This is the 18th in a series of articles on Chinese Art. In the first of two articles, MA KWOK-KUEN, a project associate at the Chinese University Centre for Chinese Archaeology and Art, discusses the art of seals and seal engraving. The translator is Mr Peter Lam.

The art of Chinese seals is an integration of two sophisticated art forms - calligraphy and engraving.

Its history can be divided into two stages: The first, from the Warring-States period to the Yuan dynasty (circa fifth century B.C. to the late 14th century A.D.), can be called "The Art of Seals" period, when seals were mainly cast in bronze.

The second stage, a stage of "The Art of Seal Engraving," began in the Ming dynasty (1768-1644 A.D.) and continues to the present. Stone seals are more common in this stage.

1. Official seal, archaic period
The seal engravers of the latter period often emulated the designs of early seals, but they also exhibited their own individual and much diversified styles, representing some of the heigh points in the history of the development of Chinese seals.

The first stage, "The Art of Seals,” has a long time span and can be further subdivided into two periods according to the usage of the seals, i.e. "The Clay Impression Period" (from Warring-States Period to Han and Wei dynasties, 408 B.C.-264 A.D.) and "The Vermilion Impression Period" (from Jin to late Yuan, 265-1367 A.D.).

2. Private seal, archaic period
Before the invention of paper, seals were not only worn by officials as a symbol of power, they were also used as a sign of identification and proof of authentication.

Official documents written on tablets and private commodities in freight were often "sealed" up with a clot of clay on the fastening string knot. The clay was then impressed with a seal and this “clay impression” was to serve as a proof of authentication similar to modern sealing-wax.

It was not until paper products became gradually popular after the Jin dynasty (265-410 A.D.) that seals were impressed in red vermilion pigment.

3. Auspicious seal, archaic period.
If we classify Chinese seals according to their scripts, they can be roughly grouped into three stages:

1. Archaic script: Warring-States period.
2. Art seal script: Qin 221- 206 B.C. to the Six Dynasties 220-589 A.D.
3. Seal script with its numerous variants and clerical script, standard script: Siu, Tang 581-906 A.D. to Yuan 1260-1368 A.D.

Seals probably began from the need for a tool to serve as proof of identity and authentication in both government and commercial activities. It coincided with the gradual disintegration of patriarchal society in the Waning-States period during which more and more commoners and literati rose to the official class and trade was popularized between the states.

Three bronze seals alleged to have been excavated from the late Shang (circa 16th - 18th century B.C.) capital at Anyang were cast with undeciphered characters. Two of them are similar to archaic scripts as seen on inscriptions found on Shang bronze vessels.

However if we examine in more detail the social and institutional aspects of the Shang dynasty, there is still insufficient evidence to claim that seals made their appearance as early as Shang.

In fact, in the Neolithic period stamps were already in use to produce repetitive impressed patterns on pottery.

How a stamp, cast with characters, became a symbol of power is still a mystery and awaits further study.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring-States periods, both private and official seals were called xi. And because they were age-old, they were also called gu-xi (archaic seals).

4. Official seal, Qin dynasty.

The graph of the character xi (seal) has often been recognised as a pictorial representation of the object itself. The upper part " " is a side view of an ordinary seal, with the upper stroke to stand for the knob and the two lower projections for the horizontal plane of the seal surface. The three vertical strokes " " are the impressions.

Sometimes a "metal" radical may be added to one side to signify the material of the seal. The metal radical may occasionally be replaced by an "earth" radical to signify that seals were impressed on clay.

Apart from official and private seals, there were also seals with auspicious phrases or maxims. The characters were written in the popular script of the period, which varied in different regions.

Sometimes the characters were abbreviated to save space within a much restricted area. The characters were arranged to achieve an overall balanced effect over an apparently grotesque setting.

5. Official seal, Han Dynasty.

As a whole, official seals of this period are more complex and varied while private seals are more regular. For most of the official seals, the inscriptions appear in intaglio, but for private seals, the convention was to cast or engrave the characters in relief.

The intaglio seals usually have a square border round the sides or " ", " " borders round the individual characters. The borders of the relief type are normally thicker than the character strokes, but occasionally they may be of equal thickness.

As to the shape, square ones prevail. There are also round, rectangular, L-shape, double-circle, triple-circle, and "five-faced" types.

The seal characters are sometimes arranged in combination with decorative floral or zoomorphic patterns. Furthermore there are "pictorial seals" with animals, hunting or dancing scenes as the main motifs.

The seal knobs or grips are usually simple looped type with variations in the shapes of "pavilion," pillar, figure, or animal forms.

The well-balanced use of red and white space and the superb workmanship in the casting of these seals reflect the high achievement of both craftmanship and artistry of the pre-Qin Seal artists.

In the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.) the conventions governing the use of seals underwent a great change. The term xi was reserved for imperial seals and all others were called yin. Special officials were appointed to supervise the design, production and distribution of official seals.

6. Private seal, Han dynasty.

However. few seals reliably datable to the Qin dynasty are extant.

