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Seal Cutting
Seal carving, also seal cutting, or ''zhuanke'' in Chinese (), is a traditional form of art that originated in China and later spread across East Asia. It refers to cutting a design into the bottom face of the seal (the active surface used for stamping, rather than the sides or top). Also known as ''seal engraving''. History In the Shang dynasty seals started being used in the government offices, where they represented authority and power. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties the materials for seal making were mainly animal bone, copper (bronze), and pottery. There were specially trained, sophisticated artisans or craftsmen, including potters who specialized in this work, making seals. Because seals in this period were mainly used in governments and mainly by nobles and officials, the style of seals was very formal and beautiful. In the Shang dynasty, the oracle bone script (甲骨文) was used. During the Zhou period various scripts were used (because Chinese characters were still ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world's population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be variants of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered separate languages in a family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin (with about 800 million speakers, or 66%), followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shangh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaking ethnic group who unified other Jurchen tribes to form a new "Manchu" ethnic identity. The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Manchuria (modern-day Northeast China and Outer Manchuria). It seized control of Beijing in 1644, then later expanded its rule over the whole of China proper and Taiwan, and finally expanded into Inner Asia. The dynasty lasted until 1912 when it was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. In orthodox Chinese historiography, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The multiethnic Qing dynasty lasted for almost three centuries and assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Side Carving
Side carving () is a form of traditional seal carving techniques that originated in ancient China. It was later introduced to other countries in East Asia and has gained popularity among contemporary seal artists from regions including Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc. It mainly focuses on developing pattern design skills and techniques applied to the carving of side surfaces of a seal, which distinguishes itself as a unique carving technique from knob carving (head part) and face carving (bottom part). It decorates the side surfaces of seals with literal or pictorial imagery. History The history of this art can be traced back as early as the Late Zhou and Qin dynasties when government or official seals had short notations on their side surfaces indicating the owner of the seal (by engraving the owner's name), the maker of the seal (by engraving the craftsman's name), and/or the date of manufacture. But during those periods such notations appeared only occasionall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knob Carving
Seal knob ( 印 纽), refers to carving or small decorative reliefwork at the top or side of a seal. The associated carving technique is called knob carving ( 纽 刻), a traditional technique that originated in ancient China and later spread to other East Asian countries, including Japan and Korea. Nomenclature In ancient China during the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, the head or top-side of a seal was named ''niu'' (). After the Qin and Han dynasties, it was also known as ''yin niu'' (), and ''yin'' (印) here stands for ''seal''. In this sense a seal knob could also be called a seal head (''yin shou'' 印首). Notably, the character for ''knob'' (''niǔ'') is sometimes written as 钮 in simplified Chinese (with 钅), and 鈕 in traditional Chinese (with 金), instead of using the nowadays more commonly used 纽 (with 纟) or 紐 (with 糹) respectively, mainly because in the very early periods governmental seals were mainly made of metal. In addition, a ''seal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seal (Chinese)
A seal, in an East and Southeast Asian context, is a general name for printing stamps and impressions thereof which are used in lieu of signatures in personal documents, office paperwork, contracts, art, or any item requiring acknowledgement or authorship. On documents they were usually used to print an impression using a pigmented paste or ink, unlike the wax impression commonly used in Europe. Of Chinese origin, the process soon spread beyond China and across East and Southeast Asia. Various countries in these regions currently use a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and, increasingly, electronic signatures. Chinese seals are typically made of stone, sometimes of metals, wood, bamboo, plastic, or ivory, and are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste (). The word 印 ("yìn" in Mandarin, "in" in Japanese and Korean, "ấn" and "in" in Vietnamese) specifically refers to the imprint created by the seal, as well as appearing in combination with other morphemes in wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Changshuo
