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Pre-Chin Period Characters and Seals
The unification of Zuan Shu was in the Chin Dynasty when Lee Si ( 李 斯 ) simplified and standardized the earlier Zuan Shu characters. The structure of each Zuan Shu character looks solid and stable and brings to the viewers an interesting mood and artistic feeling. The Zuan Shu standardized by Lee Si is called Small Seal Style (Shiao Zuan 小 篆), as opposed to Great Seal Style (Da Zuan 大 篆 ). Great Seal Style refers to those Zuan Shu characters existed in the pre-Chin Dynasty period. Da Zuan is also known as “Zo Wen 籀 文.”
Lan Ye Tai ( 琅 琊 臺 ) & Tai San ( 泰 山 ) Tablets Yi Shan ( 繹 山 ) Tablet by Lee Si
Great Seal Style is not very different from Ancient Script (Gu Wen 古 文 ). It is a synthesis of the variants of Ancient Script. The most famous example of Great Seal Style is Stone Drum Inscriptions (Thu Gu Wen 石鼓 文 ). It has been the subject of Chinese calligraphy, linguistics, and archaeology for centuries. The famous Tang Dynasty writer, Han Yu, published a long poetic eulogy in praise of these characters. The drums were discovered in the province of Shang Xi. Unfortunately, only two hundred characters remain, and many versions of rubbings of them taken by scholars has left even these in a very worn condition.
Small Seal Style
is also known as “Jade Ligament Seal Style
玉
筋
篆
” because it resembles
ligaments in its twisting and symmetric strokes without showing expression! in
each stroke. Each Zuan character also renders a beautiful structural design for
everlasting appreciation. However, Zuan Shu specialists were fewer in number in
each dynasty compared with Hsin and Kai Shu specialists. One of the reasons was
that a Zuan Style practitioner must also study linguistics concerning the origin
and evolution of Chinese characters.
Most
calligraphers and linguists agree that Small Seal Style is suitable for
beginners. Because of the frequent irregularities found in Great Seal Style, the
rules in Small Seal Style are easier to follow.
Li Style was very popular in the Han Dynasty. Zuan Style was used in ceremony and import!ant occasions to show respect at that time. Most tablets in Li Shu during the Han Dynasty had titles written in Zuan Shu. Hsing Mon Liang ( 新 莽 量 ), Yuan An Bei ( 袁安 碑 ) and Yuan Tsun Bei ( 袁 敞 碑 ), and various tablet titles were full of feelings and grandeur; they were all sources of Deng Thu-Ru’s ( 鄧 石 如 ) study.
Hsing Mon Liang Various Titles in Zuan Shu for Li Shu Tablets
Yuan An Bei
Yuan Tsun Bei
Back to TopFeatures of Zuan Shu
Basic
features of Small Seal Style include: ·
A character has to be tall. The ratio of length of height to width is
about 3 to 2. ·
Symmetric. Left and right sides of a character are usually
symmetric. ·
Vertical strokes are straight. Horizontal strokes are flat.
·
Curves and circles are smooth, not rugged. ·
Spacing between strokes is adequately and delicately designed · Strokes don’t usually vary in thickness and thinness.
With all of those features combined, each character will render a sense of stableness in structure.
Back to TopRevolution & Changes of Zuan Shu
Small Seal
Style became the officially approved script following the unification of Chinese
languages in the Chin Dynasty. It is also known as Chin Seal Script (“Chin
Zuan 秦
篆
”). It
contrasts with the previous seal character script called Great Seal Style (
大
篆 ). The Chin Dynasty used Small Seal
Style to engrave inscriptions on stones extolling the merits of persons or
things, to engrave seals or marks of authenticity or emblems or to write
imperial edicts. It replaced Great Seal Style, marking tremendous historical
progress. For a country the size of China, where dialects are more numerous than
in the European countries, a unified written language plays an import!ant link
between various nationalities to cement national solidarity and achieve national
unification. It was the “Chin Zuan” that served as a link and deserves much
credit. And it’s Lee Si (
李
斯 ) that exerted a profound influence on
the seal character script for calligraphers and seal makers of later
generations.
