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East and West Ask丨Chen Zhenlian: Why is Xiling Yinshe famous at home and abroad?

2022-12-19T11:41:44.557Z


The reason why Xiling Yinshe has been able to operate up to now relies on the vitality of the Chinese traditional culture of gold and stone seal carving, as well as the careful maintenance and inheritance of generations of members.


  China News Agency, Hangzhou, December 19th, title: Why is Xiling Yinshe famous at home and abroad?

  ——Interview with Chen Zhenlian, vice chairman of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice president of Xiling Yinshe

  Author Xie Panpan Wang Title

  Xiling Yinshe was founded in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1904), with the purpose of "preserving gold and stone, studying seal, and calligraphy and painting". The art group has the reputation of "the first society in the world" and is also one of the oldest literati societies in China.

Chen Zhenlian, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, vice president of Xiling Yinshe, and member of the Democratic League, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "West and West", telling why Xiling Yinshe has survived for a hundred years and is well-known at home and abroad, and how gold and stone seal cutting originated from China Go international.

The interview transcript is summarized as follows:

Reporter from China News Service: Why has Xiling Yinshe been so prosperous and famous at home and abroad after 119 years?

Chen Zhenlian:

Xiling Yinshe was established in the late Qing Dynasty. It was a special period when the society was chaotic, and it was the time when Western learning poured into China.

Many well-known associations such as Nanshe were founded in that period. Xiling Yinshe was an unknown small association at that time, initiated by four unknown Hangzhou Yinren, Ding Ren, Wang Fu, Wu Yin, and Ye Ming: Established a printing company, preserved gold and stone, and studied printing.

From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China, what everyone paid attention to was the Westernization Movement, the Hundred Days Reform, and later the New Culture Movement.

The four of them cared about inscriptions and seal carvings entirely out of non-utility purposes, and what they were doing was what was considered a conservative job at the time.

This "isolated island" spirit is very valuable. Although they were not understood by most people at the time, they still preserved the essence of traditional Chinese culture wholeheartedly.

"Hongxue Mingming—Exhibition of Works of Early Members of Xiling Yinshe" was unveiled at Nanning Museum.

The picture shows the introduction of Siying, the founder of the company.

Photo by Yu Jing

  In the later years of the Anti-Japanese War, the predecessors of Xiling Yinshe always regarded Yinshe as their homeland, and they might even lose their lives to protect it.

There is no end to the study of gold and stone seal cutting. The reason why Xiling Yinshe has been able to operate until now is the vitality of the traditional Chinese culture of gold and stone seal cutting, as well as the careful maintenance and inheritance of generations of members.

  Since its establishment more than a hundred years ago, Xiling Yinshe still inherits the remaining threads of the "Eight Schools of Xiling" and adheres to the purpose of "preserving gold and stone, researching seal studies, and calligraphy and painting". The operation mode of the association, which is held every five and tenth anniversary celebrations and irregular gatherings of members, still vividly and well preserves the cultural form with traditional literati temperament.

  Looking back at that time, many Indian society associations in China lasted for 20 to 30 years, as few as 3 to 5 years, and some were even short-lived.

Xiling Yinshe, on the other hand, developed rapidly and created miracles.

The ideals and beliefs passed down in one continuous line and passed down from generation to generation have created the glorious 119 years of Xiling Yinshe.

Visitors appreciate the exhibited works of Xiling Yinshe at the "Inner Exchange - International Printing Society Joint Exhibition" in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

Photo by Shi Jianxue

Reporter from China News Service: Xiling Yinshe has the reputation of "the best society in the world" and is fascinated by many cultural celebrities. What are the criteria for recruiting members?

Chen Zhenlian:

The entry requirements of Xiling Yinshe are extremely strict. As of 2005, there were only 313 members in all generations.

  At present, there are only more than 500 members of Xiling Seal Society, who come from various provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions, as well as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, France, the United States, Canada and other countries, basically covering the world of gold and stone seal carving at home and abroad. The backbone force of the seal carving industry carries the important task of inheriting and developing the art of contemporary gold and stone seal cutting.

Xiling Yinshe is also one of the few art groups in mainland China that has absorbed overseas members, and currently has more than 50 overseas members.

  Although compared with other "national brand" art groups in China, the "more than 500 members" are already a "minority" in number, but this is the result of the development and growth of Xiling Yinshe in recent years.

  Xiling Yinshe has always adhered to the principle of being recommended by members to join the society in history. Being able to join the society usually means that the seal engraving level of the recommended person has been recognized by the academic circle, which is the foundation for Xiling Yinshe to maintain high academic standards.

However, this recommendation system also has the disadvantage that it is difficult for talented people to be discovered, resulting in a shortage of members.

  Therefore, since 2005, Xiling Yinshe has promoted the system of recruiting talents to recruit young members, which not only tests creative ability, but also tests cultural knowledge.

