Official engraving, private engraving, and workshop engraving were the three major systems of ancient book engraving. Official engraving referred to the book engraving activities funded or hosted by the central and local governments. It originated from Feng Dao's engraving of the Nine Classics during the Five Dynasties. Privately carved books generally referred to officials, scholars, and squires, as well as monasteries, Taoist temples, and family ancestral halls. The workshop engraving referred to the book shop merchants engraving books, their purpose was to sell and profit. Among these three types of book engraving, besides the workshop engraving, the other two did not aim for profit, or only pursued a small profit. The classification system of official engraving, private engraving, and workshop engraving first appeared in Ye Dehui's "Book Forest Qinghua" and was widely used in the research and classification of ancient book engraving.
There were eight types of calligraphy, namely, Da Zhuan, Xiao Zhuan, Fu, Insect Script, Duyin, Shu, Zhi, and Li. Among them, the two types that were closely related to seal carving were "insect book" and "copy". The insect script eventually developed into a type of seal carving text sample like Bird Insect Seal Script, while the imitation print was a type of text style in the Han Dynasty. It had the characteristics of being highly decorative and having strong overlapping lines. In addition, there were also some types of private seals, such as name seals, temple seals, time recording seals, examination and collection seals, idle text seals, and portrait seals. The format of these seals could be chosen according to different needs and uses.
The Great Chinese Seal Engraving Dictionarywas a large dictionary that included Chinese seal engraving and seal characters. This dictionary had a total of three or four volumes, containing a large number of Chinese characters and seal characters, including oracle bone inscriptions, golden inscriptions, big seal characters, small seal characters, and other seal inscriptions. It provided the search of the radical and the Pinyin index for the convenience of the readers. In addition, this dictionary also came with a stroke index, a comparison table of old and new glyphs, and works of famous seal carving artists, providing creative materials for seal carving enthusiasts. However, the specific number of words and seal characters did not provide clear information. The time of publication of this dictionary was also different from the publishing house. It might have been published by Jiangxi Fine Arts Press in 2012, or it might have been published by World Books Xi'an Company in 2001. In summary, the specific details of the Chinese Seal Engraving dictionary needed further confirmation.
Seal carving was an ancient traditional Chinese art form. It was an art form that used computer graphics processing software to engrave the words, patterns, mountains, rivers, animals, and other elements of the seal on a stone. Seal carving works were usually simple, elegant, exquisite and rich in cultural heritage. The following were some words describing the seal carving: The unique imprint left on the stone by a skilled sculptor with a knife and pen made people sigh at the profoundness of Chinese traditional culture. Every piece of carving work is a perfect work of art, allowing people to feel the blade moving on the stone, as well as the passage of time and the accumulation of cultural heritage. 3. The seal carving works are like a poem, combining words, patterns, mountains, rivers, animals and other elements together to form a unique beauty, which makes people feel the unique charm of Chinese traditional culture in appreciation. These carved works not only have a decorative function, but also represent the profound Chinese characters and Chinese culture. The art of engraving requires patience and perseverance. It takes a lot of time and energy to complete each piece of work to show their love and pursuit of Chinese traditional culture.
The Engraving Seal Design Builder was an online tool that could generate a unique seal design according to the user's needs and preferences. The generator provided a variety of engraving styles to choose from, including ancient, modern, simple, and other different styles to meet the needs of different users. The user can freely adjust the size of the generated seal to adapt to various occasions. In addition, users could add custom text content to the generated seal to express their wishes and emotions. Before the design was generated, it could also be previewed in real-time, making it easy to adjust and modify. The user could also generate multiple seal designs at once to meet individual needs. In short, the seal engraving design generator provided users with an easy-to-use tool, making the art of engraving closer to the public and satisfying individual needs.
The two necessary knives for engraving were a large knife and a small knife. The width of a broadsword was about 8mm, and the width of a small knife was about 3mm. The choice of these two knives depended on the size of the words, usually determined by the width of the knife. The large knife was used to carve the main lines, and the small knife was used to do the final clearing of the Zhu Wenyin. When choosing a knife, you can consider buying a knife from the Yong brand, which costs about tens of yuan. The material of the knife was generally hard alloy, and the straight line of the blade and the 90-degree angle of the blade had to be ensured. In addition, carving also required one to master the technique of holding the knife. Holding the knife required one to hold the handle with one's hands. When operating, one needed to use one's fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and even the entire body.
At present, there was no mention of the latest novel recommendations about engraving workers. So, I don't know what the latest recommendation for a woodcutter novel is.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the three major centers of book engraving in the country were Shu, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Among them, Shu referred to Chengdu and Meishan in Sichuan, Zhejiang referred to Hangzhou, and Min referred to Jianyang. These three places had an important position and influence in the prosperity and development of the Song Dynasty's book engraving industry.
The design of the name seal required the preparation of tools and materials. The commonly used seal material was Qingtian stone, which was suitable for beginners to practice. At the same time, he could choose to buy a stamp bed to facilitate carving. For newbies, it was recommended to start from the seal and choose some classic seal styles to imitate and practice, gradually mastering the design essentials. To transfer the designed manuscript to the stamp stone, one needed to use a special water-based paper or rough edge paper. After wetting it, cover it on the manuscript. Then, place the stamp stone on the back of the paper and press it with your fingers to ensure that the manuscript was tightly attached to the stamp stone. Other than hand-made, you can also use the online generator to design. After entering the name, you can choose the font and style to get a customized seal design.
Li Shu 'en was a famous seal cutter from Shanxi. He used the art form of vivid engraving to express the ancient Chinese educational classics "Thousand Character Classic" and "Three Character Classic", two masterpieces of enlightenment that had been widely circulated for thousands of years. Li Shu 'en's seal carving works displayed different carving techniques. Each seal was full of emotion and meaning, just like a vivid epic, which aroused the audience's resonance and imagination. His works had a unique status in the history of Chinese calligraphy and were used by many famous calligraphers as an important carrier of calligraphy creation. However, specific information about Li Shuen's engraving, such as his personal background and other works, was not provided in the current search results.
The four major centers of engraving in the Song Dynasty were Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Lin 'an, and Jianyang.