Zhuanke shisan lüe 篆刻十三略

Zhuanke shisan lüe 篆刻十三略 is a book on the carving of calligraphic works written during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Yuan Sanjun 袁三俊 (fl. 1709), courtesy name Yuzun 吁尊, style Baoweng 抱甕, from Wujun 吳郡 (i.e., Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu). Yuan was known as an expert seal carver. He also wrote the book Baoweng yingao 抱甕印稿.

The Zhuanke shisan lüe presents, in 13 chapters, the most essential aspects of seal carving. It draws from older writings, refining and distilling their insights into concise, elegant prose. The content is succinct yet comprehensive, covering both technical and artistic principles. Yuan explains the use of learning from ancient examples (xuegu 學古), the structure (jiegou 結構) of the characters to be carved into the stone, spatial arrangement (zhangfa 章法), the need to "fill" (man 滿) the area of the seal, the techniques of the carving knife by cutting vertically and horizontally (zongheng 縱横), a "grey" (cang 蒼) style of simplicity imitating models of the Han period, the creation of "lustre" (guang 光) and dignified steadiness (chenzhuo 沉着), balance (tingjun 停匀) in the individual parts of characters, dynamic expression (lingdong 靈動), personal expressiveness like in writing with the brush (xieyi 寫意), natural elegance (tianqu 天趣), and refinement (ya 雅).

The text is written in a refined and concise style. Each section is encapsulated by a brief yet striking title, making the principles easy to remember. This clarity and accessibility have contributed to its transmission through generations. As a result, the book stands as a significant and influential work in the study of seal carving.

The book of 1 juan length was printed in 1709 and is included in the collection Zhuanxue suozhu 篆學瑣著.