For middle-aged and elderly celebrities, the recommendation is still the main one.

The development of Xiling Yinshe is orderly and high-standard, adhering to the principle of "rather lack than excess", and only recruits 10 to 20 new members each year.

  From the perspective of seal history, Xiling Yinshe stipulates the subjects of the annual examination, such as ancient seal monograms, Tang official seal clay, multi-character jade seals, round Zhu Wen general seals, giant seals... almost the history of Chinese seals and seals. Classic style over again.

For the authors who participated in the submission, there is an unexpected harvest, that is, a comprehensive study and study of ancient traditions, which not only broadens the horizons but also lays a solid foundation.

"Xiling Yinshe 115th Anniversary Large-Scale Exhibition" opened at the Zhejiang Exhibition Hall in Hangzhou.

Photo by Li Zhong

Reporter from China News Service: In the field of gold and stone seal cutting, how does Xiling Yinshe promote "learning from the east and learning from the west" and carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation?

Chen Zhenlian:

Times are developing, and Xiling Yinshe is also advancing with the times. It has carried out many reforms in social affairs, such as auditioning outstanding talents, holding seminars and exhibitions, etc.

  Over the years, Xiling Yinshe has strengthened its influence in the cultural circles of Chinese characters in China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

These places in the cultural circle of Chinese characters were also the places where the basic team of overseas members of Xiling Yinshe was absorbed at that time, but now these basic teams have also undergone some changes.

  In the early years, these basic teams were veterans from neighboring countries or regions. They followed Wu Changshuo, the first president of Xiling Yinshe, to a brilliant generation, and had a strong sense of identity and centripetal force for Xiling Yinshe.

With the passing away of these veterans, the centripetal force of the second and third generations towards Xiling Yinshe has weakened.

Although the influence of Xiling Yinshe is still there, and the lonely mountain of Xiling Yinshe is still a holy place, people who like this profession will go to Gushan to worship, but in fact there are not many cooperations, which is a grim reality.

Wu Changshuo, the first president of Xiling Yinshe, has a masterpiece of seal cutting, the seal text "Chuan Pu Tang", which was exhibited in the 2015 Cross-Strait Seal Cutting Exhibition.

Photo by Liu Kegeng

  In order to solve the problem, Xiling Yinshe established "Xiling School", initially in Hong Kong and Macau.

This move also pushed us to start researching the origin of the seal.

Since 2015, Xiling Yinshe has shifted from the study of traditional seal studies to the study of graphic seals and non-Chinese character system seals.

Traditional seal studies study Chinese characters, and it is a very bold challenge to study non-Chinese character system seals and graphic seals.

For this purpose, Xiling Yinshe held an international seminar on pictorial seals and seals with non-Chinese character systems. In the end, more than 80 papers on this topic were published at the conference.

After the symposium, the World Symposium on Graphics and Imprints was held in the second year, an exhibition on the history of Chinese printed books was held in the third year, an exhibition on the transmission and extension of bronze wares was held in the fourth year, and an exhibition on epigraphy and stone studies in the Song and Song Dynasties was held in the fifth year.

Different from being only immersed in traditional Chinese civilization, Xiling Yinshe now looks at all kinds of civilizations in the world. As long as it is related to stone rubbings and seal cutting seals, we may get involved.

  These conferences and exhibitions have attracted experts and scholars from the United States, Germany, Japan and other countries.

Among them, Japanese scholars participated in the most.

At that time, five or six top Japanese experts and scholars gave feedback to me, thanking Xiling Yinshe for holding such an international academic seminar every year, and setting up a research platform for stone rubbings and seal carvings at home and abroad.

  In the future, Xiling Yinshe will also build a platform for the creation of stone rubbings and seal cutting seals related to the "Belt and Road".

At that time, we hope to organize a group of top seal carvers from Xiling Yinshe to go to the countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” and let the local people use their own ancient characters or national flowers to carve a seal, and then our seal carvers will use this moment One side has a seal with the taste of Chinese seal cutting.

Because the engraved content is familiar, the local people can feel the interest of Chinese gold and stone.

(Finish)

Respondent profile:

    Chen Zhenlian, professor and doctoral supervisor, is also enrolling doctoral students in the Calligraphy Department of China Academy of Art and the Institute of Chinese Arts of Zhejiang University. He is famous for his pioneering achievements in the creation, theory and education of calligraphy, painting and seal cutting art.

He is currently the vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the vice chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the vice president and secretary-general of Xiling Yinshe, and the vice chairman of the Teaching Steering Committee of Fine Arts in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education.

He once served as the vice chairman and director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, the vice chairman of the Chinese Literary Critics Association and the director of the Calligraphy and Seal Carving Professional Committee.

Source: chinanews

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