Study On Seal Cutting Of Wu Rangzhi

Seal cutting is one of Chinese traditional arts,and has been developed for three thousand years,and it contains multiple artistic factors,such as the factors of calligraphy,painting and engraving.In the Qing Dynasty(AD1616-AD1912),seal cutting welcomed another flourish because of the rapid development of textology and stone tablet studies,and the number of seals cut by litterateurs were also grown quickly.Wu Rangzhi,as a master of seal cutting who inherits the preceding and inspires the following,greatly influences the art of seal cutting in the late Qing Dynasty and the modern times of China.Wu Rangzhi has created large amount of fine calligraphy works and seals,and his seals integrate his natural and unrestrained seal character style,which are highly praised by the later generations.Wu Rangzhi learns calligraphy from Bao Shichen and Deng Shiru,and his seal cutting style is originated from the style of seals in the Han Dynasty and “Deng Shiru's” style.On the basis of inheriting the thought of “learning seal cutting from calligraphy” of Deng Shiru,he also brings new thoughts through constant creation and practice,and builds the personal style of “integrating the personal calligraphy style to seal cutting”,and his seal cutting works have significant study values for today.Wu Rangzhi adopts his natural and graceful small seal style to seal cutting,and realizes the uniformity between calligraphy and seals,and especially during the practice of graver,he creates the seal cutting skills of using the graver as a pen,and cutting a seal,in a shallow manner,with the graver leaning towards the seal surface(enabling the included angle between the graver and the seal surface to be smaller than 45 degrees),thus enabling graver and the calligraphy skills to be integrated perfectly.Wu Rangzhi has made indelible contributions in calligraphy and seal cutting arts,and the following,who want to learn the styles and skills of Deng Shiru,all firstly learn the styles and skills of Wu Rangzhi.This thesis comprises four chapters.Chapter I describes the calligraphy environment in the Qing Dynasty from AD1760-AD1861,during which Wu Rangzhi lived in,introduces the life experiences of Wu Rangzhi,and further illustrates his social experiences.Chapter II and chapter III present the main contents of this thesis,where in chapter II mainly discusses the origin of the seal cutting style of Wu Rangzhi,which are analyzed and introduced from three aspects:referring to the seal cutting style of the Han Dynasty,learning from the style of Deng Shiru,and practice of the theory of “learning seal cutting from calligraphy”,including the practice calligraphy skills,the practice of space arrangement and the practice of the graver usage skills,and chapter III illustrates the artistic features of the seals cut by Wu Rangzhi,analyzes and concludes different styles and features of the seals,and by means of combining his experiences of learning and exploration of personal style,carries out comprehensive analysis to find the artistic values of the seals,thus to explain the artistic features of Wu Rangzhi's seal cutting.Chapter IV discusses the inspirations given by Wu Rangzhi's seal cutting to the later seal cutting development,comprising the historical values of the artistic achievements of Wu Rangzhi,the influence of the seal cutting style of Wu Rangzhi on the later generation,and the inspiration on the seal cutting creation in modern times.