Baolu Tianxing

Mr. Liu came back to his senses, and said with a chuckle, "I'm sorry, my two friends, this man is old, and he forgets his business when he sees good things."

Wu Chen seemed to have an answer in his heart, he didn't dare to make it public, and only nodded modestly.Although Kong Si couldn't figure out the situation, he also knew that this old man had a great background, and that Brother Tie just now was unusual. He knew Wu Chen's intentions, and said with a smile on his face: "The old man, in your opinion, this'Wen Wenshan Is India true?"

Mr. Liu chuckled, and said anxiously: "The material of this seal is not a problem, and the batter on it is not visible. It should have been hidden somewhere for many years. In terms of the seal, from the engraving to the writing, it still conforms to the characteristics of the times at that time. Xiao Wu Ah, how did you get this seal?"

Wu Chen didn't hide anything, and told the story of how he bought the woodcarving, omitting the map. As for how to find the seal stone hidden in the woodcarving, he had already made it up. I said it to Mr. Tian last time, and this time it will be the same. Hua Hulu also talked about it, and everyone didn't suspect that accidents are everywhere in this world, and they can always be attributed to luck.

"Well" Mr. Liu didn't delve into it, nodded, pondered for a while, and said, "This seal is relatively rare in the field of collection, and the material accounts for most of its value. There are many people in history who have obtained the seals of their predecessors and polished them Re-engraving. Antiques pay attention to orderly inheritance. Except for some emperor seals, there are very few private seals that can be preserved in good condition. There are also imitations by later generations, but the materials used are rarely medium On the higher side, like this top-quality Tianhuang jelly, if it is kept privately after the Qing Dynasty, it will cause trouble."

In the Qing Dynasty, these things were controlled. Especially after Qianlong, Tian Huang and Hetian jade had to be handed over to the royal family. thing.That's why Mr. Liu said that.

"Yes, Tianhuang has been mined for hundreds of years. Let alone now, even in the late Qing Dynasty, the raw materials have been exhausted. Now they have been dug to more than [-] meters underground. Not to mention such materials, they are ordinary materials that can be regarded as Tianhuang. It can be said that there is no more, if it was produced in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the possibility of being exiled among the people is very low." Tian Lao echoed and said, the two old men exchanged opinions just now, and they all favored this one because it is a large-scale Obtained before mining, there is no evidence.

"Put the materials aside first, and talk about the craftsmanship of this seal. Brother Tian told you about the development history of this seal, so I won't say much. Most of the earliest seals that we can see now are the ancient seals of the Warring States Period. , Guxi is a general term for pre-Qin seals. Many of the characters of these ancient seals are unknown to us now. Most of the ancient seals in Zhuwen are matched with wide borders. Or add a vertical grid in the middle, and the characters are cast or chiseled. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was mainly based on the pure, flat and upright Miao seal script, which also formed the so-called Qin and Han seal styles, which had a great influence on later generations."

"Well, some private seals now tend to pursue the ancient style of Chinese seals, which are well-regulated and simple, with a unique style." Tian Lao added that he also received a lot of private seals.Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many imitations of Chinese seals, and in modern times, this style is more common.

"Well. With the changes of the times, the aesthetics are constantly evolving, but no matter how they evolve, there are always some people who insist on the retro style, and sometimes it is a fashion instead. Things in this world are upside down, upside down." Mr. Liu He nodded and said.

These words can be regarded as saying that Wu Chen's heart is lost. He has witnessed countless times that the so-called advancing with the times and innovation are actually retro.For this reason, I often joked with Xu Zhifei. Every time I need system innovation, I don’t have to think so much. Take out the system ten or even decades ago and change it. As long as it is different from the current one, it is an innovation. !

Seeing that although Wu Chen and Kong Si nodded repeatedly, their eyes were full of confusion, he laughed and called for his assistant to fetch some materials.

The assistant's surname is Song, about 34 or [-]. He has a square face and is very dignified. He says he is an assistant, but he actually works as the old man's secretary. He handles most of the foreign affairs. Many local officials can't see the old man. It was he who came out to entertain.For the future, he still has some pursuits in his heart. Using the old man's platform, he has frequent exchanges with local officials at all levels. Regarding this, the old man will turn a blind eye to this, as long as he is not out of line.

Secretary Song brought over a large stack of materials, mainly seal books, and there were also a few older seals. Mr. Liu picked them out, and showed them to compare with each other while explaining. Wu Chen and Kong Si were impressed by the real objects. I have learned a lot, and I am very grateful to the old man for his painstaking teaching. It is the first time to meet such a good teacher.

"In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the nine-fold script dominated the public seal, and the public seal lost its position as the leading printing art. With the widespread use of paper, the size of the seal was liberated, and the side length suddenly increased from one inch in the Qin and Han Dynasties to The two-inch seals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, due to the enlargement of the seal, did not print the names of the officials in the Qin and Han Dynasties and issued them to the officials themselves to wear, but instead issued them to the official offices represented by officials, completing the transition from the official seal to the official office. Change. The public seal is no longer worn but changed into a box and placed in various government offices.

