Mr. Tong, Da-Nian was a master in Chinese art of inscription, painting and calligraphy. He was an early member of the century old, highly respected and very exclusive West Ling Inscription Art Society. If you have ever visited the compound of the society on the Gushan Island in the beautiful West Lake, Hangzhou, China, you would find a stone-inscribed hand-written antithetical couplet:"West Ling Inscription Is a Millenarian Glorious Society, East Han Stones Were the Triple Old Tablets." and a side note: "Mid Spring of 1933, by Tong, Da-Nian". That is one of his masterpieces.

Mr. Tong, Da-Nian, whose given name was Gao, sometimes styled himself Xin-Kan, or Xin-An. He was born in 1873, the year of rooster; died in 1953 at age of 81. Among the early members of West Ling Inscription Society, he was a master with tremendous influence. In the old days, when the Society published the 10 volume "Current Chinese Inscription Collection", it usually put one artist's work on one page, but it dedicated the entire volume 8 to Mr. Tong as "Tong, Xin-Kan's Seal Inscription". From this perspective you can see how people appreciate his inscriptions.

Under paternal and fraternal influence, Mr. Tong's creative activities of painting and inscribing started since his was a child, and lasted over seventy years. His father, Mr. Tong, Song-Jun (means "Sir Pine"), whose style was Xie-Geng, came from Chongming, Jiangsu. He passed the imperial exam, used to be the county magistrate of Deqing. Because of his love of the scene of West Lake, Song-Jun lived near the lake in his later years. His knowledge of Chinese art was broad and profound. His invention of "Yi Zhi Tu" was a famous Chinese puzzle game. Among Song-Jun's five sons, Da-Nian was the youngest. In Chinese "Tong" also means kid, so Da-Nian got a nick name "The fifth kid(tong) under the pine (song)" and one of the collections of his work was called "Mr. Tong, the Kid's Inscription". His third elder brother, Mr. Tong, Yan, courtesy name known as Shu-Ping as well, was a famous rare talent who was peerless in painting, inscription and poetry. With such giant father and brother, this kid ("Tong, Da-Nian") established his great achievements as expected, and got respected throughout the rest of his life. 

Like his father and brother, Mr. Tong, Da-Nian was a versatile artist. Critics have the greatest esteem for his inscriptions. Besides the two books mentioned above, his works were also published in a book called "Seal Inscription In Yi Gu House".

Professor Lin, Qian-Liang, at Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medical Science, an authoritative researcher on Mr. Tong's work, has the most comprehensive collection which includes over 200 pieces of Mr. Tong's personal seals, imitated ancient seals, Wadang seals, ancients name seals. From this collection, we learned that when Mr. Tong conducted his inscription, he benefited from imitating ancients' seals and developed his own style. He had cut over 100 pieces of seals imitating from ancient imperial seals to those cut in last century. In his own creative practice, he had cut many seals with famous ancients' names. Sometimes for one name, he cut several seals in different styles.

It is not so easy to summarize Mr. Tong's achievements in inscription art. According to Professor Lin, in the past one century, only Mr. Wang, Bing-Tie had similar versatile talent and magic touch in inscription like Mr. Tong. Both of them had cut many seals on many different materials with different styles. They presented us a scene majestic in all its variety within inches. In those years, other famous Chinese artists like Mr. Wu, Chang-Shuo, Mr. Chen, Fu-Lu, Mr. Shao, Pei-Zi, etc. all praised Mr. Tong's work highly, in their social contacts over decades, there were a lot of anecdotes.

Professor Lin also discovered that Mr. Tong had inscribed several seals imitating Sir Zhao, Mu (styled Zhong-Mu, in ancient China known as Sir of the Inscription). The artistic style in these seals shows Mr. Tong's deep understanding of Sir Zhao's work. Such pieces are rare to find in nowadays. 

Since ancient Chinese inscription had major impact on his work, Mr. Tong named his study room as "Yi Gu" which means "inherited from ancient". One of his books was also named after this word. After his study, Professor Lin believes that Mr. Tong's inscription style was primarily influenced by ancient imperial seals and those inscribed in the Han Dynasty(206 B.C. ~ A.D. 20). Through his family collections, Mr. Tong was able to access many ancient inscribed bells and tripods/quadripods. He often applied the inscription styles on those ancient metals into his seal cutting. As of his Chinese calligraphy, his regular script looks as honest and sincere as his personality; his running-hand script is easy and smooth. The seal character calligraphy shows his hand of a master. Flowers were the major subjects of his Chinese paintings. He painted birds and landscape as well.

