Deng Shiru
Deng Shiru (1747-1805) was a calligrapher and seal carver of the Qing Dynasty. His original name was Yan, and his courtesy name was Shiru. Geng's courtesy name is Nianbo, and his nickname is Wanbaishanren. He is also known as Wanbai, Guhuan, Guhuanzi, Youji Taoist, Fengshui fisherman, Longshan woodcutter, etc. A native of Huaining, Anhui. When he was young, he was good at seal engraving. He was a student at Shouchun Academy in Shouzhou. Later, he came to Meiliu Mansion, where he had an overview of the auspicious gold and stone carvings of the past dynasties and found hundreds of copies of each type. Every day when I feel refreshed, I grind the ink on my plate until all the ink is gone before I go to bed. After eight years of cold and hot weather, I complete the four-body calligraphy. His calligraphy skills are so profound that Cao Wenqian called him the first four-body calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty. Due to his solid foundation in calligraphy, the various seal styles in his seal cutting works are full of spirit, and his sword skills are vigorous, simple and graceful, which makes his seal cutting achievements even more outstanding. On the margin of the seal he presented to Luo Pin, which is "Random Description of Fanhua Xiang Qinghao," he engraved the words "Liangfeng Zimei and Qiongyao are dazzling. Ancient Huanzi seal cutting is strong and graceful", which is indeed not a conceited statement. He was honest and honest, and after he became famous, he still supported himself by engraving books, so he lived in civilian clothes for the rest of his life. Its seal cutting is known as the "Deng School" in the world, and also known as the "Wan School". The late Qing seal carvers Wu Xizai, Zhao Zhiqian, Wu Changshuo, etc. were all influenced by him.
Wu Changshuo
Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) was originally named Jun, also known as Junqing, with the courtesy name Changshuo. He was also signed Cangshi, Cangshi, and named Foulu, Kutie, etc. A native of Anji, Zhejiang. A master of modern epigraphy, calligraphy and painting in my country.
He started his seal cutting from the Zhejiang School, and later specialized in Han seals. He was also influenced by Deng Shiru, Wu Rangzhi, Qian Song, Zhao Zhiqian and others. After the age of 31, he moved to Suzhou and traveled between Jiangsu and Zhejiang. He experienced a large number of gold and stone tablets, seals, calligraphy and paintings, and his horizons were broadened. Later, he settled in Shanghai, where he collected widely and advanced poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. In his later years, his style became outstanding and he became a great master.
His achievements in seal cutting have epoch-making significance for the art of seal cutting in my country. The main reason is that he integrated poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing into one furnace, opening up a new realm of seal cutting art. His achievements mainly come from his artistic cultivation and thoughts, which are specifically reflected in:
Poems are melted into seals. He likes to use hard words when writing poems, and he uses a blunt knife to drive in between the imprints. He wrote poems and made seals of the north and south peaks of West Lake, fusing the poems with the seals. He carved Anji County, Huzhou, with the gate and white clouds as the same seal, which is the starting line of Tang Zhou Pu's poem about Dongling water in Anji; the following line is that Yu's power is not everywhere, and the sound of the river flows to the west. He admired this poem very much, and thought that the ten words were written with great strength in the wordless area. Every time he used this seal, he would often have a daydream. This seal is specially engraved with a sentence, and the meaning is in the wordless place, which is quite implicit. It is true that there is poetry in the seal.
The painting melts into the seal. His paintings are ups and downs. He is good at leaving blank spaces or diagonally tilting them. His paintings are majestic and have a strong sense of blockiness in composition.
The book melts into the seal. His seal script has a strong personality, the characters in the seal are full of brushwork, and the knife blends into the pen. Therefore, his seal cuttings often show the characteristics of majestic yet charming, clumsy yet simple, ugly yet beautiful (the ugliness mainly lies in the dilapidation), ancient and modern (like ancient seals are new again), changing yet correct (many changes are in line with the norm). ) characteristics.
Many people are studying Wu Changshuo’s seal cutting today. Japanese seal engraver Kawai Tsuenro began to seek advice from Wu Changshuo in 1898 and introduced it to the Japanese seal engraving community, which had a great influence. Wu Changshuo is the author of "Foulu Collection" and "Foulu Yincun".