Seal cutting is the art of combining calligraphy (mainly seal script) with seal cutting (including chiseling and casting) to make seals, which is a unique art form of Chinese characters. Seal cutting rose in pre-Qin, flourished in Han, declined in Jin, lost in Tang and Song Dynasties, revived in Ming Dynasty and revived in Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 3700 years. Seal cutting has experienced more than ten dynasties since its origin. In this long-term development process, seal cutting has experienced two highly developed historical stages.
One is the Warring States, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. During this period, the materials used in seal cutting were mainly jade, gold, teeth and horns. Seal cutting developed in the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, but it was in decline. This situation took a turn for the better in the late Yuan Dynasty, when the painter Wang Mian discovered that the flower milk stone could be printed, thus making it an ideal material for printing.
In the Ming Dynasty, seal cutting entered a renaissance period. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, seal cutting has ushered in the second peak of development, and its seal cutting features are mainly various schools. It was not until Wu Changshuo, Li Liangyu and Qi Baishi, the modern masters of seal cutting, that a complete history of seal cutting in China was formed.
Seal cutting is a perfect combination of calligraphy, composition and knife cutting. On the one hand, there are magnificent and elegant calligraphy strokes, beautiful painting composition and vivid knife cutting and carving charm. It can be described as "between square inches, there are thousands of weather."