吴熙载(吴让之)

 吴熙载（1799-1870），原名廷扬，字熙载，后以字行，改字让之，亦作攘之，号让翁、晚学居士、方竹丈人等。江苏仪征人。清代篆刻家、书法家。包世臣的入室弟子。善书画，尤精篆刻。少时即追摹秦汉印作，后直接取法邓石如，得其神髓，又综合自己的学识，发展完善了“邓派”篆刻艺术，在明清流派篆刻史上具有举足轻重的地位。吴昌硕评曰：“让翁平生固服膺完白，而于秦汉印玺探讨极深，故刀法圆转，无纤曼之气，气象骏迈，质而不滞。余尝语人：学完白不若取径于让翁。”吴让之印作颇能领悟邓石如的“印从书出”的道理，运刀如笔，迅疾圆转，痛快淋漓，率直潇洒，方中寓圆，刚柔相济。其体势劲健，舒展飘逸，婀娜多姿，尽展自家篆书委婉流畅的风采，无论朱文白文均功夫精熟，得心应手，技术上已如庖丁解牛。让翁在继承邓完白的基础上有所创建，特别是那种轻松淡荡的韵味，直达书印合一的神境。吴缶老赞曰：“风韵之古隽者不可度，盖有守而不泥其迹，能自放而不逾其矩。”一生清贫，著有《通鉴地理今释稿》。吴熙载工四体书。篆书和隶书学邓石如，行书和楷书取法包世臣。书法功力虽深，但受邓石如和包世臣的束缚太深，未能创造自己的风格。亦善画。一生成就最大的是篆刻，篆刻得邓石如精髓，而又能上追汉印。晚年运刀更臻化境，在浙派末流习气充满印坛的当时，将皖派中的邓派推向新的境界，对清末印坛的影响很大。吴熙载一生刻印数以万计，但多不刻边款，以致流传甚少。吴让之出生于清嘉庆四年(1799年)，早年居住在仪征，青年时期因从事科考，每三年两考，他都要往返于仪征、泰州。吴让之最终只被录取为“生员(秀才)”，仅是一个普通的县学“诸生”，但从这时起，他和当时泰州的文人雅士有了比较多的交往，建立了友谊。

中年后，吴让之长期寓居扬州。据清董玉书《芜城怀旧录》记载，吴让之在扬州时，曾住在石牌楼观音庵。当时观音庵内还寄居着画家王素，“王画吴字”为时推重，士大夫家皆以“非王画吴书不足相配”论之。道光二十九年(1849年)，吴让之受宿迁王惜庵之托，以枣板续刻高凤翰集撰的《砚史》后半部分。此书刻成时他题有长跋，其中谈到“余于今年分典文汇阁秘书”并曾“分辑《南史》注”。扬州文汇阁是清代收藏《四库全书》的七阁之一，这里本是吴让之的用武之地，但为时不久，在清兵对太平天国的作战中，文汇阁付之一炬。

 清咸丰三年(1853年)，吴让之54岁，为避战乱，他流寓到了好友较多的泰州，其朱文印《再生人》边款云：“咸丰三年由扬避乱来海陵”。吴让之定居泰州，前后长达十数个春秋，首寓时为泰州首富的姚正镛(仲海)家。吴让之在姚家，先后为姚治印120方。吴让之在泰期间，还相继客寓岑镕(仲陶)、陈守吾、朱筑轩、徐震甲(东园)等名门，后又在刘汉臣(麓樵)家居3年之久，并曾朱书《说文》一部赠之，文末有“寄食三年，无以为报”的亲笔跋语。吴让之寓刘汉臣家不仅为其子弟课读，还为刘治印88方，刻砚一方，书画多幅。咸丰四年(1854年)甲寅八月，刘汉臣新居落成，吴让之特隶书长联一副：“势不因人，翁之乐者山林也；居虽近市，客亦知夫水月乎”上款题日：“麓樵以高西园先生所集联文属书泰州姜堰新居，以其文与近况有合故尔。”

 吴煕载，原名廷飏，字煕载，后因避穆宗载淳讳更字让之，号晚学居士，江苏仪征人。他长期寓居扬州，以卖书画刻印为生，晚年落魄穷困，栖身寺庙借僧房鬻书，潦倒而终。吴煕载是包世臣的入室弟子。其行草学包世臣，篆隶及篆刻则师法邓石如。尤其是篆刻，不仅自成面目，而且进一步完善了邓派印风，后来学邓派印者，多从吴让之入手。吴煕载以篆书和隶书最为知名。其篆书点画舒展飘逸，结体瘦长疏朗，行笔稳健流畅。古朴虽不及邓石如，而灵动典雅似则过之，颇具妩媚优雅之趣，在晚清书坛享有很高的声誉。对后来的赵之谦、吴昌硕均有影响。

