An Introduction to Shih Po-sung’s
Seal Carving Compendium of Buddhist Sutras
Wang Yao-Ting(王耀庭)
former curator in chief
Painting and Calligraphy Department
National Palace Museum Taipei
Though seal carving has been thriving for the last thirty years in Taiwan and many great artists appear, however, Shih Po-sung, one of my fellow townsmen from Lukang, is definitely one of the most-outstanding seal carvers among the peer. Shih’s recent Seal Carving Compendium of Buddhist Sutras (hereafter as Compendium) represents his extraordinary accomplishment.
To understand his works, firstly I must elaborate the interrelationship between Chinese calligraphy and seal carving. It’s known that carving has a long and intimate relation with calligraphy. Technically, Chinese calligraphy is written by tender animal hair brush; on the other hand the art of seal carving is depending on sharp knife to employ characters onto solid stones or metal. In the initial stage of Chinese calligraphy, works were not exclusively composed by brush. Knife-carving played an enormous role as well. Generally, artists first employ characters onto paper by brush. Then wet the sheet of paper and stick it onto stone. And carvers would follow the written prototype to carve words onto stone or mettle, known as inscription. Because being made by knife, inscription is easily full of angular and even lined characters. In this term, both brush and knife are the most original and crucial tools to create early writing system. Like a famous Chinese maxim, “Good tools are prerequisite to the successful execution of a job,” it would be a shame to limit one’s understanding of Chinese calligraphy to the stereotype that “maozhui” (brush) is the only equipment to accomplish the calligraphic works. To Chinese, “writing” therefore is an art includes both brush and carving works. Even though carving could be seemed as a part of calligraphy, but due to its medium, it also expressed something more than the ordinary brush works.
The art of writing is not only about expressing one’s own feeling, but also concerning aesthetics. On the other hand, seal carving is more practical in verifying and identifying the author or the person in charge of the work. It’s through the understanding of characters (sometime names of authors or collectors) to convey or forward the practical function of seals. But how to represent the fleeting human emotions is a bigger challenge to the artist. And Shih’s Compendium may serve as a wonderful example of appreciating the art of Chinese seal carving.
Structurally, Shih’s carving compendium belongs to one of the long traditions of Chinese carving, which arranges seals in successive series. In this sense, serial seals could be read as painting scroll or album is a continuous sequence. Nonetheless, the Compendium may be considered a solemn ritual in Buddhist religion. Back in the days, Buddhist sutra carvers and transcribers perform religious tasks with ultimate deference. Artists must cleanse their hands and bodies, burn the exquisite scent, sometimes even shed their blood before making a religious sculpture or transcribing a sutra. Likewise, Shih Po-sung composed his Heart Sutra discreetly by the running script models of the greatest Chinese Calligrapher, Wang Shi-zhi. Though he might not cleanse his whole body before working on the seals, he must have devoted his sincerest deference to every seal stones. As he postscriped on one of the series seals of Heart Sutra, he wrote “I sincerely devote my merit of carving to every living creatures that are on their way to the enlightenment.” In the Compendium, Shih has explained his creative intention and stylistic inheritance with his postscripts. Differs in style though, his words speak Shih’s toil and sincerest devotion for himself.
More than a devoted mind-set, Shih Po-sung’s work is also enriched with diverse and honorable stylistic origins from ancient oracle-bone-script, hieroglyph script, bronze script, and clerical script. There are some pieces relative to Che School paintings which are known for its strong and rapid brush movement from the Ming Dynasty, or Wan School from the Qing Dynasty. Not only the multiple stylistic traits justify Shih’s Compendium as a legitimate seal carving work following the great Chinese tradition, but also its well-mannered characters, sophisticated composition, and excellent carving skills shows the “Yin Li, ” the seal carving norms, constitute this outstanding work.
In other words, the mental discretion and practical skills mentioned above could be seen through the “panzhu bubai,” concerning the arrangement of red and white composition in seal carving. The word “pan” means the movement of writing, and the “bubai” means the interrelationship exist between the blank spaces on the seal. That is to say, characters, composition, and carving skills are represented in the deliberate arrangement of “panzhu bubai.” Some may proclaim that in order to appreciate the beauty of seal carving, one must understand the seal script and its content first. However, there’re no one can understand all the Chinese characters, and not to mention the ancient seal scripts. So I might assert a different point of view that “panzhu bubai,” the spacial and compositional arrangement is the key to understand the art of seal carving. Therefore, “panzhu bubai” is similar to the cognitive process of reading a painting, and can help people perceive the beauty of seal carving.