The era of sealing clay also came to an end, and with the arrival of the era of seal and Zhu, inkpads appeared; the inscriptions on the seals also changed from inscribed in Qin and Han Dynasties to inscribed in Yang, which used to be mainly divided into cast and chiseled. It is then welded on the printing surface, so it is also called pan strip printing.Its printed text is twisted, and most of them are round-curved strokes.In order to fill the large printing surface, later generations even overlapped and folded the strokes of the characters arbitrarily. This is the origin of the so-called "nine-fold script".

Another thing is that this era has begun to have the habit of engraving. Judging from the seals unearthed now, there are at least three Sui seals with engravings, all of which are engraved with the casting time. "Although Mr. Liu didn't have these unearthed seals, he still had rubbings and photos, so I showed them one by one.

Wait for them to digest for a while before continuing. "Although the Sui and Tang Dynasties are in the same line, there are still unique features in the Tang Dynasty. For example, some seals have their own names, such as "Bao Ji" and "Zhu Ji", and there are also seal categories such as Jianzangyin and Zhai. The seal of the museum. As for other changes in the comparison of the seal, the engravings are various, and there are some differences."

Wu Chen and Kong Siyi couldn't remember that much at the moment, so they could only swallow them. Fortunately, there was an illustrated book for reference, which was more intuitive and not difficult to understand.Although Wu Chen was concerned about Fang Wenshan's seal, seeing Mr. Liu making a big circle, he listened quietly.

"Hey, when it comes to the seal of the Song Dynasty, it can be said that it is a waste of time!" Finally talking about this seal, Mr. Liu shook his head while talking, "Even the official seals are upside down. At first, the old seals of the Five Dynasties were used, and then they were recast. During the public printing, the words "Xin" or "Xinzhu" were often embedded in the printed text to distinguish it from the public seals of the Five Dynasties. They were all cast in copper.

The seals of the Song Dynasty are no longer made by the coil method like the Sui seals, but are cast directly. The strokes of the seals are not as wide as the Sui and Tang Dynasties.Most of them are engraved with the date of the year, indicating the year and month of casting and printing. After the middle period, when the date of the year is carved, the name of the institution that is also in charge of issuing and casting is also chiseled.

After the Song Dynasty went south, the public seal was recast, and the word "xingzai" was added before the seal, or the year number was used to distinguish the old from the new.

During this period, all the minority regimes confronted the Han regime in the Central Plains. There was Liao in the north, Xia in the northwest, and Jin in the northeast.Later, the Liao Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty, and the Mongols who came from behind unceremoniously cleaned up Xixia and Jin, and finally destroyed the Song Dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty.

The regimes and dynasties established by these four ethnic minorities were all influenced by the public seal system of the Song Dynasty to varying degrees, but they created some unique characteristics of their own, and interesting phenomena appeared in the seals.The public seals of Xixia use Xixia script, some of the public seals of the Liao and Yuan Dynasties use Chinese characters;These are not detailed one by one,

The only thing to mention is that private seals became popular only in the Yuan Dynasty. They thought that most of the Mongols were poorly written by men, so they simply used private seals, which were engraved once and used for life. They were highly respected among Mongolian noble officials. It played a great role in promoting. By the time of Ming and Qing Dynasties, private seals became popular, and many famous seals were produced. "

"Old man, according to what you said, it is unlikely that this seal belongs to Mr. Wenshan? If it is an official seal, it is more likely?" Kong Si saw that Mr. Liu said a lot, all about the official seal, and not much related to the private seal. ah.

"Hehe, I can't say that. This Fang Wenshan seal is more in line with the characteristics of the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. Although there were not many private seals at that time, there were some. The Wen Wenshan seal was also used on a certain painting. I have seen it, since it appeared on the rubbings, it proves that Wenshan Gong had this seal, at least he used it. As for this one, it is very likely that it was engraved later, or because the texture is very good, or because of other reasons, It has been useless. Well, yes, Xiao Wu, you said that you got this seal from a wood carving, which is the source, where is the wood carving now?" Mr. Liu said with a smile, this question made Kong Siliang His eyes lit up, why didn't he think of this?It seems that the ginger is still old and spicy.

Wu Chen also knew that the question was on time. He could basically judge the age of the wood carving. He didn't bring it today, so he didn't want to trouble him, so he had to pretend to say, "The wood carving was thrown away after it was destroyed last time, but after buying it It just so happens that I have a friend who has made root carvings for generations in his hometown. I asked the old man in his family to read it. From the craftsmanship to the padding, it should be the old camphor wood root carvings of the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Chaozhou root carvings had not yet reached a large scale. slightly different."

"Yes." Mr. Tian nodded. He is quite proficient in porcelain and miscellaneous items. "The Chaoshan root carving gradually took shape in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the combination of relief and openwork carvings was gradually formed during this period."