Zhang Hanyue's Zhang Hanyue

Born in June 1906 in Huangdai Town outside Suzhou. Zhang Hanyue entered a private school when she was 7 years old and studied for eight years. When she was 15 years old, she began to study painting by herself. In 1923, 18-year-old Zhang Hanyue converted to Master Yinguang at the "Baoguo Temple" under the leadership of his teacher Xu Zhenyu, and took the name "De Jing" as his Dharma name. At the age of 23, he was taught by Wu Changshuo and introduced to Zhao Guni. Since then, he has been constantly catching swords and engraving more than ten thousand seals. In 1931, 21 printed works including "The Cold Moon Has a Penchant for Epigraphy and Stone Writing" were selected into the "Preliminary Collection of Authentic Calligraphy, Painting and Lettering by Ancient and Modern Celebrities" published by Suzhou Bookstore. During this period, Zhang Hanyue became famous and had many friends. She once competed with famous calligraphers, painters, and seal carvers such as Zhang Daqian, Ye Gongchuo, Zhang Danfu, and other famous calligraphers, painters, and seal carvers to learn stylus skills. She also explored the origins of oracle bones, bells and tripods, Qin seals, and Han seals. In 1939, Zhang Hanyue and her friends Zhu Zhuyun and Zhang Xingjie opened a "Begonia Pavilion" opposite the City God's Temple. They engaged in calligraphy, painting and seal cutting. They published two volumes of "Hanyue Zhaizhu Printing" with a print run of 1,000 copies and more than 200 copies of the inner collection. Three years later, it moved to the entrance of the Cha Yuan on Jingde Road for business. This period was the initial stage of his seal cutting art, and his personal style had initially taken shape. In 1947, Zhang Hanyue went to Shanghai's "Jing'an Gallery" to specialize in seal cutting until she returned to Suzhou after liberation. In the 1950s, Zhang Hanyue's seal-cutting artistic style reached its mature stage, and his works became more lush, full-bodied, mellow and solemn. In the autumn of 1959, he printed a set of six images of "Ding Ren's Escape" in order to educate future generations not to forget their sufferings, and participated in the work of the "Epigraphy Group" of the Suzhou Arts and Crafts Bureau. In September 1961, "Yishizhai" was officially established and began to create "Lu Xun's Pen Name Seal Book". In 1962, the Jiangsu Province Calligraphy and Seal Research Group was established, with Zhang Hanyue as a member. In 1963, there was an exhibition of calligraphy seals by Zhang Hanyue, Jiang Yinqiu, Zhu Jia and Cai Jinshi. Among them, Zhang Hanyue's works were highly appreciated by Guo Moruo and others. In 1966, three of his works, "Lu Xun's Pen Name Seal", "Tiger Seal" and "Suzhou Scenery" were exhibited at the Tokyo Art Museum in Japan. In the same year, "Thirty-Seven Poems of Chairman Mao" written by Suzhou calligraphers was engraved. In 1967, Wu Jinxian's copybook "Thirty-Seven Poems of Chairman Mao" was engraved. In 1968, he engraved a copybook of "Quotations from Chairman Mao" written by Xinwo Wei. In 1970, Zhang Hanyue was transferred to the "Fourth Radio Factory" as a warehouse keeper. In 1971, Zhang Hanyue was transferred to work in the "Suzhou Arts and Crafts Factory". During this period, he changed the subject matter of his seals from portraits to gardens and landscapes. In November 1973, his "Twelve Zodiac Seals" participated in the "National Arts and Crafts Exhibition". "Lu Xun's Pen Name Seal" has been displayed and collected by the "Lu Xun Memorial Hall" in Shanghai and Shaoxing and the "Mr. Lu Xun Recognition Meeting" of the China-Japan Friendship Association in Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai, Japan. In December 1979, he joined the famous seal society "Xileng Seal Society" and his works have been exhibited in many exhibitions. In the following years, he held several personal seal cutting exhibitions. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, it was a period of high productivity for his art, such as his representative works "Suzhou Scenery", "Ten Scenes of West Lake", "Eighteen Scenes of Changshu", etc. In 1984, eighty-year-old Zhang Hanyue spent two years engraving the masterpiece "Five Hundred Arhats in the West Garden", which is breathtaking. In July 1992, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House published "Selected Works of Zhang Hanyue's Metallic and Stone Seal Engravings" with a print run of 2,200 volumes. In December 1995, "Zhang Hanyue's 90th Birthday Teachers and Students Seal Cutting Art Exhibition" opened in the Suzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles Artist Exhibition Hall. Zhang Hanyue's works were highly praised. His representative works include "Lu Xun's Pen Name Seal", "Suzhou Scenery", "Hanshan Temple", etc. Most of his works have been exhibited in the Tokyo Art Museum in Japan and have been well received. Published include "The Seal of Hanyue Zhaizhu" and "Selected Collection of Zhang Hanyue's Metallic and Stone Seal Engravings", and large-scale works such as "Lu Xun's Pen Name Seal", "The Statue of Five Hundred Arhats in Xiyuan Temple", "Suzhou Garden Seal", etc.