Do you have to practice calligraphy well when learning seal cutting?

As we all know, learning seal cutting must be based on calligraphy. If our understanding only ends here, I think it is still a little lacking. China's calligraphy includes seal script, official script, original works, calligraphy and calligraphy. Needless to say, it is difficult for professional calligraphers and calligraphy lovers to do everything. Even if they are all talented people, I'm afraid they can only specialize in one or two of them, let alone the seal engraver and seal engraver who focus on seal management. At present, some seal cutting enthusiasts are unrealistic, thinking that it is not ideal to have only one seal cutter's title, so it is better to add the title of painter or theorist. Cheng Yi once said in the Song Dynasty: "Learn and specialize, but spread without virtue." People often judge an artist's achievements not by the number of projects he has dabbled in and mastered, but by whether his creation or research level in an art field has reached an outstanding and profound level. Taking contemporary calligraphers as an example, the running script of Sha Menghai and Qigong, the cursive script of Lin Sanzhi and Gao Ershi, the seal script of Jiang Weisong and Liu Zidu, and the official script of Lu and Gong Wang are all very distinctive and impressive. The reason why these calligraphers are recognized by the book world is precisely because their creative level and artistic taste in a certain style have reached a considerable height. In fact, what these calligraphers are good at is a well-known and well-received book, and other books are not unreasonable. It's just that they are well versed in scholarship and are good at highlighting their own advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, there should be differences in the learning purpose and emphasis between seal cutting lovers and calligraphy lovers. Calligraphy lovers learn calligraphy in order to be calligraphers in the future. They can choose seal script, official script, original script and cursive script at will. The main task of seal cutting enthusiasts is to create seals and prepare for being printers in the future. Because it is necessary for them to choose the methods of seal script and official script that are closely related to themselves as the focus of their study, and if possible, transfer to another school after mastering them skillfully. In the early 1940s, Mr. Fu Baoshi discussed the reasons for the decline of seal cutting in the Tang and Song Dynasties in a brief history of seal cutting in China. He said: "In my opinion, (1) as a supplement to seal cutting, the art of engraving has suddenly declined since the Wei and Jin Dynasties; (2) After the Six Dynasties, the methods of seal cutting and official script established on the basis of seal cutting were softened and gradually developed into regular script, running script and cursive script. Seal cutting is separated from seal cutting calligraphy, losing strong credentials, and naturally falling into a stagnant fate. " I think what Mr. Bao Shi said is very incisive. On the other hand, there is a crooked, dismembered and tattered bad style in the printing industry in China, precisely because the printing industry despises the methods of seal script and official script. Nowadays, many young and middle-aged seal engravers give up seal engraving and official script and return to cursive script (although there are many reasons, the main reason is quick success and instant benefit). They are happy to show their cursive scripts in some big exhibitions at home and abroad, neither for printing nor for seal cutting and official script. This wrong orientation has brought many negative effects to young people studying in India. The works of Mr Kobayashi, a master of modern Japanese seal cutting, are probably familiar to us. He studied printing with Mr. He Jing at the age of 20, and has never relaxed his research on seal script for decades (his books have never participated in exhibitions and are not easily displayed, but only serve seal cutting). He believes: "People who engage in seal cutting must first be good at writing seal scripts, because seal cutting skills are closely related to calligraphy, and a skilled person will hold a knife freely. Seal cutting is an artistic work that emphasizes the meaning of the knife, and the meaning of the knife must be consistent, so I have always adhered to this belief. It is impossible for people who are not good at seal cutting to carve a good seal.