What are the meanings of "carving insects" and "small skills"? Why is carving insects and seal cutting degraded?

Insect carving skills? Everyone must be familiar with this idiom, which means a metaphor for some trivial skills. If it is used on others, it will have some derogatory meaning, and if it is used on yourself, it will become modesty. So everyone understands? Carving insects? And? Trick? What does it mean? Actually? Carving insects? It doesn't mean carving insects, but a kind of calligraphy called carving insects and seal cutting. In Qin books, insect calligraphy and engraving are two kinds of fonts. It was also a difficult technical job to learn this font at that time. Then why is carving insects and seal cutting degraded? Let's reveal this secret for everyone. Let's take a look. ? When a pen falls, it scares the wind and rain, and a poem makes you cry? Li Bai, a young man, often used poetry as a stepping stone in order to become an official. For example, he wrote a letter of recommendation to Han Chaozhong, who was good at introducing talents to the court. The beginning was:? I don't need to seal Wan Huhou, but I wish I knew Han Jingzhou (? Know Jing? That's how the word comes from)? At the end of the letter, don't forget to belittle yourself:? Fear of carving small tricks, not adults? .

? Insect carving skills? From Sui Shu? Biography of Li Delin:? Carving insects is a small skill, and it is almost like a generation of children. ? Some scholars also believe that the original name of carving insects is? Carving insects and seal cutting? , from the Western Han Dynasty writer Yang Xiong's "Fa Yan? My son, he regarded his talent for composing poems when he was young as just a skill of carving insects and cutting seals, and he stopped doing it when he was an adult.

? Seal cutting? Easy to understand, but what is it? Carving insects?

? Worm? , here refers to a style of writing, namely? Worm book? Also known as? Bird book? Or? Bird and insect seal? (pre-Qin period? Birds? Also known as? Feather worm? , refers to the insect with wings), as Duan Yucai wrote in the Note in the Qing Dynasty:? The book of birds and insects means that it is either like a bird or an insect, and the insect is also called a feather insect. ?

A book of birds and insects, in which the glyph is integrated with the bird shape, or the bird shape is attached to the word for decoration; His strokes pretend to be winding and winding, like the bending of insect bodies. Bird and Insect Calligraphy is a variant of seal script in the pre-Qin period, which is a special artistic font popular in southern countries such as Wu, Yue, Chu, Cai and Song in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, representing the aesthetic appreciation of characters in that era.

At that time, in addition to being used for flags, weapons and symbols, birds and insects were more decorated with inscriptions on bronzes, and many of them were inlaid with gold in the concave lines of the inscriptions (staggered gold technology), which was even more noble and gorgeous. Because,? Carving? In addition to referring to large raptors (birds), it also includes the meaning of carving, so the ancients called it carving insects to write or carve the book of birds and insects. Later, the ancients used to compare writing calligraphy to carving insects, while writing articles was called carving dragons.

however, how did this difficult-to-master carved insect script degenerate into? Trick? And?

? Trick? What is it? Technology, from hand, from branch, hand and branch together, represents a kind of manual work to maintain life or support family, and its original meaning is the craft on which to make a living. ? Trick? Is a trivial craft, or a trivial skill. Although the calligraphy style of carving insects was widely used by southern countries in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was once listed as one of the eight styles in Qin Shu, it was a decorative art calligraphy style, and its practicality was not strong. Later, it was gradually abandoned by people, so it was rarely reproduced since the Han Dynasty.

However, at present, we can occasionally see folk artists writing a kind of so-called bird and insect calligraphy with homemade bamboo or wooden pens. As for whether this colorful font, like the big quilt on the northeast kang, has a relationship with the carved insect calligraphy in the pre-Qin period, I don't know.

Because of the fixed decorative style of carved insect calligraphy, it is difficult to match with the style of calligraphy that pursues individuality, so it was dismissed as a cliche or a craftsman by later literati. Sun Guoting despised the carved insect calligraphy as? Skillfully involved in Dan Qing, thanks to calligraphy? It's just a trick

? Technology? The reason why it became? Small? ,? Insect carving skills? There is also a historical and social reason why it is called insignificant skill. Craft is mastered by people, so? Technology? It also refers to people who are engaged in some industries or handicrafts, that is, craftsmen or craftsmen.

China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times, and taking agriculture as the foundation was a historical choice at that time. Under the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining industry and commerce, the social status of ancient craftsmen in China was low, and all people and things related to technology seemed to be ignored by society, making it difficult to be elegant and rich.

in the bronze inscription? Baigong? , is almost slave handicraft workers. By the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong, Prime Minister of Qi State, proposed? Scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen? The theory of the separation of the four people's settlements objectively contributed to the later feudal society? Scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen? Division of status. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the status of craftsmen was improved. But in the yuan dynasty, the government passed strict? Craftsman? System, to restrict and enslave craftsmen. It was not until after the Qing Dynasty that the craftsman system, which had been implemented for more than two thousand years, was abolished.

In ancient China, since craftsmen were at the bottom of society, they could not talk about their political status, so their occupation was not something to show off, let alone their relationship with? Put the family, rule the country, and level the world? Compared with the scholar-officials, it can't even be compared with? Do it at sunrise and rest at sunset? The farmer-farmer ratio is the same, in? Wonderful workmanship? 、? Ingenious? 、? Skillful craftsman? Behind their praise, their contribution to civilized society is inevitable in the end? Insect carving skills? Strange skills and cunning? The destination, so there will be? A man who works hard, a gentleman despises? Social discrimination is deeply rooted.