Seal script

Seal script
Logographic
Time period	c. 700 BC – c. 200 AD
Direction	Top-to-bottom
Languages	Old Chinese
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script
Child systems	Clerical script Regular script
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Chinese characters
Chinese family of scripts Written Chinese Kanji Hanja Chữ Hán
Historical forms and styles Neolithic symbols in China Oracle bone Bronze Seal (Bird-worm Large Small) Clerical Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Flat brush Typefaces Fangsong Ming Sans-serif
Properties and classification Components Strokes (order) Radical
Collation and standards Character-form standards Jiu zixing Xin zixing Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716) General Standard Chinese Characters (mainland China, 2013) Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese characters (Hong Kong, 2007) Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982) Grapheme-usage standards General Standard Characters (PRC, 2013) Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010) Other standards Standardized Forms of Words with Variant Forms (PRC, 2002) Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009) Previous standards Commonly-used Characters (PRC, 1988) Tōyō kanji (Japan, 1946)
Reforms China Clerical reforms Traditional characters Simplified characters (first round second round) Debate Japan Kyūjitai Shinjitai Ryakuji Korea Yakja Singapore Table of Simplified Characters
Homographs and readings Literary and colloquial readings
Variants Graphemic variants Zetian characters
Derived systems Slavonic transcription Nüshu Kana ( Man'yōgana Hiragana Katakana ) Jurchen script Khitan ( Large Small ) Idu script Bopomofo Sawndip Chữ Nôm
Transliteration of Chinese
v t e

Seal script or sigillary script is a

The literal translation of "seal script" (篆書 zhuànshū) is 'decorative engraving script'—this name was coined during the Han dynasty,^[citation needed] and reflects the role of the script being reduced to ceremonial inscriptions.

Types

The term seal script may refer to several distinct varieties, including the

The Qin script—as exemplified in bronze inscriptions prior to unification—had evolved organically from the Zhou script starting in the Spring and Autumn period. Beginning around the Warring States period, it became vertically elongated with a regular appearance. This was the period of maturation for the small seal script. It was systematized by prime minister Li Si during the reign of Qin Shi Huang through the elimination of most character variants, and was imposed as the imperial standard.^[5] Through Chinese commentaries, it is known that Li Si compiled the Cangjiepian, a partially-extant wordbook listing some 3,300 Chinese characters in the small seal script. Their form is characterized by being less rectangular and more squarish.

In the popular history of Chinese characters, the small seal script is traditionally considered to be ancestral to clerical script, which in turn prefigured every other script in use today. However, recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship have led some scholars to conclude that the direct ancestor of clerical script was proto-clerical script, which in turn evolved out of the lesser-known vulgar or popular writing of the late Warring States to Qin period.^[6]

The first known

• 
  Small seal inscription on a Qin standard prototype weight—made from iron, and unearthed at

  Wendeng, Shandong

  in 1973
• 
  Edict of Qin Er Shi in seal script. In the popular history of Chinese characters, the small seal script is traditionally considered to be the ancestor of clerical script

Computer encoding

It is anticipated that small seal script forms will eventually be encoded in

See also

• Ancient Script Texts – versions of Chinese classics held to have been transcribed from recovered manuscriptsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• ʼPhags-pa script – Mongolian writing system

References

Citations

1. ^ Li Huiwen (李惠文); Han Lifen (韩丽芬); George Becker (贝可平) (2018-12-20). "Calligraphy And Writing Techniques in the Qin and Han Dynasties".
2. ^ "Script Types". Retrieved 2023-09-28.
3. ^ "Categories of Calligraphy - Seal Script". Retrieved 2023-09-29.
4. ^ Qiu 2000, p. 60.
5. ^ Chen 2003.
6. ^ Qiu 2000.
7. ^ Everson, Michael; McGowan, Rick; Whistler, Ken; Umamaheswaran, V. S. (9 May 2023). "Roadmap to the TIP". The Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 28 August 2023.

Works cited

• ISBN 978-1-557-29071-7
  .
• Chen Zhaorong (陳昭容) (2003). 秦系文字研究﹕从漢字史的角度考察 [Research on the Qin Lineage of Writing: An Examination from the Perspective of the History of Chinese Writing] (in Chinese). Academia Sinica.
  ISBN 957-671-995-X
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seal script.

• Script translation
• Richard Sears on seal script