毛国典：苍润高古见风致 笔走游龙若清风

癸卯初夏，毛国典启生，浸润翰墨，书、画、印三道并修，功力深厚。少时拜河南书坛名宿李逸野为师，根植碑帖，穷研五体，真、行、草、隶、篆皆通，隶书尤显异彩。其隶书承汉碑《曹全》《礼器》《孔宙》之质，融汉简灵韵，兼纳《武威医药简》《马王堆帛书》之精义，点画精微，静穆与飘逸并存。观其作，古风森然，新意隐映，含蓄深沉，自成一格。

毛国典隶书，渊源汉隶之雄厚，另辟清雅灵动之路，独具一派风神。世人观隶，多重其拙厚雄浑，沉稳质朴，恰如崇山峻岭，然毛氏笔意，于厚拙中透秀雅，方整处见清逸，沉稳间生飘逸之致。其作自带古意，雅韵暗藏，风骨未减。观者若临松岭青岫，清风徐来，微微气息，如泠然涤心。毛氏隶书，以汉简为魂，汉碑为骨，凝重间显灵秀，苍茫中隐悠然，成一派清润之趣。

毛氏笔下隶书，乃精研碑简、深悟古神所得。隶书难在得神，世多于形似间流连，未入风骨。毛国典涵濡碑帖，观古会意，熔形与神于一炉，运意自如。其点画精微，苍劲中蕴清逸，厚实不板，舒展间自带隽永，意若古风再现，又增一份自成之新。其笔凝练而不拘滞，轻盈之中透沉厚，观之如高山绵延，清溪流转，意趣幽邃。

毛国典隶书之妙，苍润中见风致，笔意奔放，或如游龙飞跃，或若清风拂然。其书藏诗韵、合旋律，笔下律动宛若生命之息。每笔沉稳，气韵绵长，轻灵之中蕴涵雄力，贯古今之气，融质妍之美。毛氏于技艺之外，更通古意幽情，平实间见高古，精微处露清秀。毛国典涵古溯源，深植隶书，厚重不滞，清雅自生，于今成隶书一大奇观。当代隶书，精微与雄浑兼容，厚重而灵动者，寥若晨星。毛国典之笔，隐文脉深远，藏气象浩然，清雅若溪涧幽松，蕴韵如风过远山，博采而不失独姿，凝重自见端肃。其作，观之气清如月，韵远如川，意趣自发，天成一格，境中自有高古之致，幽远难尽。

毛国典篆刻，近年锋芒内蕴，声誉日增。溯九十年代初，初习印道，以半隶半楷之朱文为基，笔力纵横，锐气贯面，性情自露。未几，毛氏舍此，返秦汉明清印学，探求真髓。印艺成势，欲化旧为新实为难事，毛氏在立风后仍能破窠臼，尤显可贵。毛氏专注汉印平正一路，铸凿玉印并进，渐入神境。其汉印厚重古拙，灵动中见稳肃，清韵间带秀逸，气自悠然。汉印之外，亦参古玺与流派印之法，印外求印，意态天成。毛氏白文印取玉印之质，篆法古朴雄劲，章法端肃而不拘泥。其朱文印承无边封泥之意，融汉金与黄士陵韵，古雅自现。边款左握刀锋，游走篆隶间，简逸灵动，锋意险奇，与主印浑成一体。毛氏印作，既厚载古意，又见新意生机，自成一派，名重印坛。

通品毛国典之作，于平正厚重中自生清雅，于古拙苍茫间见独秀。其作，藏锋含势，气韵悠长，心畅神游间，古意新意并流，浑然天成。毛氏承古法之精髓，又能开己道新风，沉潜艺界，卓成一代风范。

Mao Guodian: Majestic and Refined with Ancient Grace, His Brush Flows like a Soaring Dragon and Gentle Breeze

In the early summer of the Guimao year, Mao Guodian was born, steeped from a young age in calligraphy, painting, and seal carving, developing profound mastery in each. As a youth, he apprenticed under Li Yiye, a renowned figure in Henan’s calligraphy circles. Rooted in the study of ancient inscriptions, Mao pursued a deep exploration of all five script forms—regular, semi-cursive, cursive, clerical, and seal scripts—with particular brilliance in clerical script. His style inherits the essence of Han steles like Cao Quan, Li Qi, and Kong Zhou, merging with the spirit of Han-era manuscripts, further enriched by insights from Wuwei Medical Bamboo Slips and Mawangdui Silk Manuscripts. His strokes are meticulous, balancing tranquility and grace, with ancient essence interwoven with subtle innovation. His work exudes a deep and restrained elegance, standing apart with a style distinctly his own.