Among the early members of West Ling Inscription Art Society, Mr. Tong, Da-Nian (1873-1953) was an artist with unique character. He was good at seal inscription, calligraphy, well known for his Zhuan-style calligraphy similar to the triple old tablets. He also painted flowers and landscape; his paintings are all elegant and sublime. Mr. Tong inscribed many seals throughout his life, and published "Seal Inscription In Yi Gu House", "Mr. Tong, the Kid's Inscription", and "Current Chinese Inscription Collection"(Volume 8, "Tong, Xin-Kan's Seal Inscription"). Mr. Tong's original name was Gao, his style name was You-Lai, he also had literary name Xin-Kan and other variants which all mean honest and upright. Mr. Tong's family came from Chongming near Shanghai. He named his residence "Yi Gu House", "Self Happiness Room", and "Green Cloud House". He was the fifth son of Mr. Tong, Xie-Geng. Because his father had style name "Song-Jun" (Sir Pine), he also called himself "The fifth kid (Tong) under the pine (Song) among the Jin-Ao twelve mountains". Actually the Jin-Ao Mountains are small hillocks outside Chongming instead of lofty ridges and towering mountains; Mr. Tong used them as part of his literary name just to commemorate his ancestry.

The author (Mr. Tong, Yan-Fang, who is a well-known seal inscription artist, also serves as the secretary of Seal Inscription Group of Shanghai Calligraphers Association and a professor of Shanghai Art Academy) is Mr. Tong's namesake, and came across some of Mr. Tong's personal seals. Here are three of them to be appreciated by people having similar interests in seal inscription.

The seal carved in relief, "Home among Jin-Ao Twelve Mountains" (3cm x 3.6cm). Side notes: "The first day of the 11th lunar month, the year of 1889, inscribed by You-Lai at Zi-jing House in West Ling, at age 17". This seal looks stable and calm. The characters "home" and "mountain" were laid out according to the shape of the stone, although they differ in size and shape, they remain in balance. Such arrangement achieves the artistic effects of being similar but not repetitive, and echoing each other. The character "among" looks neither close nor distance; the character "Ao" seeks calm while in motion. These all demonstrate that Mr. Tong at age 17, had already mastered the methods of seal layout and the distribution of red and white colors within a seal. The cuts look precipitous, brisk and neat. At the turns of each stoke, there are often many intermittent delicate fluctuations, which give one much food for thought. This seal has the style that resembles the one of Sir Zhao, Mu, the famous seal inscription artist of the 18th century.

The intagliated seal "Still Preserve Childlike Innocence" and the seal carved in relief "Da-Nian" are masterpieces that Mr. Tong inscribed in his middle and old ages. The former one follows the style of ancient seals: imposing, simple, separation and reunion in coherence. The latter one looks like the triple old tablets: steady and broad, running smoothly. Because he worked very hard studying and imitating ancient seals from Qin and Han dynasties (221 B.C. ~ A.D. 20), and the inscriptions on many ancient upright stone tablets, Mr. Tong was able to follow the example of these ancient artworks, however he created his own spirit-resonance style in terms of Zhuan calligraphy and seal cutting.

Mr. Tong became famous nationwide at age 50. Many publications in 1930s, like "Bei An Ink Left" and "Bronze and Stone Inscription, Calligraphy and Painting", often dedicated special topics or columns to his artworks. Recently Tokyo Publishing House published "Mr. Tong, Da-Nian's Seal Inscription" in 1989, which has exquisitely printed seal impressions and detail introduction of Mr. Tong's artistic career.