吴熙载书法作品

 吴让之诸体皆擅，而篆隶功力尤深，特别是他的圆劲流美的小篆为世人所重。在篆法上，吴让之师法邓石如及汉篆法，更因其善于“铁笔写篆”撷取金石精华，故有“气贯长虹、刚劲有力、咄出新意”之态。包世臣对吴让之也有直接影响，他继承了包氏衣钵，恪守师法而自成面目，给人以清澹甜润之感。所书小篆《梁吴均与朱元思书》、《宋武帝与臧焘敕》、《三乐三忧帖》等，用笔浑融清健，篆法方圆互参，体势展蹙修长，有“吴带当风”之妙。吴让之隶书结体，中心紧敛而肢体舒展，颇富古意，被誉为清初以来篆隶书体创新者之一。其行书动势显著，生发了流动、通畅之气，单字虽隔，然意气绵延不断；楷书苍厚郁茂，俊逸爽劲，并掺有北碑意韵，一扫“馆阁体”纤弱之风。

吴让之的主要艺术成就在于其金石篆刻。他曾自述：“让之弱龄好弄，喜刻印章。早五岁乃见汉人作，悉心摹仿十年。凡拟近代名工，亦务求肖乃已。又五年始见完白山人作，尽弃其学而学之。”由于吴让之有10年汉印的摹习功底，加之以邓的汉篆书体为依归，使隶书笔法参之入篆，以篆书笔意引之入印，书印相参，流美生动，浑朴圆润，韵味醇厚，一洗当时印坛程式化和矫揉造作的时尚，使日趋僵化的印坛面目为之一新。他在《自评印稿题记》中阐明：“若意无新奇，奇不中度，狂怪妄作，皆难列等。”

 清同治三年(1863年)，书画篆刻家赵之谦托好友魏锡曾将自己的印蜕带到泰州给吴让之品评，赵之谦一印边跋有云：“息心静气，乃是浑厚。近人能此者，扬州吴熙载一人而已。”吴让之看后颇为感动，除对赵印作了中肯评说外，并冒酷暑即兴挥汗刻“鉴古堂”、“赵之谦”等自文四印，印作方圆相参，疏密相应，实现了轻灵古拙、浑厚平实的统一，堪为吴让之篆刻艺术成熟期的代表作。

战火弥漫，故园萧寂。吴让之寄寓泰州，虽得旧友新知的同情与关怀，但伤感之情仍不时在诗文中流露。他在为杨石卿所作的《秋林诗思图》题句中写道：“乌桕丹枫叶渐凋，杜陵蓬鬓感萧萧。奚囊收得秋光满，聊与西风破寂寥。”在泰州，吴让之常与当地名士墨客雅集唱和，分题拈韵，集锦作画。

“但使残年饱吃饭，只愿无事常相见。”晚年吴让之，已穷困潦倒般借居于泰州东坝口观音庵，他曾撰八言联自嘲：“有子有孙，鳏寡孤独，无家无室，柴米油盐。”同治九年(1870年)，吴让之离世，终年72岁。

作为一位博学多能的艺术家，吴让之早年师从邓石如(完白山人)的学生包世臣学书，故为邓石如的再专弟子。在包世臣反对流弊较大的“馆阁体”开辟晚清一代新风中，吴让之无疑是一倾力助阵者。吴昌硕说吴让之“书画下笔谨严，风韵之古俊者，不可度，盖有守而不泥其迹，能自放而不逾其矩。治印……刀法圆转，无纤曼之习，气象骏迈，质而不滞”，乃非虚饰之言。

 以圆朱文篆法入白文印，是吴让之篆刻的一大特点，一路横宽竖狭、略带圆转笔意的流美风格，和他的朱文印和谐统一。他擅用冲刀浅刻之术，腕虚指实，刀刃披削，其运刀如“神游太虚，若无所事”。吴让之治印广采博汲，不囿成法，在理论上他尊崇师说，但实践中他又有意和老师的风格拉开距离。近代书画大家黄宾虹称吴让之是“善变者”，他在通力学邓后，又以自己的善变，发扬出邓石如“印从书出，书从印入”的新境界，其晚年印作，字法、布局、行刀、款法自出机杼，以其平正、淡雅、拙朴，形成了自己独特的印风格调。

吴让之一生治印万方，声名显卓，以致后来学“邓派”的多舍邓趋吴，除黄士陵外，吴让之对同时代的赵之谦、徐三庚，近代吴昌硕，当代韩天衡等书篆名家皆影响甚深。恰如西泠丁辅之以赵之谦笔意为诗赞日：“圆朱入印始赵宋，怀宁布衣人所师。一灯不灭传薪火，赖有扬州吴让之。

