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| Seal script | |
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| Script type | |
Period | c. 700 BC – c. 200 AD |
| Direction | Top-to-bottom  |
| Languages | Old Chinese |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Oracle bone script
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Child systems | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
| Seal script | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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 "Seal script" inregular script (left) and seal script (right). | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 篆書 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 篆书 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet |
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| Hán-Nôm |
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| Chinese characters |
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Collation and standards
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Homographs and readings |
Seal script orsigillary script (traditional Chinese:篆書;simplified Chinese:篆书;pinyin:Zhuànshū;lit. 'decorative engraving script') is astyle of writingChinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out ofbronze script during theZhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). The variant of seal script used in thestate of Qin eventually became comparatively standardized, and was adopted as the formal script across all of China during theQin dynasty (221–206 BC). It was still widely used for decorative engraving andseals during theHan dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD).[1][2][3]
The literal translation given above was coined during the Han dynasty,[citation needed] and reflects the role of the script being reduced to ceremonial inscriptions.
The termseal script may refer to several distinct varieties, including thelarge seal script and thesmall seal script. Without qualification,seal script usually refers to the small seal script—that is, the lineage which evolved within thestate of Qin during theEastern Zhou dynasty (771–221 BC), which was later standardized underQin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC). The termlarge seal script may itself refer to a broad range of forms, including Qin forms older than the small seal script—but also earlier Western Zhou forms, or even oracle bone characters. Due to this imprecision, modern scholars tend to avoid using the termlarge seal script.[4]
There were several different variants of seal script which developed independently in each kingdom during the Eastern Zhou. One of these, thebird-worm seal script, is named for its intricate decorations on the defining strokes, and was used in the states ofWu,Chu, andYue. It was found on several artifacts including theSpear of Fuchai and theSword of Goujian. As a southern state, Chu was influenced by Wuyue. Chu produced bronze broadswords that were similar to those from Wuyue, but not as intricate. Chu also used the bird-worm style, which was borrowed by the Wu and Yue states.[citation needed]
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 ministerLi 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 theCangjiepian, a partially-extant wordbook listing some 3,300Chinese 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 toclerical 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-knownvulgar orpopular writing of the late Warring States to Qin period.[6]
The first knowncharacter dictionary was the 3rd-century BCErya, collated and referenced byLiu Xiang and his sonLiu Xin; it is no longer extant. Not long after, theShuowen Jiezi (c. 100 AD) was written byXu Shen. TheShuowen's 9,353 entries reproduce the standardized small seal forms for each entry, organized under 540radicals.
It is anticipated that small seal script forms will eventually be encoded inThe Unicode Standard. Thecode pointsU+38000–U+3AB9F on theTertiary Ideographic Plane have been tentatively allocated.[7]
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