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My seal-making journey was completely unplanned. In 1993, I was introduced to modern Chinese ink brush-painting. After a few years, I realized that I did not have enough seals to put on my paintings. To ask famous masters to cut seals would cost too much; to hire a craftsman to cut them usually meant not getting what I really wanted. Therefore, I entertained and further acted on the idea of cutting seals myself. In the spring of 1996, I joined the seal-cutting class taught by Mr. Hong Mian Chen at the Adult Education division of the Taipei Art Gallery. I started by reading manuscripts, distinguishing stones, and sharpening knives. In the year following that, I cut 35 square stone seals in total. In the past few years, I have cut a few occasionally. Because of my vision problem, my seal-cutting has gotten slower |
The history of seals in China is a long one. It started in the Zhan Guo Liang Han Era (221 BC). The materials used included gold, copper, stone, wood, animal teeth, and china. The content spanned across names, ranks, and phrases which reflected a person’s aspirations, moods, likes, etc. These seals were used in books, on paintings, or in letters written between friends. The most famous seal connoisseur was Emperor Qian Long. All the famous paintings in Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties almost all had his "Qian Long Yu Yue (approved by Royal Qian Long)" seal on them. He was the emperor of one of the most prosperous dynasties in China’s history and ruled for 60 years (AD 1735 - 1795). No wonder he had the power to put seals on everything! |
