This newspaper specially invited Mr. Zhang Guowei, a famous contemporary Indian scholar, to write an article introducing the knowledge and culture of seal cutting.
Collection seals can be roughly divided into two categories: one is seals used for painting and calligraphy appreciation, inspection and collection; One is used to collect books and classic seals. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the same painting and calligraphy has been collected by collectors in past dynasties, and it may be covered with a large number of seals, forming an orderly seal system-seal, which has become an artistic element to identify the authenticity of painting and calligraphy.
Collection and seal of calligraphy and painting in past dynasties
According to historical records, the earliest collection of calligraphy and painting was in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but what we can see today is the earliest in the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin collected hundreds of volumes of paintings and calligraphy works by Zhong You, Zhang Zhi and Wang Xizhi, and bound them into volumes. He asked painters such as Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang to identify the authenticity, and then sealed the seam with a "Zhenguan" seal as an identification mark. Later, there were "Zhenguan", "Jixian Seal" and "Hanlin Seal", all of which were royal seals.
The emperor took the lead, ministers began to work, and private seal collections also emerged in large numbers. The famous ones are the tortoise seal of Wei, the Brahma seal of Princess Taiping, the seal of Yu Shinan of Yu Shinan, the seal of Chu of Chu Suiliang, the seal of Hedong Zhang of Zhang Yanyuan and so on.
In the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, there were more collections and seals. Song Huizong and Song Gaozong were the most famous in Song Dynasty, and Jin Zhangzong was the most famous in Jin Dynasty. Song Huizong Evonne is a great calligrapher, who created the "thin gold body" and is a master of flower-and-bird painting. There are more than ten kinds of common calligraphy and painting prints in Huizong Dynasty, among which seven kinds of prints, such as Imperial Book, Shuanglong and Neizhai Book Seal, are the most distinctive, and each seal has a fixed position. This method is also used in Jin Zhangzong's internal government, and seven seals are used, such as "Secret House" and "Mingchang".
During the Jingkang Rebellion, the Nomads invaded Tokyo, took Huidi and Qindi away, and all the books in the palace were lost. After Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty ascended the throne, it was widely collected, which kept the collection of books in Shaoxing's inner government undiminished. There are more than 20 seals in Gaozong's collection, of which "Shao" is the most common quotation.
The collection of private paintings and calligraphy in the Song Dynasty was also very developed. Su Jianyi, Su Jing, Su Shunqin and Su Mi are all good collectors. Tang Huaisu's "self-narrative post" has five family seals, such as "Guo Xu Descendants" and "Four Generations Photos". Mifei's personal prescription is printed with hundreds, divided into several grades. Among them, the hexagonal jade seal such as Xinmao Mifei, Mifei Seal and Mifei Seal is the highest grade, and "all those who have this seal are excellent". During the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Lingchou, Zhao and Jia Sidao were the most famous collectors. There are countless private collections and seals of calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty, and the later generations are even more vast.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Wenzong had seals such as "Li Bao" and "Zhang Kui Ge Bao". There is a seal of "Sister Huang's Letter" in Lu princess royal, which is common today. In private, there are Guo Tianxi's "You Zhi" seal, Zhao Mengzhi's "Zi Ang" seal and so on. In the Ming dynasty, there was a "seal of ceremony, discipline and inspection", which was the symbol of the internal supervision in charge of utensils. Private companies include, Wen Peng, Wen Jia's father and son's "Stop Cloud Pavilion" seal, and the "Teana Pavilion" seal.
Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty had a hobby, that is, carving words and seals on his paintings and calligraphy, and there were countless seals. It is quite common to see the treasures of Qianlong Royal Tour, the treasures of stone canals and the fine seal of Sanxi Hall. Collected in Gan Qing Palace, Ningshou Palace, hall of mental cultivation, Imperial Study Room and other different places will also be stamped with the local seal. He is the longest-lived emperor in the history of China, so he has seals such as "Emperor" and "Shou".
In the Qing Dynasty, Chen Ding, Liang Qingbiao, Sun Chengze, Cao Rong, Gao Shiqi, Prince Yi Yongxiang, An Qi, Miao Yuezao, Xie Xizeng, Wu Rongguang, Bi Long, Bi Yuan and other private seals were collected. But there are seals on their collections of paintings and calligraphy, and most of them are superior to the inferior. In modern times, there are too many such examples.
The function of calligraphy and painting identification of seal
After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, a painting and calligraphy work is indispensable to the seal of the author, the seal of the museum and the seal of the leisure chapter, and then the seal of the collections of past dynasties. There are hundreds of seals of the author, and the collection of seals has its own system, so it is a science to identify calligraphy and painting by seals. Calligraphy and painting appraisal includes artistic appraisal, technical appraisal and academic appraisal. Although the seal is small, its identification covers these three aspects.
1. Text, form, quality, color and stirrup
Throughout the ages, both calligraphy and painting printing and collection printing have undergone some changes in printing, printing shape, printing quality, printing color, sealing and so on. During the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, seal script was mostly small seal script, but in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was mainly ancient seal script and Miao seal script. The shapes of printing are generally square, rectangle, circle, ellipse and gourd. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, there were also grotesque shapes such as Zhong Ding shape, which was not easy to see in the Qing Dynasty.
