Comment on Wu Rangzhi's seal cutting "Painting Plum Begging for Rice"

1, Stone is not sure whether a letter is good or bad. This seal was carved by Wu Rangzhi for his friend Wang Yan. On the border, Wu Rangzhi wrote this passage: "The stone is poor and the carving is good. I beg for rice and draw plum blossoms on the inkstone platform, but the knife method has not been solved, let alone others. " Mr. Dongfang can praise himself, but those who slap him are bound to argue with each other. Jean Weng. (See the first picture, the official script on the left is the postscript of Wang Yanzuo. Text: At this moment, Mr. Wang has won his favorite work 60 years later, and his self-praise is so obvious. Guangxu nine years lamp test day, Yanshan nine years old, self-knowledge. The stone is poor, but it is well carved. Wu Rangzhi boasted that even because he carved this seal, Wen Peng knew nothing about the art of using saber, let alone using the seal. Mr. Dongfang is Wu Rangzhi's self-promotion. He confidently believes that people who meet him will be amazed by others, and those who meet him will be amazed. Master Wu Rangzhi's conceit is beyond words. He said bluntly: This seal is great except for the stone. A bad stone may not be able to carve a good seal, which is the inspiration that this seal brings us. In the face of superb seal cutting and knife work, stone is not the decisive factor.

2. Diagonal echo. A seal, like an article, is a complete and rich work of art with foreshadowing, caring, calling and responding. In this kind of seal, the traditional diagonal echo arrangement is adopted. The diagonal echo can be density echo, occupying echo or Fiona Fang echo. In this seal, the occupation echo and Fiona Fang echo are used at the same time. As shown in the figure:

In this seal, Master Wu Rangzhi arranged the space occupation of four words into unequal space occupation, but let the words "painting" and "rice" narrow the space occupation, while the words "plum" and "qi" expand the space occupation. The purpose is very clear, that is, let the word Qi stretch as much as possible and show the colorful characters in the south as much as possible (Shuo Wen Jie Zi does not seek words, but uses the word Qi instead). The aesthetic focus of this seal is also the bending and stretching of the word qi. Of course, among the diagonal elements, there are also the circular potential of Mei and Qi and the square potential of painting and rice, and even the words painting and rice are round and square in the square. As we said before, curved pens and round pens are generally dynamic, straight pens and Fang Bi are generally static, painting and rice are static (they are symmetrical, peaceful and natural), and Mei Harmony is fluid. This echo and contrast increase the aesthetic elements of this seal, making it dynamic and static, Fiona Fang and durable.

3. The element of reunion. We often say that carving seals should be like building a house and a family. We should take care of where to open the door, where to open the window, where to help the old and bring the young with the elders, and where to bring the young and the old together. In this seal, the words "painting" and "rice" are relatively stable and stand on their own side. The painting is plum blossom, the right part is connected with the edge, and the lower part stands on the left side of the bottom edge, extending into the space of "rice" to take care of rice. The upper part of the word "Qi" is connected side by side to find stability, while the right part has no support, but it cleverly squeezes into the space given up by the word arc and gives way to each other. The tail pen is connected with the word "Mei" for support, and the lower part is connected with the word "Mi" to eliminate the downward trend. The word "rice" not only stands firm, but also extends the right half to the space of "plum" to interact with it. The four characters seem to have their own gestures, but in fact they echo each other, depend on each other, reunite as one, feel like a family, and have a compact momentum and a full sense of seal. If we only look at the density, this seal can be considered as the "three densities and one density" of painting, gas, rice and plum, and can also be considered as the "three densities and one density" of painting, plum, gas and rice. Its internal echo relationship is rich, and the four words are combined into one print, which is perfect, comfortable and exquisite. No wonder master Wu praised himself so much.