Li Shutong once wrote to his friend, and said “When I write, I write like Western artists composing a painting. I pay attention to composition and arrangement of every element in the work. What traditionally people would be fastidious about, such as brush movement, inner structure, and artistic resonance, are out of my concern. That means my calligraphy can actually be read as a painting. And the same concept not only fits calligraphy, but also seals carving. If someone aware the composition and arrangement of seal surface, his carving skill must be extraordinary because seal making is all about proper structurally disposition of characters.”
What Mr. Li has argued is a direct way to appreciate the aesthetic value of Chinese calligraphy and seals, which prevent audience from falling into the maze of identifying every single word in a work. Objectively, writing, composition, and carving skill contribute a seal. These stylistic traits are justified by the multiple corresponding linear qualities of curve and straight, light and heavy, thick and thin, hard and gentle of characters. Consequently, we might as well read a seal like a western painting, for the composition and arrangement of the two are conceptually the same after all.
Such geometrical elements are everywhere in The Compendium. Shih has added many ancient Chinese hieroglyphs into his works, which made pictorial patterns more aesthetically assessable than the word-identifying. For example, Nian Nian Buli Shing (The Recitation from Heart) is excellent in pictorial arrangement. Moreover, Shih composed Bodhisattva Sutra in vertical series, and expressed the beautiful linearity in elongated characters. Some pieces show the brush movement in angular, curving, vertical, and horizontal, and some may even reflect the aboriginal concept of animistic worship of supernatural being. The great calligrapher Huai Su (c. 725-785) from the Tang dynasty once said “To appreciate the brush work as if it’s galvanized, and to control the brush movement like it’s a dragon.” Accordingly, it is concerning how to understand the inner value of cursive scripts, instead of meaning of words. It’s consistent with the aesthetic value which has been emphasized by the great Han calligrapher Cui Yuan (c. 77-142) in his Momentum of Cursive Script. The brush movement is the most important norm for Chinese Calligraphy.