Mr. Tong's temperament was bold and uninhibited. He had a liking for wine, and his inscription artworks often included well-known phrases of wine drinking, like "Drunk Thirty Six Thousand Times", "Suck up Wine under Moonshine", and etc., which revealed his true feelings. Mr. Tong was sanguine and optimistic; he had a strong sense of obligation to his friends. In autumn of 1919, he came across a seal masterpiece inscribed by Mr. Hu, Jue with the phrase "Drinking amber-colored wine with rich distinctive fragrance in spring time". Because he admired Mr. Hu's seal inscriptions for long time, and the seal also carried the chant of wine drinking, he was very excited. He invited some of his friends to appreciate it together. Among them, Mr. Shao, Pei-Zi, a seal inscription artist, also had similar taste. Mr. Shao immediately asked him for the seal after enjoying the sight of the artwork. He generously gave it to Mr. Shao as a present, and inscribed a side note on the seal to record the account. On January 28th, 1932, when Japanese Imperial Army attacked Shanghai, the local residents fled with valuables. The only thing Mr. Tong carried with him was just a jar of mellow wine. His addiction to good wine was so extraordinary!

Our father, Tong Da-Nian (1873~1953), was a famous artist of Chinese seal inscription and calligraphy in modern history. He was an early member of the prestigious West Ling Inscription Art Society. His original name was Gao, with style name You-Lai. He changed his name to Da-Nian in 1904, and used literary names as Xin-An, Xin-Kan, and many other variants. Grandfather had five sons; Father was the youngest, so Father often called himself "The fifth kid under the pine among the Jin-Ao twelve mountains". Our ancestral home was in Chongming, Jiangsu; because of his love of the scene of West Lake, Grandfather moved his family to Hangzhou in his later years to be close to the lake. Father was born in Hangzhou, so our generation calls Hangzhou, Zhejiang our hometown.

Father came from a family of scholars. His grandfather, Tong Li-Cheng, with style name Zhuo-Fu, successfully passed the imperial examinations at provincial level in 1816; later was appointed as magistrate at several counties in Zhejiang province. His grandfather was impartial, upright and incorruptible; the local people called his grandfather "Tong the Clear Sky", a respectful sobriquet for a clean and upright official. Our grandfather, Tong Xie-Geng, also passed the imperial examinations at county level; was selected as chief staff of local government in several counties in Zhejiang province, later was promoted to the post of county magistrate at Deqing because of military merit. Grandfather was relieved from office after being framed by corrupt imperial officials because he refused to bribe them. Grandfather then entertained himself with the art of seal inscription, calligraphy and painting, and became an expert of ancient artworks appraisal. Grandfather also invented popular tangram games Yi Zhi Tu and Wan Yu Tu. Our third elder uncle, Tong Yan, was good at depicting flowers, birds and figures. Third Uncle was also good at imitating seal inscriptions; he used to imitate He Zhen's "The 72 Seasons Seal Chart". Our fourth elder uncle, Tong Sheng (style name Ji-Tai), was also good at seal inscription, calligraphy and painting. Fourth Uncle had great scholarly attainments; the relatives often called Fourth Uncle "Just one tenth less than the Encyclopedia" However Fourth Uncle died at young age and few people knew his reputation.

Father was bright and intelligent since his was a child. Under the paternal and fraternal influence, he inscribed his first seal "Safe and Sound". At age of 8. He followed his third elder brother, Tong Yan, to study figure painting, then flower painting; and occasionally landscape painting. His artistic endeavor in Chinese seal inscription, calligraphy and painting lasted over seventy years. Many people believed that he was peerless in Chinese calligraphy, painting and seal inscription, however critics had the greatest esteem for his inscriptions. His inscriptions include fine and delicate style, as well as bold and unrestrained style. He was an all-around master. When West Ling Inscription Art Society published the 10 volume "Current Chinese Inscription Collection" in 1934, it put ten pages in each volume and one artist's work on one page, but it dedicated the entire volume 8 to Mr. Tong as "Tong, Xin-Kan's Seal Inscription". He was good at many styles of Chinese calligraphy, most famous for his Zhuan style calligraphy. Especially his style that imitated ancient characters carved on bricks was very unique. His poetry and antique art collections were also well known at his time.

In his spare time, Father taught us seal inscription, calligraphy and painting. It's a pity that we were young and naughty, we just muddled through, and at the end we did not learn much from Father. We feel really sorry for that. Our three siblings, each received two seals from Father when we turned ten years old: one had our name inscribed; the other had our style name inscribed. After so many years and several times wandering about as refugees, unfortunately we lost all of these precious memorabilia.

Father was a person of integrity. He did not want to associate himself with evil persons. In 1920 he quit his job in business administration and made living as a professional artist since then. His artwork in Chinese seal inscription, calligraphy and painting were highly praised by collectors. His own collection of ancient artworks was well known at that time. Father was very diligent even when he was a famous artist. When producing artwork, he was conscientious and meticulous. He always started with a sketch when he was painting. He was very good at depicting plum blossoms. He preferred natural material based colors, such as malachite green and azurite blue to touch paint leaves and liverwort.

