During the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, Qian Lin, the founder of Oriental School, was good at printing buttons and Bo Gu patterns. His head is vivid, and his hair is cut open, continuous and vivid. Lin Diao Button, the descendant of Lin, is very verve, especially good at depicting sideburns, manes, hair and hairlines. Later, celebrities who sent engraved buttons at the East Gate included Lin, Lin Youyi, Lin Shouxuan and Zhou Baoting of Zheng He in modern times. They learn from role models, but they can learn from the past and put forward new ideas. Everyone has his own personality. Zhou Baoting is compatible with the skills of eastern and western schools in animal button carving. In addition to creation, he also devoted himself to the excavation, arrangement and development of traditional ancient animal buttons, and made many contributions.

At the same time, Pan, who was educated, inherited the legacy of Yang and Zhou, carved deeply and meticulously, and had high attainments in Bo Gu, Bo Yi and printing buttons. Lin Wenbao, Chen Kekan and Chen Kexi, descendants of the Western School, are all famous sculptors. The round knives and semicircular knives they use are elegant and simple. Lin Wenbao specializes in printing buttons all his life and is known as the giant of button technology. His button works have a wide range of themes, including flowers, fruits, ancient beasts, feathers, animals and so on. His modeling is simple, he can link the past with the future, his knife work is simple, and his conception is exquisite. For thousands of years, China people have been extremely cautious about Xiyin. Xiyin is not only a "double member" of personal loyalty, but also a product of showing status in feudal times. Seal cutting is formed under the tempering of history, unique in the world and rich in connotation.

The word "seal button" is interpreted as "seal nose" in Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi, which is the top of the seal. Judging from the seal buttons unearthed before the Han Dynasty, these round seals, belt seals, four seals, five seals, six seals and mother seals, whether tile buttons, bridge buttons, nose buttons, table buttons and bucket buttons, should be their main functions. Later, in order to match the high level of official products, it was given different shapes, which is the difference between gate valves and achievements.

With the opening of printing style, the button style gradually broke away from the traditional style, boldly endowed with personal creativity, and tried to present an unprecedented style on printed buttons, so there was a genre. Different opinions, different styles, simple and meticulous, elegant and vulgar; The ups and downs are always staged under the baptism of time and space, and then will wash out the immortal voice of the world, adding an exclamation point to the beauty of culture. According to scholars' research, China began to use seals as early as the end of Shang Dynasty and the beginning of Zhou Dynasty. Its texture is nothing more than copper, jade, silver, bone, horn, stone, pottery, gold, iron, wood, tooth, bamboo root, coral and gilding. Most of the seals in the Han Dynasty are made of copper, and the surface retains the beauty of the characters of Xiao Zhuan in the Qin Dynasty. The lines are flexible but not hasty, the density is free and unconstrained, and the rules are simple and not fancy. This is the first golden age in the history of seal cutting in China. Because paper has not been invented, seal script was used as "sealing mud" on bamboo slips at this time, and then watermark modulated with water and pigment was covered on the paper. As for the current seal cutting seal, it is a product after the Tang and Song Dynasties.

More than a thousand years later, Wang Mian (1287- 1754), a native of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, was good at painting lotus flowers and plum blossoms in The Scholars. Two hundred years later, during the Ming and Jiajing Dynasties, Wu (1 ─ 1754) was in charge.

Later, seal cutting was able to carry forward the Qing Dynasty, thanks to the combination of Shoushan stone and sculptor. Of course, we don't have to speculate on the exact age of Shoushan stone mining, but as early as the Song Dynasty, sacrifices carved from Shoushan stone were found in tombs. It is conceivable that its stone quality and knife feel the favor of masons. With the growing popularity of seal cutting, Shoushan Stone soon became the new favorite of seal cutting. Shoushan stone is a pyrophyllite, which is collected from Shoushan Township and Yueyang Township in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. The species are very considerable, which are mainly divided into three systems, namely: high mountain, moon ocean and Qishan; Alpine system is divided into fields, pits and puddles. Tianhuang is the most important stone in the field, and the potholes and crystal caves are the best in the puddles. There are also many articles in the potholes, which are famous for Ling Du and Shanbo. Yueyang is crowned with hibiscus, and there are more than 400 kinds of Shoushan stones. Among them, Tianhuang, Furong and Ling Du are the three treasures of Shoushan, which are based on their characteristics of "congealing and moistening, making a good stone is better than jade".

