Large seal script
Script type	Logographic
Time period	Eastern Zhou
Languages	Old Chinese
Related scripts
Parent systems	(Proto-writing) Oracle bone script Bronze script Large seal script
Child systems	Small seal script
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The termlarge seal script traditionally refers towritten Chinese dating from before theQin dynasty—now used either narrowly to the writing of the Western and earlyEastern Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 – 403 BCE), or more broadly to also include theoracle bone script (c. 1250 – c. 1000 BCE). The term deliberately contrasts thesmall seal script, the official script standardized throughout China during the Qin dynasty, often called merely 'seal script'. Due to the term's lack of precision, scholars often prefer more specific references regarding the provenance of whichever written samples are being discussed.

During theHan dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), whenclerical script became the popular form of writing, the small seal script was relegated to limited, formal usage, such as on signetseals and for the titles ofstelae (inscribed stone memorial tablets which were popular at the time), and as such the earlier Qin dynasty script began to be referred to as 'seal script'. At that time, there remained knowledge of even older, often more complex glyphs dating to the middle-to-late Zhou dynasty, directly ancestral to the Qin forms—which resembled the Qin forms in their rounded style, as opposed to the rectilinear clerical script style prominent during the Han.^[1] As a result, the 'large' and 'small' terms emerged to refer to the respective scripts. The Han-eraShuowen Jiezi dictionary (c. 100 CE) credits sometimes traditionally identified with a group of characters from theShizhoupian (c. 800 BCE), preserved by their inclusion within theShuowen Jiezi.Xu Shen, the latter text's author, included the variants differing from the structures of small seal script, and labelled the examples aszhòuwén (籀文), referring to the name of the original book, not the name of the dynasty or of a script

• Seal script
• Small seal script

• Chen Zhaorong (陳昭容) (2003),秦系文字研究﹕从漢字史的角度考察 [Research on the Qín Lineage of Writing: An Examination from the Perspective of the History of Chinese Writing], Institute of History and Philology Monograph (in Chinese), Academia Sinica,ISBN 957-6-71995-X
• Qiu Xigui (裘锡圭) (2000) [1988],Chinese Writing, translated by Mattos, Gilbert L.; Norman, Jerry, Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California,ISBN 978-1-557-29071-7

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