Father often asked Qi-Qing to help him to prepare brush-writing ink in traditional way by rubbing an ink stick on an inkslab. The inkslab was huge, about 24 centimeters (9.5 inches) in diameter, and 5 centimeters (2 inches) in height. Father preferred top quality ink sticks produced in An Hui province: cylinder shape sticks were 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter, square shape sticks were 5 centimeters (2 inches) wide and 2 centimeters (0.8 inch) thick. At the time Qi-Qing was young and her hands could barely hold half of such ink stick. Father often urged her again and again to rub the ink stick evenly, and slowly in circular motion. First she would add a little water to the inkslab, after the ink became sticky, then she would add more water. It would take her one to two hours to prepare half slab full of ink. Once the ink was ready, Qi-Qing would sit across the table, and wait quietly for Father to brush-write calligraphy characters. Every time when Father finished one character, she would pull the paper up a bit to let Father write next character in the space below. Sometimes Father would need to write couple dozen to hundred characters, Qi-Qing thought it was a hard job for her as a kid while her brother and sister could play outside. Now she realizes that Father had given much thought to such assignment to her, because like Father, Qi-Qing is forthright in character and sometimes impatient. With this special treatment from Father, when she grew up, she constantly improved herself in her academic career and finally made significant achievement.

Qi-Xiong has an agile mind. Father taught him everything about how to solve the Yi Zhi Tu puzzles that were invented by Grandfather. The father and son were never bored with playing the puzzles. When we lived in Shanghai, our landlord and also one of Father's closest friends, Hu Pu-An, unfortunately passed away due to illness, Father and Qi-Xiong used Yi Zhi Tu style Chinese characters to write elegiac couplet to express their grief over Mr. Hu's death. Years later when Qi-Xiong joined the Army, because he was good at artistic calligraphy, he was assigned to military art troupe. During the Korean War in 1950's, he often went to the front line with his unit to perform for the solders to boost morale.

Father had a lifetime of frustrations, and scanty means. However he always called himself "Xin An"(Feel at Ease), and had a good sense of humor. He told us many stories, literary quotations and jokes that combined education with recreation. He used to tell a story like this: Once upon a time, two scholars invited each other to dinners, and they agreed that the dishes must imply meanings of famous poetry. Scholar-A hosted a dinner first, and he presented only one dish with one cooked egg yolk split into two pieces next to some green onions, some cooked egg white sliced into pieces and arranged in a line. He said the dish meant "Two golden orioles sing in the green willows. A row of white egrets against the blue sky." A few days later, it was Scholar-B's turn to host dinner. His dish had only some white soybean residues after making Tou Fu, he also put clear water in a bowl floating on it was a half egg shell. He said the dishes meant "The window frames the western hills' snow of a thousand autumns. At the door is moored, from eastern Wu, a boat of ten thousand miles." Once the story ended, our whole family broke into loud laughter. Now we remember the story with more taste of bitterness. Scholars many lived in poverty, but they could still try to enjoy themselves despite their suffering. When you feel at ease in your mind, you will not be afraid of being poor.

Father was honest and upright, aloof from politics and material pursuits. He did not want to associate with those who wrecked the country and ruined the people. He refused to sell his artworks to evil persons even they offered high prices. However he was very fond of charity, we often witnessed Father donating the proceeds of his artwork auctions to charity and other worthy causes. In the side notes of his artworks, there were many self-encouraging phrases. We learned a lot from Father in terms of living an upright life, not flattering to bigwigs, treating friends well, not giving up hope in adverse circumstances, just like Father used to say "I feel at ease since I conduct according to my conscience".

Our three siblings were children of Father and his concubine, Zhou Xiang-Yun. The age difference between Father and us is more than fifty years; Father was more like a grandfather figure to us. We heard more about Father's life story than seeing for ourselves.

As ancient poetry wrote, "Cup to cup calls for song. How long does a man's life last? " Half century has slipped by so quickly, now we are all hoary-headed old people. In our old age remembering Father, three of us stare at each other, sobbing. At our fingertips are just scattered bits and pieces; the past seems to be in totally another world.