Wang Xiangyun, an expert in the "birdworm seal script" field of current China, is telling the "one character, one story" to the amateurs in Chinese Bird-Worm Seal Script Art Exhibition Center of Zhengzhou Shangdu Historical Culture District at the east of the Shangcheng Road Town God's Temple. 

在郑州市商城路城隍庙东侧的郑州商都历史文化区中国鸟虫篆艺术展示中心，当今中国鸟虫篆的权威专家王祥云，正在给爱好者们讲述“每个字都是一个故事”。
 

▲Collection in the Great Hall of the People 人民大会堂收藏作品

Most people know the seal script, but less knows the bird-worm seal script. The ancients thought all the things on earth of spirituality, and the Chinese character branched into oracle bone script and bird-worm seal script in Shang and Zhou Dynasties when the spiritual bird-worm seal script was exclusive for royal use that time and since then, Chinese character art came onto the historical stage.

提到篆书，知道的人不在少数。可是说到鸟虫篆，知道的人就不多了。古人认为万物都有灵气，从商周开始，文字开始产生甲骨文和鸟虫篆两个分支，而“万物皆有灵”的鸟虫篆当时就专供皇家使用，也是中国文字艺术的开端。
 

▲Chinese Bird-Worm Seal Script Art Exhibition Center of Zhengzhou Shangdu Historical Culture District  郑州商都历史文化区中国鸟虫篆艺术展示中心
 

Wang Xiangyun started to study the birdworm seal script calligraphy in 1964. He inherited the craft and skills from his elder generation, and also he himself liked such seal script and learned the materials and books at home earnestly. Later he acknowledged Rong Geng the expert in paleography and bronze inscriptions as master for bird-worm seal script study. After Rong Geng passed away, Wang Xiangyun started to study all alone, and by combining with the sciences of art, culture, history, iconology and semiology, he went deep to the stories behind the bird-worm seal script, formed it into system and carried it forward. In 2011, he published and distributed the monograph Introduction to Bird-worm Seal Script which is a great achievement integrating his fifty years of researches on bird-worm seal script and comprehensively exposits its source, inheritance, interpretation, technique of writing, structure and art of composition nationwide for the first time.

王祥云1964 年开始研习鸟虫篆书法，他承袭父辈鸟虫篆技艺，本身又喜爱鸟虫篆，认真研读家中书籍资料，后又拜古文字学家、金文专家荣庚为师，研习鸟虫篆。荣庚去世后，王祥云开始独立研究，结合艺术学、文化学、历史学、图像学、符号学等多种学科，深入探究鸟虫篆背后的故事，将鸟虫篆研究形成体系，发扬光大。于2011 年出版发行的《鸟虫篆发凡》专著，是他集50 年研究鸟虫篆成果之大成，在全国首次对鸟虫篆书法的起源、延续、释读、笔法、结体、章法进行全面阐述。

▲图腾文”倗“


▲图腾文”家“


▲生活图腾文


▲劳动图腾文
 

The art of bird-worm seal script was derived from totem and the oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions in Shang and Zhou dynasties and lived the whole history of seal script from the beginning. It prevailed in the engraved bronze inscriptions for royal use only, which is the representative of ancient integrity culture and source of calligraphy, and its integral shape is based on golden ratio, well-balanced and multi-shape, with thick and thin strokes in order and shines in calligraphy art with its unique characteristics. In Qin dynasty, it abolished the characters of six states but reserved the birdworm seal script as one of the eight officially common-used characters of Qin dynasty. In Han dynasty when it reduced to six officially common-used characters, the bird-worm seal script was still reserved. After Wei and Jin dynasties, with the ending of seal script era, the bird-worm seal script was neglected in the dust of history.

鸟虫篆艺术源于图腾和商周时期的甲骨文、金文，一直伴随着篆书整个时代。盛行于青铜器铭文书体中，属皇族专用，是古代诚信文化的代表, 书法艺术之源，其整体造型按照黄金分割率，匀称多姿，丰纤有致，书法艺术独显光芒。至秦代废除六国文字，独把鸟虫篆保留下来，成为秦代八种官方通用文字之一。到了汉代六种官方通用文字，鸟虫篆仍列其中。魏晋以后，随着篆书时代结束，鸟虫篆便被历史尘封。
 

▲中国文字的先声符号刻画


▲申国的鸟虫篆


▲《鸟篆尊》”为政“


▲《号距末》”商“

 

Whether the "bird-worm" in the bird-worm seal script refers to bird and worm? "The elite of beasts is called Kylin, the elite of birds is called phoenix, the elite of shelled creatures is called magic turtle, the elite of scaled creatures is called dragon, and the elite of human beings is called sage." Wang Xiangyun said that is how the ancients understood the five worms; hence, the so called "bird-worm" should be interpreted as all the living things on earth, including human, instead of bird and worm in the meaning of the time only.

鸟虫篆中的“鸟虫”是否就是鸟和虫子呢？“毛虫之精者曰麟，羽虫之精者曰凤，介虫之精者曰龟，鳞虫之精者曰龙，裸虫之精者曰圣人。”王祥云说，这是古人对于五虫的解释，因此，所谓“鸟虫”，并非今天意义上的鸟虫，而是包括社会上的一切动物，包括人，都称为“虫”。
 

▲青花《福禄寿》瓶


▲青花《佛经》观音瓶


▲青花《道经》口杯瓶


▲《多心经》天球瓶

▲元青花《孙子兵法》将军罐
 

"The masters of Chinese culture in modern times Guo Moruo, Rong Geng and Qian Cunxun thought, through a great number of studies, that the art of Chinese characters started from the bird-worm seal script." Wang Xiangyun said that "Every bird-worm seal script is a story more than character itself. It teaches you the way of being a man and doing things as well as going in for politics." In the development of Chinese culture for thousands of years, the art of bird-worm seal script plays the roles of participant, inheritor and contributor all along and will continue to make outstanding works in carrying forward the Chinese traditional culture.

“近代国学大师郭沫若、容庚、钱存训先生经过大量研究认为：中国文字的艺术便是从鸟虫篆开始的。”王祥云说，“鸟虫篆不仅仅是字，每一个字都是一个故事，教你如何做人做事，如何为官从政。”在中华文化几千年的发展过程中，鸟虫篆文化艺术始终是重要的参与者、传承者和贡献者，在弘扬中华传统文化方面大有可为。
 

王祥云，男，1950 年出生，云山斋主。现任中华人民共和国文化部艺术发展中心鸟虫篆艺术研究院院长、文化部艺术发展中心全国美术考级专家审评委员会专家委员、国家一级美术师、中国书画研究院研究员、荣宝斋特聘书法家。