Others, such as Zhejiang Changhua fossil and Qingtian stone, are also famous. The price of bloodstone is much higher than that of Bahrain, so there is also a saying that Tianhuang, bloodstone and hibiscus are "three treasures of stone printing". Recently, when Shoushan stone vein tends to be exhausted, the industry has successively introduced new stones with good quality and quantity, which has become the new favorite of the market. Professor Xue Pingnan (1945─) called them "Three Treasures of Xinshoushan" (New Furong, Wenyang and Shuikeng). At the same time, a new vein called Balinshi has been mined in Inner Mongolia, which is very popular with many fine products. These materials used as seals are mainly taken from veins that have been hidden underground for tens of millions of years, and they have only been excavated in large quantities in the past two or three hundred years. Their fine materials and high products are recorded in ancient books. There is a poem in Ren Huang's Collection of Qiu Jiang in the Qing Dynasty as evidence: "Whenever the bones of the gods solidify in autumn, the essence shines more like sunset red. Love him, ice and snow are smart, why not contact each other? There is a saying in "Looking at the Stone Record" written by Gao Zhao: "What is expensive is the kind of Jingshan Lantian; what is clean is the snow in Liangyuan and the clouds in yan zhen; what is gentle is the skin of a swallow and the body of a jade ring, which makes people move. "This is a book," it said. "Zhan asked his friend to stay in Lu's house and look at the stones, and then he opened the door, which made him hide it. He smiled and said, "I dare not look for a long time, for fear of missing my ears!" " It is necessary to love stone and become infatuated. The predecessors praised: "Flowers are more than words, but stones are not the most pleasing." "Good to also.

These exquisite Yin Shi, which can eliminate troubles and annoyances, always make people fondle it. At the same time, it also has the concept of "playing with things to cultivate one's ambition" of China people, in order to capture its "gentle and jade-like" characteristics, which contains the virtue of swimming as a gentleman. If there is a sword played by experts, its value increases the respect for scholars; With the help of the print button, the square and heavy stone suddenly rose from the ground, like a dragon escaping from the stone. It is conceivable that these smart and beautiful Yin Shi were undoubtedly the treasures of the nobles one or two hundred years ago, and they were excellent tributes and extraordinary. In other words, the artistic effect of printing buttons is actually the condensation of "totem culture" for thousands of years. From ancient times to the present, these compositions reflected on the Ding Yi ritual vessels are the products of high civilization, and the seal button has taken a big step forward, making it three-dimensional and giving the printed matter unparalleled vitality. This technical achievement, combined with the original printing seal cutting, has become an extremely precious cultural wealth. Because the brushwork, knife technique, structure and knowledge presented on the printed surface are all highly aesthetic, it is difficult for us to find a second exquisite art that can cover 5,000 years of culture.

The mainland launched the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966. Holding high the banner of "eliminating the four old", a large number of precious carvings have been brought from Hongkong to Taiwan Province Province by solo guests in recent ten years, and even traded with Japanese. The exchange was very enthusiastic, which led to the unprecedented prosperity of bone-bone trade. Liao Deliang also witnessed many ancient buttons and exquisite bone-bone products, which was impressive, eye-opening and learned a lot. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Yin Zhi" has a cloud: "Anyone who plays a thousand songs and then knows the sound, watches a thousand swords and then knows the instrument; So look at the image of the circular photo first. " Thanks to the Cultural Revolution, Liao Deliang made his craft based on a broad vision, and under the guidance of two predecessors, Chen Keluo and Lin Tianquan, he was able to absorb everything and learn from the strengths of the Western School and the East School. Dongmen Sect pays attention to exquisite carving and beautiful appearance; Western sects pursue dullness and capture charm. Faced with the traditional conservative atmosphere, Liao Deliang was brave in pioneering and took the pound atmosphere as a melting pot.

To attack the sealed stone head, we must first understand the principle of button "phase stone". Without this process, it is futile to carve stones for a long time. Cracks are inevitable because masons can't get rid of the rough method of using explosives in the process of vein mining, and at the same time, they have to face the changes brought about by the changes of rock pressure on newly mined stone. A good button maker is not far-fetched, can naturally avoid cracks, and has smooth and vivid lines. If the composition management of smart colors is stable, it is enough to make mistakes and win, which is unique. It can be seen that how to avoid cracks, cut sand, match clever colors and add thin meaning is the first compulsory course for button workers.