Therefore, I urge the audience to understand the brush work, composition, and arrangement of characters in Shih’s Compendium. Even though you may not familiar with Chinese characters, it’s an outstanding work which is worth of trying!(翻譯者:故宮博物院 陳昱全)
施伯松《佛經篆刻集》序
(前)故宮博物院書畫處處長
王耀庭 庚寅端午於芝山
近三十年來，台灣篆刻一門發展蓬勃，名家輩出，鹿港同鄉施伯松是傑出中的一位。伯松以新近完成之《佛經篆刻集》見示，這呈現了他現階段篆刻藝術的成就。我想篆刻與書法有相當大關連，書法一般說來是以毛筆書寫漢字為主體，篆刻則以刀鑿鑄的漢字篆書為主，也另有肖形諸種種。就遠古的書寫，今日所見，並不一定完全用毛筆完成。尤其璽印在中國有長遠的歷史與發展，用硬式的工具，冶鑄椎鑿，毛筆扮演的功能當在起始而已，即如魏碑筆畫的勻平齊整，「刀鑿」更扮演著最後完成的角色。書法與篆刻同是漢字的滋生體，工欲善其事必先利其器，從這個觀點，如果把書法當做一式不變的「毛錐」，過度強調「毛錐」才能完成，那將是畫地自限。篆刻刀筆並用，書法用筆的「點、曳、斫、拂」，轉之於印面也別增刀趣。這樣的看法或許把篆刻當做書法的又一格，但我相信，篆刻的美，也有與書法相同相異的。
書寫初假達情，浸乎競美，篆刻則是達情之外更加上徵信，實用之間也是百美駢臻。達情靠相互認識了文字的功能，但書寫時，能否涉樂方笑，言哀已歎。書寫時的情懷，展現在點畫結體成字，到連字成行連行成篇。理論與現存名作是可印證的。王羲之「寫樂毅則情多怫鬱，書畫贊則意涉瑰奇，黃庭經則怡懌虛無，太師箴又縱橫爭折。既乎蘭亭興集，思逸神超；私門誡誓，情拘志慘。」《佛經篆刻集》是一套印，套印雖說古已有之，於今為盛，這該是物質條件今勝昔。因為成套就如畫的手卷、冊頁，逐「印」連貫欣賞，也就不拘泥停頓於單一的「方寸」之間。《佛經篆刻集》猶如「寫經」、「刻經」，這都是香光莊嚴的作業。存世的古寫經，從來所見都是心懷恭敬。《心經》以集書聖王羲之字相配，可見敬謹的態度。伯松的《佛經篆刻集》創作的態度也是敬謹的。常見古今人畫佛像寫佛經，落款都加註沐手薰香，甚至刺血以對。伯松在這一集子中，未必如俗話說的下刀前沐手薰香，但一以貫之的是清心虔敬，他於「般若羅密多心經」細朱文一印，跋︰「願以此功德普及於一切，我等與眾生俱成佛道。」這就是祈願了。我想，這套印，多數每一方具有伯松的印跋，說道印文的結體所出自，說道刻法的所來由，也說道印文丰神的所表達。這諸諸種種，儘管印風轉換多變，然而，不變的是印印敬謹周到。若甲骨的奇詭，如〈南無佛〉；春秋鳥蟲書的華麗富美如〈常樂我淨〉，金文〈念念從心起〉的結字寄奇雋於純正；秦小篆圓潤流利如〈無色聲香味觸法〉；停勻大方的漢鑄印如〈朝唸觀世音〉；大印若〈不生不滅〉的鈍厚持重；〈依般若多羅密多故〉、〈娑婆訶〉的流暢搖曳；〈婆羅吉帝〉渾樸壯美；學浙派的〈亦復如是〉切刀直下，筆意方中有圓；學皖派的〈諸法空相〉小篆入印，筆意婉轉；即使如〈度一切苦厄〉的自跋，說是「寫意一揮」，也還是在規矩之中。這諸諸種種面貌是篆法有度、章法成局、刀法準確。敬謹的準繩之內，展示了「印理」，這才是功夫。
這種敬謹的態度見之於印面的「蟠朱布白」。「蟠朱布白」可以說是對一件篆刻的總體形象，單純地說，篆刻的文字朱白互用。進一步，論及篆刻的製作，篆法、章法、刀法的實體表現，所以用「蟠」朱，就是篆書筆畫屈申，化簡為繁或化繁為簡；布「白」是筆畫間距疏密的相互關係。欣賞篆刻是否要認識篆(印)文，我的看法是否定的，刻家須懂得篆法，無庸置疑，至若觀賞者未必。印文之難辨，戰國文字，固多奇詭變化，漢印亦多異體，再三推敲恐難盡識。我想沒有一人敢說他認識所有的中國字，但是「蟠朱布白」卻可當圖畫看。李叔同(弘一)給其友人的一封信中論及書與印，寫道︰「朽人寫字時，皆依西洋畫圖案之原則，竭力配置調和全紙面之形狀，于常人所注意之字畫筆法，筆力結構神韻，乃至某帖某碑之筆法，皆一致屏除，絕不用心揣摩。故朽人之字，應做一張圖案畫觀之，斯可矣！不惟寫字，刻印亦然。仁者若能於圖案法研究明了，所刻之印必大有進步，因印文之章法布置能十分合宜也。」這是歸結看待「書法與印章」於美術的層次，不落入枝枝節節的「言詮」，直接訴諸視覺的美感。「篆法、章法、刀法」種種的講究，統合在一起，終極目的也無非是要求達到藝術美的境界。從一個欣賞者來說，「篆法、章法、刀法」所形成的印面，朱白相映，通過筆畫曲直、輕重、粗細、剛柔等等，完成對眼下客觀文字的組合，我會先看成單純的幾何形。印面「朱與白」是單純的色彩，「蟠與布」是秩序的調理，說來就是純粹幾何造形。
《佛經篆刻集》中的鳥蟲書印，本身因有鳥蟲的造形加入其中，再加以筆道故作波磔，以勻整多姿為美，本身就是以象形文字圖案處理，觀賞時，圖案之美先於文字之義，故不用多說；若〈念念不離心〉是一幅符號式的莫以能名圖畫，若〈延命十字觀音經〉、〈遮囉遮囉〉，前者為縱向，後者為橫向，字形顯出的是形體韻律之美；若〈依般若波羅密多故〉、〈菩堤薩埵婆耶〉、〈摩醯摩醯唎馱孕〉筆畫橫平直垂，都是方折的節奏美；〈亦無老死盡〉安排出如巫覡社會的神秘感。書法史上說懷素的草書是「筆下唯看激電流，字成只畏盤龍走。」說的是草書的審美感受，不關文字的字義。把印面文字的筆畫表達，化成為線和線的相互穿插、交疊的形體。對這形體的意象產生了美感，這份美感或許可以用語言文字表述，但我想更多的是莫可名狀，那篆刻的藝術，就如崔瑗《草書勢》文中對草書的審美感受是「勢」，才是第一要義。讀了伯松《佛經篆刻集》，不由說了這些，以為序。
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