Small Seal
Style is also known as Jade Ligament Seal Style ( 玉
筋
篆 ) for its rigid and emotionless strokes that don’t vary in thickness
or thinness. (The term “Jade Ligament Seal Style” appeared in Su Yuan-Yu’s book
in the Tang Dynasty while he was referring to Lee Yang-Bing’s work.) The strokes
resemble jade chopsticks or lead threads and the style is kind of boring and
strict in making curves, turning and circles. Later people view the Small Seal
Style of Lee Yang-Bing’s (
李
陽
冰 ) as an ideal type. To sum up, the
Jade Ligament Seal Style was not affected by Han Zuan. It traces back directly
to Chin Zuan and it is a more condensed form. People usually
refer to Lee Si and Lee Yang-Bing as "the Two Lees" in Chinese calligraphy
history.
Back to TopResurrection of Zuan Shu
“San Te Thu Jing 三 體 石 經 ” of the Three Kingdoms Period inherited Zuan Shu of the Han Dynasty. It was neatly arranged and characteristic for the “hanging needles 懸 針” feature. However, this tablet was erected by the government and the calligraphy looked very solemn. Then during the South and North Dynasties era, there were many derivatives for Zuan Shu writing. And it was until Lee Yang-Bing ( 李 陽 冰 ) of the Tang Dynasty that resurrected Zuan Shu. Lee was a contemporary of Yen Jen-Ching. He was a proficient linguist and he reedited “Suo Wen Je Zu 說 文 解 字 ” (a book that exemplifies revolution of Chinese characters.) He was very satisfied with his work and said he was the successor of Lee Si.
San Te Thu Jin “San
Fen Gee 三
墳
記” by Lee
Yang-Bing Later in the Ching Dynasty, Deng Thu-Ru (1743-1805) devoted his lifetime effort to study Small Seal Style of Chin. He was the most outstanding Zuan Shu specialist in the Ching Dynasty. He resurrected Small Seal Style and instilled into it vital force and represented it in a grand manner. Thus, it’s widely recognized to start learning Zuan from Deng Thu-Ru’s work and then trace to his followers such as Wu Run-Chih ( 吳 讓 之 ) and / or Zao Chih-Chian ( 趙 之 謙 ).
Deng Thu-Ru's
Works
In the Ching Dynasty, Bao Shu-Cheng ( 包 世 臣 ) published a famous calligraphy book “Yi Zo Thuan Ji 藝 舟 雙 輯.” His deep admiration for Deng Thu-Ru and his method gave a revelation to Wu Run-Chih and Zao Chih-Chian. In this book, Bao emphasized the import!ance of holding a brush as adopted by his teacher Deng Shu-Ru. Bao's theory had a great influence on Ching Dynasty's emphasis on Li and Zuan Styles and calligraphy works on monuments.
Bao Shu-Cheng's Method of Holding A Brush
Back to TopGuide to Start Zuan Shu
A lot
of calligraphy teachers prefer students to start from Wu Run-Chih's Zuan Shu.
Then the students may continue learning Deng Thu-Ru's and Zao Chih-Chian's Zuan
Shu. Wu had more condensed strokes while Deng had more expressive strokes while
Zao had inherited the Kai Shu of Wei Bei into his Zuan Shu strokes. However,
none of them followed the traditional rules strictly set by the Zuan Shu of the
Chin Dynasty. Those three Zuan Shu specialists were close in styles and system.
After we are familiar with practicing their work, we may move up to Li Si and Li
Yang-Bing or directly start learning Stone
Drum Inscriptions, Jin
Wen and then finally Gia
Gu Wen. It is
quite common that we can refine our Li Shu by practicing more Zuan Shu, or vise
versa. They share some mutual aspects in theory.
As we
are getting more familiar with Zuan Shu, we also need to study linguistics. It’s
a tedious job. However, we may understand the origin and changes of each
character better from this study and it will reward us abundantly later. It can
also help us to prevent making mistakes in writing. There have been laymen trying to coin Zuan Style characters themselves. They make up their own ways of writing without reliable sources and principles. For example, it’s quite popular to write “100 tigers”, “100 longevity”, or “100 good luck” in a single work just to show that they have collected 100 different ways to write a single character and cater the public. However, a sincere calligrapher should check the legitimacy and avoid flattering the audience. The
change from Zuan Shu to Li Shu and then to Kai Shu has a long history. Later, in
dynasties when Kai and Li were popular, people still used Zuan Shu for titles of
tablets to show respect. And it’s also a good way to learn Zuan Shu by emulating
a tablet’s title in Zuan Style. A
scholar of the Sung Dynasty wrote that Hsu Shian ( 徐
鉉 ) was good at Small Seal Style. When his
work was taken under sunshine for a closer look, they found tiny but darker
lines inside each stroke. This is exactly the Center Tip
Theory “Zong Fong
中
鋒
理
論
” (literally, brush pen tip at
the middle of hairs) that is the core of all Chinese calligraphy theories. It
was mentioned by every prominent calligrapher. When Yen Jen-Ching stated how his
teacher Zhang
Shui passed to him the secrets of using a brush, he pointed out that the
calligraphy should look like drawing on sand with awl (“Zuei Hwa Sa 錐
劃
沙.”)