吴熙载书法作品

 Wu Xizai (1799-1870), formerly known as TingYang, was named Xizai. Later, he changed the word to Weng, later scholars and Abbot Fang Zhu. Jiangsu Yizheng. Qing Dynasty seal Carver, calligrapher. Bao Shichen's disciple. Good at calligraphy and painting, especially seal cutting. When he was young, he imitated the seal works of Qin and Han Dynasties, and then directly took Deng Shilu's method to obtain his spiritual marrow, and integrated his own knowledge to develop and improve the "Deng school" seal cutting art, which played an important role in the history of seal cutting of Ming and Qing schools. Wu Changshuo commented: "let Weng Pingsheng firmly accept the white color, but in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the seal was deeply discussed, so the blade method turned round, without the spirit of fiber man, and the weather was fine, and the quality was not stagnant. Yu tasted the language person: after learning white not if takes the path in lets Weng. " Wu rang's seal is quite able to understand Deng Shi Ru's principle of "the seal comes from the book". It's like a pen with a knife. It's fast and round. It's full of pain, straightforward and unrestrained. It's round in the square. It's hard and soft. It is vigorous, elegant, graceful, and full of its own gentle and fluent style of seal script. Zhu Wen and Bai Wen are proficient in Kung Fu, skillful, and skilled. Let Weng create something on the basis of inheriting Deng Wanbai, especially the relaxed and light charm, which can directly reach the divine realm of book printing integration. Wu fou said: "the charm of the ancient Jun can not be measured, covered with the guard and not mud its trace, can be released without exceeding its moment." He was poor all his life, and was the author of Tongjian geography current interpretation. Wu Xizai's four body script of work. Seal script and clerical script study Deng Shilu, running script and regular script take the method of Bao Shichen. Although the calligraphy skill is deep, it is too deep bound by Deng Shilu and Bao Shichen to create its own style. It is also good to draw. The greatest achievement in his life is seal cutting, which is the essence of Deng Shilu and can catch up with Han seal. At that time, Deng School of Anhui school was pushed to a new level, which had a great influence on the printing circle in the late Qing Dynasty. In his life, Wu Xizai engraved tens of thousands of coins, but many of them were not engraved, so that they were rarely spread. Wu rang Zhi was born in 1799, the fourth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. He lived in Yizheng in his early years. In his youth, because he was engaged in scientific examination, he would go back and forth to Yizheng and Taizhou every three years. Wu Gengzhi was finally admitted as a "student (scholar)", just a common County School "Zhusheng", but from then on, he had more contacts with scholars and scholars in Taizhou and established friendship.

After middle age, Wu rang lived in Yangzhou for a long time. According to Dong Yushu's reminiscence of Wucheng in the Qing Dynasty, when Wu rang Zhi was in Yangzhou, he lived in Guanyin temple, a stone archway. At that time, there was Wang Su, a painter living in Guanyin temple. Wang painted Wu characters, which was regarded as the most important thing, and the scholar bureaucrats all thought that non Wang painted Wu characters were not suitable. In the 29th year of Daoguang's reign (1849), Wu rang was entrusted by Wang Xian of Suqian to carve the second half of inkstone history by Gao fenghan. When the book was engraved, he wrote a long postscript, in which he talked about "Yu Yu Yu, Secretary of Wenhui Pavilion in this year's Canon" and "notes on the history of the South". Wenhui Pavilion in Yangzhou is one of the seven pavilions in the Qing Dynasty, which collected the complete book of Siku. It was originally used by Wu rang, but it was not long ago that Wenhui pavilion was burnt in the Qing army's battle against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In the third year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1853), Wu rang Zhi was 54 years old. In order to avoid war, he moved to Taizhou, where he had many friends. His Zhu Wenyin's "reborn man" side said: "in the third year of Xianfeng, he came to hailing from Yang to avoid chaos.". Wu rang lived in Taizhou for more than ten spring and Autumn Periods. When he first lived in Taizhou, he was the home of Yao Zhengyong (Zhonghai), the richest man in Taizhou. Wu rang Zhi is in Yao's house, and has successively sealed 120 square meters for Yao Zhiyin. During his stay in Thailand, Wu rang Zhi lived in Cen Rong (Zhongtao), Chen Shouwu, Zhu zhuxuan, Xu Zhenjia (Dongyuan) and other famous families successively, and then lived in Liu Hanchen (Luqiao) for three years. He once donated a Book of Shuowen by Zhu Shu. At the end of the article, there was a personal postscript of "three years of food, no report". Wu rang's home is not only for his children's study, but also for Liu Zhiyin's 88 square, inkstone carving, calligraphy and painting. In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), in August of Jiayin, Liu Hanchen's new house was completed, and Wu rang's special official script long-term couplet was completed: "the situation is not based on people, and Weng's pleasure is in the mountains and forests; although he lives near the city, he knows his husband, shuiyuehu." the title of the previous paragraph said: "the couplet collected by Mr. Lu Qiao and Gao Xiyuan belongs to Jiang Yan's new house in Taizhou, which is in accordance with the current situation."