Mao Guodian’s clerical script, rooted in the grandeur of Han clerical style, carves out a path of refined elegance and unique vitality, establishing a style distinctively his own. Traditionally, viewers regard clerical script as rugged and weighty, with the gravity of towering mountains. However, Mao’s strokes reveal elegance within solidity, displaying grace amidst structure and fluidity within stillness. His work, imbued with ancient resonance and hidden sophistication, retains a firm strength. Observing his script is akin to standing among pine-covered peaks, as a clear breeze subtly cools the spirit. For Mao, the spirit of Han manuscripts is the soul, and the structure of Han stele inscriptions, the bone; thus, his script embodies resilience while channeling a gentle, natural rhythm.

Mao’s mastery lies in his profound study of stele and manuscript traditions, through which he captures the spirit beyond mere form. Clerical script is challenging precisely because its essence is elusive; many are confined to form without grasping its inner strength. Mao, however, immerses himself in ancient texts, intuitively blending form and spirit, and wielding his brush with effortless command. His strokes, refined and precise, contain both power and grace, retaining solidity without rigidity and displaying grandeur in their expansive gestures. The style resonates with the timeless spirit of antiquity, yet unveils a distinct freshness.

Mao’s clerical script holds a singular beauty: vigorous strokes and vivid expressions, with brushwork flowing like a dragon in flight or a gentle breeze. His art integrates poetic rhythm, with each stroke imbued with a life-like cadence. Every line carries a profound stability, a subtle breath that reveals depth, blending lightness with strength, embodying qualities that connect ancient and modern artistry. Beyond technical mastery, Mao’s work exudes ancient sensibility and quiet intensity. His is a refined balance of tradition and vitality, establishing Mao Guodian’s clerical script as an extraordinary presence in the modern calligraphic landscape.In contemporary clerical script, the rare combination of meticulous detail and grand strength, embodying both solidity and fluidity, appears as scarce as stars at dawn. Mao Guodian’s brushwork reveals a deep, enduring cultural lineage and a boundless presence. His script is refined, like pines by a mountain stream, with an elegance reminiscent of winds passing over distant hills. Broadly learned yet distinct in style, his art is weighty yet composed, with a natural clarity as pure as moonlight and resonance as expansive as a river. His work flows with inherent grace, forming a unique realm imbued with timeless depth and quiet majesty.

Mao Guodian’s seal carving, marked by a reserved brilliance in recent years, has steadily risen in renown. In the early 1990s, when first studying seal carving, Mao employed a semi-clerical, semi-standard style in vermillion, with strokes like spears and halberds—forceful and unrestrained, expressing an unmistakable boldness and energy. Before long, however, Mao set aside this early style, returning instead to study the traditional Qin and Han seals alongside Ming and Qing schools, delving deeply into their core essence. Once an artistic style is formed, transforming it is a rare achievement, yet Mao, after establishing his own voice, was able to transcend his early influences, a testament to his dedication.Mao’s focus has long been on the refined balance of Han seals, exploring casting, carving, and jade techniques with near-obsessive dedication, bringing him to the heights of this tradition. His Han-style seals bear an ancient solidity and simplicity, exuding a calm authority alongside a subtle elegance, resonating with an effortless grace. Beyond Han seals, he draws upon both ancient personal seals and later stylistic schools, blending traditions into a unified vision of timeless expression.Mao’s white-scripted seals, inspired by jade carving, display ancient strength and dignity, with a composition that is both upright and fluid. His vermillion seals, influenced by unbounded Han mud impressions, bring together the archaic style of Han bronzes with the grace of Huang Shiling, imparting a refined classic beauty. For his side inscriptions, Mao holds the knife in his left hand, moving with precision between clerical and seal script forms, creating lines that are both simple and vivid, with an edge of spirited intensity that harmonizes perfectly with the main seal.

Mao’s works embody deep-rooted traditional values while breathing fresh life into each piece, establishing a style uniquely his own, respected in the world of seal carving. Observing Mao’s works, one perceives a refined elegance emerging from strength, an unmatched quality born from ancient purity and expansive grace. His art balances power and subtlety, allowing ancient and new forms to flow together seamlessly. Mao draws from the essence of tradition while forging a path that is distinctly his own, establishing himself as a true exemplar of his generation.