Wang Beiyue

CHINA, Hebei, Langfen

Wang Beiyue was a seal engraver, calligrapher, and painter who had an original name of Wang Zeheng and an alias of Zicang. Originally from Wen’an, Langfan, he went to Taiwan in 1949 and organized the Hai Jiao Seal Collection alongside Wang Zhuangwei and Zeng Shaojie. He established the Seal Engraving Society of the Republic of China and published a magazine called Yinlin (Seal Forest). Wang later held teaching positions at various educational institutions including Yilan Agriculture Vocational School, Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Chinese Culture University, National Taiwan Normal University, and the University of California in the United States.
He specialized in seal engraving, and learning from He Kongcai, his seal style was unadorned and elegant, smoothly incorporating various seal cutting techniques. His calligraphy employed mostly seal script, along with various forms of ancient scripts. Wang would often add the clerical script style found at the top of steles from the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) to give his calligraphic characters more variety.
Wang authored a number of publications, including Calligraphy Collection of Wang Beiyue, Calligraphy and Seals of Wang Beiyue, Essentials in Seal Engraving, and more. His Buddhist seals include Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity, and Liberation of All Suffering.