One summer during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a travel-stained year came to Hangzhou to worship the famous jeweler Ding Jing and carry two pumpkins on his back, which spread all over the city. This young man is Zhang Yanchang, who later became a famous seal cutting master of Zhejiang School. His sincerity finally touched Ding Jing, who was over 60 years old, so he made an exception and accepted the student and gave him careful guidance. Zhang Yanchang's family is poor. In his hometown of Haiyan, Zhejiang, there are no famous teachers and lack of information. However, he is very clever. He has studied hard since he was a child and can remember thousands of words. After that, I traveled across the ocean to Ningbo, observed and copied the "Shi Guwen" tablet, and worked hard day and night after returning home. I also named my study "Shigu Pavilion", collected hundreds of kinds of stone inscriptions and wrote a book "Stone Carving".
["born late"]
Wu Xizai was very proficient in calligraphy and seal cutting since childhood, but in his later years, he became interested in freehand brushwork flowers. He was not afraid of old age and infirmity, nor conceited, because his calligraphy and seal cutting were quite famous at that time. On the contrary, he humbly worshipped Ji Zheng, a painter ten years younger than him, and studied painting for more than ten years. Therefore, Wu Xizai once carved several seals of "late birth" and "late birth" on his paintings, which really means "it is never too old to learn".
["Waste Taoist" is not waste]
Gao, a Qing man (also one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou"), was nicknamed "Abandoned Taoist" because his right arm was disabled due to illness. He is good at poetry, calligraphy and printing. After his illness, he insisted on writing and drawing with his left hand and carving. His seals, brushwork and knife cutting are very powerful, and Zheng Banqiao once asked him to carve many seals. He also loves inkstone. Whenever he gets a good inkstone, he will personally carve it with his left hand and carve words on it. What a waste of Taoist priests. Contemporary disabled young people also have the deeds of studying calligraphy and seal cutting hard. How inspiring it should be for our healthy teenagers!
["big idiot" and "little idiot"]
Wang Dongyang, an Amin, changed his name to Crown because he got the seal of "Crown" left by the Han Dynasty. His family is poor, so it is not easy to insist on learning seal cutting. But Wang Guan can make great efforts to study ancient Chinese characters and attack Chinese and Indian at the same time, and the carving is very real. It is said that his works are put together with the real China seal. Even experts can't tell, so by the end of the Ming Dynasty, many great officials and painters had to be sealed by Wang Guan. Wang Guan and his son Hong are so obsessed with seals that they have two nicknames at random-"Big Idiot" and "Little Idiot".
["Bald heads can only survive"]
1957, Deng Sanmu was trapped in a book criticizing the Ministry of Culture for not paying attention to calligraphy and seal cutting, and was labeled as "Rightist". In five years, he was hospitalized three times, underwent two major operations, and spent half his time in bed, which was extremely stressful mentally and in life. But he carved a seal: "Only a bald head can keep a pure heart", and as long as physical conditions permit, he insisted on writing, insisting on engraving and reading, even though no one published it, he still wrote a lot of manuscripts. At the age of 60, Deng Sanmu signed his name "One Foot" after amputating his left lower limb due to blood vessel blockage. The next year, he underwent major surgery for a stomach tumor. At that time, he even had difficulty lifting chopsticks, but he still persevered in practicing holding a pen in his left hand, chiseling it with a hammer, and carving the seal "Who is sick and fails". He endured his illness and unreservedly contributed the last light and heat in his life to the seal cutting that he loved all his life.
[Daylight Saving Time]
Deng Sanmu left more than 50 marks and more than 5,000 marks in his life, which is inseparable from his long-term efforts. He often practices "daylight saving time" and puts the clock forward one hour. Please take a look at their daily lessons when studying: "Posting at six o'clock in the morning, writing at seven o'clock, printing at nine o'clock, reading at eleven o'clock, lettering at one o'clock in the afternoon, writing at three o'clock, drinking at seven o'clock, receiving visitors on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and not receiving visitors during working hours." After work, he got up at dawn and grinded a big inkstone until sunrise. This habit has been maintained until old age.
[A painter does not have to have three skills, but four skills]
This is the words of the late famous painter Pan Tianshou, which means that as a painter, you may not be able to reach the peak of poetry and painting, but you must print all the poems and paintings and emphasize the importance of seals. When Pan Tianshou was a child, his family was poor. He once dried, carved and baked the clay into cubes in the furnace to increase its hardness. In order not to make the clay absorb too much oil, he tried to Bo Tu a layer of melted paraffin. When I was young, I got enthusiastic guidance from Wu Changshuo. When studying in Zhejiang First Normal University, he joined the seal cutting organization in the school-"Send Du". At that time, all the money he carved was signed by Tian. After War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, in order to concentrate on painting, he didn't often paint.