Printing materials, such as copper, teeth, jade and so on. , are dignified, smooth and plain. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, stones with moderate hardness, such as Qingtian in Zhejiang Province and Shoushan in Fujian Province, appeared, which can show various knife techniques, but they have some emphasis. It must be said that the seal styles of "Huizhou School" and "Zhejiang School" in Qing Dynasty have nothing to do with local stone materials. Different printing quality will affect the effect of printing strokes, which can help us identify the fake printing of things with different quality.
In color printing, watermarks were mostly used in the Tang and Five Dynasties, and later there were bletilla striata watermarks and honey prints, which made the printed words deformed and blurred. There were more mimeographs than watermarks in the Southern Song Dynasty, and watermarks disappeared in the Yuan Dynasty. The printing color is mainly scarlet, but also crimson or purple yellow. The printing color is old and new, the old color is not hot, and the new color is shiny. Some counterfeiters soak the fire with soju, and some cover it with inkpad and soy sauce, which can be used as old wine. Some paintings and calligraphy are particularly well preserved, and the old prints are as good as new. In the Qing Dynasty, the court often used "eight treasures inkpad", and the printing color lasted for a long time. We can identify the authenticity of calligraphy and painting according to the printing color, but we should refer to other artistic elements.
The seal seems to be a rigid thing, but the seal of the same party can have many different effects when printed. Because the inkpad is dry and wet, the strength is light and heavy, the bottom is thick and thin, and the gloss, hairiness, thickness and fineness of the paper are different, some seals are inconsistent because of long wear time, which increases the difficulty and provides opportunities for seal identification.
The part of the seal cover has certain regularity. Most of the hand scrolls are in the lower corner before and after this picture, and occasionally the bells are in the upper corner. The seams of long rolls are often printed by collectors' riding seams. Such as hanging shafts, picture books, etc. It is always in the left and right corners of this picture, or both the upper corner and the installation edge. If the position is wrong, there will be problems. For example, the seven seals of Xuanhe and the five seals of Qianlong have strict specifications. Some private collectors also have their own seal habits, which can help us identify the authenticity of calligraphy and painting.
2. Fake methods of calligraphy and painting seals
There are mainly three kinds: one is carving, the other is making, and the third is zinc plate.
Copying is copying the same seal on one side according to the seal on the painting and calligraphy, which is the easiest to be seen through. Even if the sculptor's skill is high, the brushwork is always different from the printed version, especially the knife-wielding technique, which is light and heavy, and it is very difficult to imitate it completely. Moreover, it is difficult to imitate the engraving step by step, and it is also difficult to show the charm of the original seal. Now this kind of forgery is rare in high imitation fakes.
Fiction is carving a seal out of thin air. The seal is often a famous font size or poem, which cannot be compared and is difficult to identify. But as long as you are familiar with the seal of an era and a writer, it is easy to distinguish its authenticity. Seal cutting technology has a development process. It is impossible for seal carvers to master a certain technique beyond the times, and forgers will always unconsciously take out their own techniques and leave clues. This kind of fraud is more difficult to deceive buyers in today's information age.
Zinc plate, which appeared only after the invention of modern photography technology, is to copy the seal sample (such as printing or taking pictures with the original seal) on the zinc plate and make a fake seal by etching with acidic solution. Its characteristic is that it is not easy to go out of shape, and it is difficult to tell whether it is done well or not, but its defects are relatively dull. Compared with real seals, we can often distinguish subtle differences.
3. Academic identification of a seal of a painter and collector, which period only appeared, which period was used more, and which period was rarely used later, is of great benefit to identification. Using seals to help identify the authenticity and age of calligraphy and painting is as important as words and inscriptions. But even if it is a real seal, there is no guarantee that it must be genuine, because the seal can be stolen by contemporary people or left to future generations, so it cannot be insured. Dating with seals can only be done before, but not after. There are many examples.
Historically, Ding Fuzhi used the seals of Ding Jing and Jin Nong as collection stamps and put them on his paintings and calligraphy. Tianjin Art Museum has a book "Faruozhen Landscape Book", some of which are stamped on the repaired holes, which is completely out of line with the printing format. It turned out that it was his grandson Faguangzu who did it. Sun Xu, the third king of Xu Zhai's famous painting, also said in the postscript of Wu Wang Flower Book that Wang Wuyong's seal was used by his great-grandson Shi Kun and his great-grandson Shi Yong after his death on their fakes posing as Wu Wang. All of the above is enough to show that future generations can make use of the legacy of predecessors.
A collection seal of a painting and calligraphy work often has many faces, some are all true, some are all false, and some are true and false, so we must analyze them in detail. But collecting seals still has a great role. It can help us to strengthen our confidence in the confirmation of works from the perspective of collectors in the past, and also determine the lower age limit of calligraphy and painting works by collecting seals. Even works without money can be sure to be no later than the collector's age.