Fen Wang Years Are Not Talented

Wu Changshuo was the famous master of art in modern China, and his artistic achievementsare well-known both in home and abroad. He had extremely high attainments in poetry,calligraphy, painting and seal; and he could absorb ancient and modern essences, integrate thestrong points of others, eradicate the old and foster the new, and create originality, initiating ageneration of new trend for Chinese modern art history. Of which, his seal cutting has loftyartistic conception, which is also simple, unadorned and honest. He was elected as the firstdirector of Xiling Society of Seal Arts-China’s first seal cutting society relying upon his highpersonality and quality. His works were deeply favored and appreciated at that time and amonglater generations. Meanwhile, his artistic thought also influenced overseas countries, especiallycountries and regions in Southeast Asia such as Japan and North Korea.This paper systematically elaborated the artistic life of Wu Changshuo mainly from threechapters: his lifetime travel,“exceptional talent” in calligraphy and seal cutting, as well as therelation between calligraphy and seal cutting. It is hoped that the author can learn some basicexperience that seal originates from calligraphy and calligraphy starts from seal, and improveself calligraphy and seal cutting ability. This article mainly from his life journey, in calligraphyand seal cutting in terms of "don’t just" and the relationship between calligraphy and seal cuttingof the three chapters to describe Wu Changshuo’s art life, hope I can learn the basic experienceabout seal cutting out from calligraphy, calligraphy from the of seal cutting, to improve theircalligraphy and seal cutting ability.The first chapter mainly expounded on the historical background as well as the artisticprofile and travel of Wu Changshuo. Then it selected the most representative events in hislifetime for summarization, such as numerous names and alias, joining the army during theSino-Japanese War, and Xiling Society of Seal Arts, etc. Wu Changshuo once said that:“peoplesay that I’m good at painting, in fact, my calligraphy is better than painting, and my seal cuttingis even superior to calligraphy”. Therefore, as the important content of this paper, the secondchapter specifically illustrated his seal cutting experience starting from his seal cutting. Then itelaborated the splendor that his seal cutting works are superior to that of others from the art ofcomposition, lettering and way of cutting of his seal cutting works and combining with concreteseal cases. Firstly, the section of seal cutting and way of cutting illustrated the way of cuttingcharacteristics of his works and way of cutting pattern he pursued from four aspects: majesticand grand in inch of land; an integrated whole with contradiction; harmony and unity, vividrhythm, mellow and thick flavor. Then the second section illustrated the lettering characteristics of Wu Changshuo from three aspects: mutual unity of multiple chirographies; recombination ofstructure; vigorous strokes in calligraphy or drawing, mellow and thick flavor. In the section ofseal cutting and his way of cutting, several cutting ways were mainly introduced, i.e.combination of punching and cutting, hard cutting with dull knife, and damaged way of cutting.As three main component factors of seal cutting art, art of composition, lettering and way ofcutting also have interaction effect and are integral. So the final part of this chapter brieflydiscussed the dialectical relationship among the three for reference and learning of seal cuttinglovers.The final chapter briefly illustrated the course of his calligraphy learning, as well as hispreference to Inscriptions on Drum-shaped Stone Blocks. Then it explained the reason ofachieving great achievements by his seal cutting starting from the angle that seal cutting is byvirtue of calligraphy. Finally it stated the influence and enlightenment of his calligraphy and sealintegration thought to contemporary, modern and overseas artists. The final chapter is thedifficulty of this paper and meanwhile the significance of writing this paper.This paper was researched mainly through the literature reference, analysis, comparative,case analysis, combining theory with practice and other methods of research.