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The Scholarly Basis and Artistic Characteristics of Wich’ang O Se-Ch’ang’s Seal Carvings

Soung, In-geun

Fine Arts Faculty, Kyonggi University

Published: June 2026 · Vol. 330 · pp. 105-129

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31065/kjah.330.202606.004

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Abstract

This study reexamines the seal carving (jeongak, 篆刻) of Oh Se-ch'ang (Wich'ang, 葦滄 吳世昌) from the perspective of “convergent scholarship and art” (統攝的 學藝) and aims to systematically investigate the academic foundations and practical structures underlying his seal carving. To this end, the study primarily examines the Wi-Chang Library (葦滄文庫) housed in the National Library of Korea, focusing on Oh Se-ch'ang‘s philological studies (文字學), epigraphy (金石學), seal-carving theory (篆刻學), and the seal albums (印譜) he collected from Korea, China, and Japan.The study reveals that Oh Se-chang’s seal carving transcended the level of mere formal artistry and was established upon an organically integrated structure combining philological verification, the embodiment of epigraphic learning, the internalization of seal-carving theories, and bibliographical practices mediated through seal albums. In particular, he extensively collected and consulted Chinese and Japanese seal-carving treatises and seal albums, thereby deepening his scholarly understanding of the East Asian seal-carving tradition while simultaneously shaping his own views on seal art.Oh Se-ch'ang’s seal carving demonstrates both experimental diversity and systematic coherence in terms of seal materials, scripts, stylistic forms, inscriptions, and functional usage, while also revealing the characteristic of visualized self-narrative. Furthermore, his seal carving should be understood within both the temporal continuity and the spatial expansion of tradition in modern East Asia. It exemplifies a modern mode of seal-carving practice in which scholarship and art, collection and creation, and evidential research and artistic expression were integrally combined.This study is significant in that it reinterprets Oh Se-ch'ang’s seal carving as the product of a convrgent scholarly-artistic practice and thereby sheds new light on the character of Korean seal-carving history during the modern transitional period.
Keywords: 위창 오세창전각통섭적 학예위창문고근대전각