Xiao Yi 小逸
This seal by the artist Qi Baishi 齊白石 (1864-1957) is typical of his style. The two characters 小逸 are carved into the seal from right to left, as typically used in pre-modern writing, with the meaning of “a little bit of leisure.” Let’s take it apart to see how it’s been assembled.
First, let’s look at each character separately. The one on the right hand side is 小, meaning “small” or “little.” It’s easy to imagine two hands pushing in toward the center and indicating something small. We can see, though, how Qi stylized it by lengthening the two outer lines and making all three more parallel and vertical than in the dictionary form.
Then, for the sake of variety, he touches each line to the top margin but only one line to the bottom, with each line a different length. In addition, there’s a different width between each with the far right line touching both top and bottom corners, with only a small crescent separating it from the right margin.
The character on the left is 逸 and means “leisure” or “escape.” Although using the ancient seal script form of the character, Qi has connected its two components with no space between, and turned the bottom stroke down toward the right.
This left-most character touches top, side, and bottom. The left edge has been pushed right up against the margin, which increases the apparent width of the border. The three boxes on the far left also have varying shapes.
Looking again at the full seal, we see can see how Qi compacts everything by bumping the two characters up against each other and up against the top, bottom, and sides. This creates an almost abstract pattern, with repeating enclosed shapes on the left half contrasted with more open space on the right. Curves going in various directions are favored over straight parallel lines. And everything seems to have a slight rightward tilt, as if sliding off a ramp.
Much of the enjoyment of looking at a well-designed seal is in recognizing these interrelationships. Qi’s seals, in particular, invite us to solve the puzzle of how to read his interlinked characters.