The principle requires keeping our brush and brush hair as straight and
vertical as possible. It’s different from painting or the Western way to
hold a pen. According to this principle, we should never ever bend the brush and
the hair. We may rotate the brush when necessary with fingertips (knuckles not
recommended). Bending a brush outward or toward oneself is a very common defect
and is seen among laymen. By strictly obeying this principle, the sharpness
or tip of hairs are hiding inside during brush motions rather than going
scattered and collapsed. Hsu Shian’s method was also a supportive evidence
that most Zuan Shu specialists were inheriting Lee Yang-Bing’s method. The two pictures below show the sequence of strokes and the direction of brush tip at beginning and ending of each stroke. When going down, for example, we don’t go down directly at first. In stead, we move our brush tip upward for a little bit and then downward. This “opposite direction movement” is called “hiding the sharpness of hairs” (“Tsun Fong 藏 鋒.”) It is the most basic principle in writing a Zuan or Li character. Without knowing this, we won’t be able to produce enough strength and stableness in each stroke.
Back to TopMasters & Works of Zuan Shu Lee Si (?-208 BC) 李 斯 After Chin Shu Huan ( 秦 始 皇 ) demolished the Six Nations and united the ancient China in 221 BC, he asked the Prime Minister Lee Si ( 李 斯 ) to unify characters based on previous styles. The official standardized characters are called “Zuan Shu”, or known as “Small Seal Style (Shiao Zuan)." Lee Si was the founder of "Shiao Zuan."
Lan Ye Tai ( 琅 琊 臺 ) & Tai San ( 泰 山 ) Tablets Yi Shan ( 繹 山 ) Tablet
Lee Yang-Bing (?-?) 李 陽 冰 He specialized in a very skinny Zuan Style. He considered his Zuan Shu only after the Prime Minister Lee Si ( 李 斯 ) of the Chin Dynasty.
Hsu
Shian (917-992)
徐
鉉 An expert in ancient
characters. He and his brother, Hsu Kai, were working together to correct and
add comments to “Suo Wen Je Zu 說
文
解
字” written by
Hsu Seng ( 許
慎 ) in the
Tang Dynasty. Deng Thu-Ru
(1743-1805)
鄧
石
如 Other
names: Deng Won-Bai, Deng Won-Bo
His
family was poor when he was young and he could not attend school. He learned
calligraphy and seal making from his father and literature from older men in
town. When he was after twenty years old, he earned his living by making seals.
He traveled widely to make friends with scholars. When
he was twenty-seven, a chief lecturer of an academy who appreciated his
intellect referred him to Mae Mio. He was a big collector of ancient calligraphy
works since the Chin and Han Dynasties. While staying at Mae Mio’s house for
eight years, Deng Thu-Ru treasured every moment of his time to practice
emulating ancient calligraphy pieces. He learned up to Stone Drum Inscriptions
“Thu Gu Wen” and Lee Yang-Bin’s work, and down to all Li Shu in the Han
Dynasty. Then
he began to travel again when Mae Mio was not rich any more. We he was
forty-eight, he visited Beijing but was not satisfied there. He traveled again
and received recognition from other scholars. Because of his poverty and
lack of instruction, his works around age thirty was not highly regarded. His works around forty were almost Jade Ligament Seal Style. In his later life, he was regarded as the greatest Zuan Shu specialist after Lee Si and Lee Yang-Bing.
Wu Run-Chih
(1799-1870)
吳
讓
之 He
learned from Bao Shu-Cheng (
包
世
臣 ) and Deng Thu-Ru. He was highly regarded for calligraphy,
painting, and seal making. He was also considered to be mature at a younger age
than Deng Thu-Ru. The condensed beauty of his strokes was different from Deng
Thu-Ru’s lively and interesting strokes.
