Deng Shiru's critique on Ao Taosun's poetry

Author: (Qing) Deng Shiru
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Deng Shiru (1743—1805), originally named Yan, styled Shiru, also known as Wanbo, styled Wanbai Mountain Man, Wanbai, Guhuanzi, Youjie Daoren, Fengshui Fish Leader, Longshan Qiaochang, etc., was from Huaining, Anhui. Some classified him as part of the Wan School, while more people revered him as the "Deng School" due to his outstanding contributions to seal carving history. Deng Shiru grew up in poverty and had a low social status throughout his life. He once said, "I never had the chance to study when I was young; I experienced all kinds of hardships and tribulations. By the age of thirteen or fourteen, I secretly longed for books. At the age of twenty, my grandfather took me to Shouzhou, and by then, I had already been able to teach elementary school. Now that I am nearing old age, I have wandered the world for a living, and people do not treat me as someone who can read and write." Such a "commoner" with little formal education grew into a great artist solely his unwavering belief, tenacious will, and arduous training. After the age of seventeen, he began to support himself through calligraphy and seal carving. After the age of thirty, through the introduction of friends, he gradually met friends such as the three Mei brothers in Nanjing, extensively studied the gold and stone classics collected by the Mei family. Whenever he encountered famous steles or calligraphic works, he would copy them over a hundred times, rising early and working late, day and night, to lay a solid foundation in calligraphy for his future seal carving art. As a result, contemporaries praised his four-body calligraphy as the peak of the Qing Dynasty. During Deng Shiru's time, the Wan and Zhejiang schools dominated the field of seal carving, but he was never satisfied with the achievements of his predecessors. Relying on his strong foundation in calligraphy, he achieved the principle of "calligraphy leading seal carving and seal carving leading calligraphy," breaking the traditional convention of transforming clerical script into seal script in Han seal carving. He pioneered the use of small seal script and inscriptions from steles in seal carving, expanding the scope of reference for seal carving. In seal carving, he developed his own robust yet graceful style, rising prominently in the field of seal carving at the time, forming a triangular balance with the Wan and Zhejiang schools. Deng Shiru's influence extended to contemporaries such as Bao Shichen, Wu Rangzhi, Zhao Ziqian, Wu Zi, Hu Shu, and Xu Sangeng. In the history of seal carving art development, Deng Shiru was an outstanding master. Unfortunately, very few of his original stones have survived, and existing works include "Wanbai Mountain Man's Seal Carving Random Creations," "Wanbai Mountain Man's Seal Spectrum," and "Deng Shiru's Seal Collection."