Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

OTHER FORMS OF CHINESE ART

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Malai

Shou (%), ‘ Longevity ’

Fu (if), ‘ Happiness’ Fig. 146 女 女 女

SEAL-ENGRAVING is one of the most characteristic forms of Chinese art. I might have included it in the present chapter under Sculpture, for it is carried out with cutting tools. But its relation to calligraphy is so obvious—it is, indeed, actually a form of calligraphy—that I have preferred to deal with it separately. Most Europeans have seen on the bottoms of pieces of Chinese porcelain small marks, usually in red, which are generally known as seals, Yin (Ej). These are merely period marks and have no aesthetic value. The seals with which we are here concerned are the personal stamps of artists, in which the arrangements of the characters, the shaping of the strokes, and the patterns, are all carefully worked out and stylized. The practice of cutting seals has been going on in China since the Chou dynasty, and there have been many changes of style from

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