Yang Yi-Son
(1813-1881)
楊
沂
孫 A highly esteemed Zuan Shu specialist.
Zao Chih-Chian
(1829-1884)
趙
之
謙 He learned Yen Jen-Ching’s calligraphy at first. Then he also learned Huei Nan-Tien’s painting. He failed exams at the capital Beijing five times. Later he decided not to be confined by Yen Jen-Ching’s Kai Shu rules for government exams. He began to focus on Wei Bei as promoted by Bao Shu-Cheng. He studied various works of Zuan Shu in the Chin and Han Dynasties and created his unique style. Yet his work was criticized as lacking masculine power.
Wu
Da-Cheng (1835-1902)
吳
大
澂 A highly regarded linguist and collector of Jin Wen.
Sun Shim-Yen 孫 星 衍
Wu
Tsun-Shuo (1844-1927)
吳
昌
碩 Famous for his emulation of Stone Drum Inscriptions and seal making.
Back to TopVideo Demo of Zuan Shu
PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER FOR MORE VIDEOS.
Back to TopComparisons of Zuan Styles
Features of Great Seal Style (including Stone Drum Inscriptions & Jin Wen) contain more irregularities. The following chart shows the “standardized” Small Seal Style characters and their predecessors in Great Seal Style from which they derived. The predecessors (ancestors) were much more irregular than the standardized Small Seal Style.
The readers now should have a brief idea about different writings of ancient Chinese characters. Due to the geography and population size of China, such differences in ancient China were inevitable. However, the similarities are the artistic design and spiritual beauty that the ancient Chinese adored in their daily life – even in just writing characters.
Back to TopSummary of Learning
Most
calligraphers agree that beginners start learning Small Seal Style from either
Deng Thu-Ru, Wu Run-Chih, or Zao Chih-Chian. Each of them has a unique style
that is suitable for beginners. However, their levels are not our ultimate
goals. We may learn more deeply by diving into the works of Chin and Han
Dynasties and even Gia Gu Wen and Jin Wen in the Shang & Zhou Dynasties.
Once we are familiar with the brush motions and strokes for Chin Zuan or other
Small Seal Style, the way to understand Jin Wen, Gia Gu Wen, Thu Gu Wen will be
clearer. The basic principles of brushwork will be the same. Only the character
structures differ. And remember, good copies of masterpiece of Chin Zuan, Jin
Wen, or Shu Gu Wen are always our best lifetime teachers. Those masterpieces
were the ultimate achievement of the ancient wise men. Their condensed and
unsurpassed beauty will always guide us for lifetime and generations. After
being familiar with Small Seal Style, we may proceed to Jin Wen or Gia Gu Wen.
Back to TopGlossaryCenter Tip Theory 中 鋒 理 論 – Holding a brush vertically but not bent; never let hairs collapse. Chin Zuan 秦 篆 – Standardized and simplified Zuan Shu in the Chin Dynasty derived from Great Seal Style. Great
Seal Style (Da Zuan)
大
篆
– Characters in pre-Chin
periods. Han
Zuan 漢
篆
– Zuan Shu in the Han
Dynasty. Jade
Ligament Seal Style
玉
筋
篆
– Nickname for Small Seal Style. Jin
Wen 金
文 –
Inscription on bells or bronze tripods in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Gia
Gu Wen (Oracle Bone Inscription
甲 骨 文) – Characters inscribed on
the turtle shells and animal bones of over 3000 years ago. They are the earliest
systematic Chinese written language extant today. Most of them are divinatory in
content and were found at the Shang capital city of Yin (Shiao-Tun Village,
An-Yang County, Honan Province). Lee
Si 李 斯
– Prime minister who standardized Small Seal Style in the Chin
Dynasty. Lee
Yang-Bing
李
陽
冰
– Small Seal Style specialist
in the Tang Dynasty. Reverse In Flat Out – A technique generally required for writing Seal Style strokes. Small
Seal Style (Shiao Zuan)
小
篆
– As opposed to Great Seal
Style; the Zuan Shu simplified from Great Seal Style. Thu
Gu Wen (Stone Drum Inscriptions 石
鼓
文
) – The earliest Chinese
characters inscribed on ten stones.
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