Secondly, the button shape is often as good as the customer's, thinking that everything in the biological field can be accepted according to the order, and strive to be novel, exquisite but not ugly. I wonder if the elegant and solemn orientation conforms to the button principle. So we observe the shape of Liao Deliang's buttons, whether sitting, kneeling, squatting, lying, standing or standing.

Basically, Liao Deliang's button works use a lot of circular lines, which is an extremely important part of China's artistic aesthetics; Throughout the actions of Taiji Chuan and the achievements of traditional drama, gestures are widely used to express the beauty of body language, and totem art is just like that.

Liao Deliang's seal art has reached a state of perfection and variety, so when looking at his works, it is sometimes beautiful and exquisite. Sometimes solemn and vigorous, prestige is sudden; Adding wings to a tiger, turning stone into gold is an unprecedented feat! This is one of them.

In particular, Liao Deliang can accurately identify the differences between stone carving and wood carving in the styles of buttons and ornaments, which is the key factor for the master to stand out in the industry. In the transformation, Liao Deliang fully grasped that the woodcut system is different, but it can be big or small; On the other hand, the print button is hard to find, and the size is bound to be small. The arcs and stripes on the woodcut need to be concentrated on the buttons between the squares. Without rich talent, it is impossible to cross this gap.

Secondly, woodcut is regarded as an ornament, emphasizing appreciation and demanding realism; Moreover, printed buttons pay attention to appreciation, which is very different from decoration, so freehand brushwork cannot be realistic, which is also the third.

Moreover, the printing material is a natural mineral, and there will inevitably be flaws and cracks. How to avoid cracks, remove sand partitions, match clever colors, cut out hollows, and make them natural and clever, and become a climate in three to five years.

To sum up the above four points, Liao Deliang's profound skills in woodcarving played a key role in his early years, so he was able to express the art of button making with ease, and its beauty was just like what Zhao Mengfu (1254─ 1322) said: "The lion jumped on the elephant and went all out." General works are not suitable for buttons, or the shape, lines, colors and gestures are far-fetched, and it is easy to scratch your hands when playing with plates.

What's more, some buttoners even damage good materials for no reason in order to accommodate realism, which makes experts deeply regret; These are the sequelae of craftsmen who are unconventional and eager to get rid of tradition. For this reason, when readers can understand that the appreciation of buttons lies in "emphasizing the beauty of texture and not seeking similarity", they can also understand why the master's works are as simple and elegant as ancient jade, which makes the printing materials and buttons complement each other. This is because Liao Deliang knows the principles of Yin Shi's plays. A stone friend once said with emotion, "When you see a knife and a button, there is Zen, which makes you feel very cool." This is the most important thing. A good printing material with penetrating power and coolness must have six good characteristics: coagulation, condensation, fineness, greasy, warm and moist. Cherish it and never have the heart to play with a knife. However, once a good stone falls into the hands of skilled craftsmen, in order to cater to the market vision, it will inevitably lead to losses, which will make experts lament. Therefore, the button type of a good seal can not be ignored.

I still remember that more than 30 years ago, Mr. Zhang Xinbai, together with Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang, planned to use a machine to cut the original stone in the master's new apartment. Zhang Gong improvised: "Lao Liao, just take the knife!" So the master's name of "one knife" spread like wildfire. Looking back on the course of the master, it is exactly forty years now, which is only a milestone in the brilliant life of the master.

A sociologist in Japan once said: "The treasure of a family should belong to the country after three generations, and the culture of a country should belong to the whole world after three centuries." Let's just say that no matter how much Japanese have learned about China culture, this view does have its own uniqueness, such as Mr. Liao Deliang's button printing works. If you haven't seen it, you may feel lucky, but once you have, it's worth living.

Art is a feast of aesthetics and a call of human mind. The article "Health Master" in "Zhuangzi" describes that my master is superb in solving the problem of cattle, and he is "blind to God and eager to do things with Zhi Zhi". Liao Deliang's skills in "New Skills" are vivid and harmonious. I hope that this well-planned trip of Liao Deliang's seal will bring you a refreshing and unique feeling, so as to cherish the cultural heritage that still exists in every calendar.