Wu Changshuo (, September 12, 1844 – November 29, 1927, also romanised as Wu Changshi, ), born Wu Junqing (), was a Chinese calligrapher, painter, and seal artist of the late Qing Period. Life Wu was born into a scholarly family in Huzhou, Zhejiang. In his twenties, Wu moved to Jiangsu Province and settled down in Suzhou. Prior to the collapse of the Great Qing, he served as an imperial official in Liaoning. Initially, he devoted himself to poetry and calligraphy with a strong interest in early scripts. He also led the Xiling Seal Art Society, an academic organisation for Hangzhou-based seal artists. Only later did he consider himself a painter associated with the "Shanghai School ''Haipai'' (, Shanghainese: ''hepha'', ; literally "hangai style") refers to the avant-garde but unique "East Meets West" culture from Shanghai in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is a part of the culture of Shanghai. Etymology The term was coin ...." As a painter, he was noted for help ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xu Wei
Xu Wei (, 1521–1593), other department Qingteng Shanren (), was a Chinese painter, playwright, poet, and tea master during the Ming dynasty. A noted painter, poet, writer and dramatist famed for his artistic expressiveness.Cihai: Page 802. Revolutionary for its time, his painting style influenced and inspired countless subsequent painters, such as Bada Shanren, the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, and the modern masters Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi.Barnhart: Page 232. Qi once exclaimed in a poem that "How I wish to be born 300 years earlier so I could grind ink and prepare paper for Green Vine ( A Xu Wei pen name)" (). Xu Wei can be considered as the founder of modern painting in China. His influence continues to exert itself. Despite his posthumous recognition, Xu was manifestly mentally ill and unsuccessful in life, ending his life in poverty after the murder of his third wife and several attempts at suicide. Life Xu's courtesy names were Wenqing (文清) and then later Wenchan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sha Menghai
Sha Menghai (, June 11, 1900 – October 10, 1992), born Shi Wenruo (沙文若), was a great master of calligraphy in China. He also was a master of Chinese seal carving (中国篆刻艺术), a theoretician of traditional Chinese art, and a master of Shanghai School art. Sha Wenhan is his brother. Sha was born in Sha village in Yinxian, Zhejiang. He was a professor in National Zhongshan University (from 1929), National Zhejiang University (from 1949), and China Academy of Art (from 1963). References *Zhu, Guantian"Sha Menghai" ''Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, begin ...'', 1st ed. External links * People's Republic of China calligraphers 1900 births 1992 deaths Chinese seal artists Artists from Ningbo Zhejiang University fac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qi Baishi
Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden. After he turned 40, he traveled, visiting various scenic spots in China. After 1917 he settled in Beijing. Some of Qi's major influences include the early Qing dynasty painter Bada Shanren () and the Ming dynasty artist Xu Wei (). The subjects of his paintings include almost everything, commonly animals, scenery, figures, toys, vegetables, and so on. He theorized that "paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness, much like today's vulgarians, but not like to cheat popular people". In his later years, many of his works depict mice, shrimp or birds. He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the rich man of three hundred stone seals" (). In 1953, he was elected president of the China Artists Associat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republic Of China (1912–1949)
The Republic of China (ROC), between 1912 and 1949, was a sovereign state recognised as the official designation of China when it was based on Mainland China, prior to the Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, relocation of Government of the Republic of China, its central government to Taiwan as a result of the Chinese Civil War. At a Population history of China, population of 541 million in 1949, it was the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's most populous country. Covering , it consisted of 35 provinces of China, provinces, 1 Special administrative regions of China#ROC special administrative regions, special administrative region, 2 regions, 12 special municipality (Republic of China), special municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. The China, People's Republic of China (PRC), which rules mainland China today, considers ROC as a country that ceased to exist since 1949; thus, the history of ROC before 1949 is often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. With a population of 24.89 million as of 2021, Shanghai is the most populous urban area in China with 39,300,000 inhabitants living in the Shanghai metropolitan area, the second most populous city proper in the world (after Chongqing) and the only city in East Asia with a GDP greater than its corresponding capital. Shanghai ranks second among the administrative divisions of Mainland China in human development index (after Beijing). As of 2018, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (nominal) of nearly 9.1 trillion RMB ($1.33 trillion), exceeding that of Mexico with GDP of $1.22 trillion, the 15th largest in the world. Shanghai is one of the world's major centers for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anhui Province
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, bordering Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a short section in the north. With a population of 63.65 million, Anhui is the 8th most populous province in China. It is the 22nd largest Chinese province based on area, and the 12th most densely-populated region of all 34 Chinese provincial regions. Anhui's population is mostly composed of Han Chinese. Languages spoken within the province include Jianghuai Mandarin, Wu, Hui, Gan and small portion of Zhongyuan Mandarin Chinese. The name "Anhui" derives from the names of two cities: Anqing and Huizhou (now Huangshan City). The abbreviation for Anhui is "" after the historical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
