lianzhu Zhuwen "Jiachen" seal.
The upper Zhu text and the lower white text "Jiachen" seal.
Add the word "Daji" after "Jiachen", which is an auspicious language seal. The "Jiachen Daji" seal in white text imitates the casting style, and the whole is stable and full. If you want to show some changes on the printing surface, you can add a boundary grid and depict it with a single knife to form a frank style, or you can take the style of the ancient seal and present it with four-character Zhuwen, or arrange the seal vertically.
Full white text "Jiachen Daji" seal.
Jiege Baiwen "Jiachen Daji" seal.
The chronological seal is only the size of jujube chestnut, but it can play the role of the finishing touch in calligraphy and painting works. If you write short essays or poems, engrave them into side paragraphs, and record a year's learning and creative experience, you can enrich the connotation of the chronological seal and gather a lot of beauty between square inches.
The ancient seal seal style "Jiachen Daji" seal.
Vertical "Jiachen Daji" seal.
Every New Year, when a small chronograph can be used again, it is already sixty years later. At that time, presumably this seal will definitely evoke your long-lost memories, and this small stone can freeze time here, and you have to make people feel that "the stone can't be said to be the most lovely".
This article is excerpted from Calligraphy Education, Issue 1, 2024.
Jiachen's "New Chapter - Light Inch Iron Ploughing Stone Field Fine Engraving Dry Branch Seal Chronicle".
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