The so-called Succession Seal, long regarded as a symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, is now known to be a fake.

As can be seen from the few extant examples. Qin seals all have incised characters in intaglio. The style of the script is similar to those found on Qin edict plaques, but is somewhat more regular.

7. Private seal in "bird-worm script," Han dynasty.

The official seals are square in shape with "checkered" borders round the four characters. Seals of minor officials are rectangular and surrounded by a " "-shaped border, in the form of a half square, (hence the term ban-tong yin, "half-square seal").

Private seals come in all shapes and they all have borders round the edges. The maxim seals are usually square in shape and only rarely are rectangular ones found. Two-faced seals also made their appearance during this period.

8. Private seal, characters in both intaglio and relief, Han dynasty.

The achievement of Han (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) seals has been often compared to that of Jin calligraphy, Tang poems. Song lyrical poems and Yuan drama. The elegance and solemnity of the well organised scripts has a sense of monumentality and serenity in a vibrant setting.

The hastily engraved "general seals" and "barbarian seals" are even more attractive in their seemingly disorganised strokes which have a special charm and vitality. They are entirely different from the grotesque style of the archaic seals.

The system of official seals in the Han dynasty was very rigid. lmperial seals are made of jade, those of princes are cast in gold and all the rest in bronze. Seals of civilian officials are cast whereas those of military officials are either cast or engraved.

The rank is also indicated by the shape of the knob and the decoration and material of the ribbon attached to the seal.

Officials of 2,000 stones or above have tortoise-topped seals while the seals of the lower rank officials have simple looped knobs.

On the other hand, there was no strict rule for private seals. There are more than.20 different types of knobs which are all well modelled and cast.

The seal design appears in all forms and is enclosed by single, double, triple or even quadruple borders. Apart from two-faced seals there are also "mother and son seals" I (a smaller seal encased in a bigger one).

9. "Clay impression" Han dynasty.

The script used is mainly miaozhuan, "art seal script." A few are in the more fancy version of the seal script, niaochong shu, "Bird-worm script".

As a rule, the characters are in intaglio and only in very exceptional cases does one find a seal in relief.

Still rarer are seals with characters in both intaglio and relief. The purpose of using the two methods together is to regulate the "density" of the seal surface.

10. Official seal, Jin dynasty.

The seals of the Wei (220- 265 A.D.) and Jin (265-420 A.D.) dynasties are afterglows of the Han. As the popular form of writing had transformed from clerical script to standard script, if one uses the standard of Han seals to judge the works of this period one is bound to be disappointed.

However, a new type of "art seal script" - xian zhcn zhuan, (hanging needle script) was invented. This innovative script has a special charm and style.

The art of Chinese seals deteriorated in the following period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern and Southern dynasties (about 4th-6th century A.D.) and Northern Wei (386-534 A.D.). The characters are incorrectly written and the workmanship in both casting and engraving is perfunctory and very poor.

This undoubtedly is closely related to the political unrest in cultural degeneration during this period.

In the long history of Chinese seals, the Sui (581-618 A.D.), Tang (618-907 A.D.), Song (960-1279 A.D.) and Yuan (1271-1368 A.D.) dynasties have been regarded as an "interregnum," or the "dark ages."

The justification for this is that archaic and Han seals have been taken to be the only norm and all the rest are considered to be eccentric.

Harsh criticisms have been made of the Song and Yuan official seals written in jiudie zhuan (Nine-tier script). However, we ought instead to take a more objective and historical view and analyse the entire development.

When paper documents came into general use after the Jin dynasty (265-420 A.D.), seals were no longer impressed in clay but in vermilion pigment and relief seals out-numbered the intaglio ones as they are more distinct on paper.

11. Official seal, Sui dynasty.

The official seals increase in size and were affixed on ink inscribed dates or in between paper junctions.

In ancient times, seals were worn by officials on their belts, but now they were too heavy and bulky to be worn and were only placed on the officials' desk.

This change in size and from intaglio to relief in fact took place in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Compared to the angular and regular strokes of the Sui, the Tang ones have a curvature effect.

Following the increase in size of the seals in the Song dynasty, the character strokes had to be more complex so as to occupy a larger space. Meanders and curves were therefore added to a single straight stroke.

12. Official seal, Song dynasty.

This device had already started in the Han dynasty but was used with much more restraint. But now in this type of "nine-tier script" seven, eight and sometimes up to 12 meanders were added on to a single-stroke.

Even worse is that some of the characters were wrongly written, deviating widely
from the standard. This is because the Standard script was the popular script during this period and the common people no longer wrote in seal script.

Nevertheless not all official seals of the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties are in "nine- tier script." There are some very innovatively designed seals. Some are in clerical script and were easily recognisable by the common people. All these offer no justification for severe criticism.

As to the private seals of the Tang to Song dynasties, not only did the varieties greatly increase, the artistic forms also underwent a great expansion.

13. Official seal, Song dynasty.

Seals were transformed from proof of identity and authentication to objects of art and indispensable items for scholars. Thus seals of collectors, studio names, aliases, poems, enigmatic phrases appeared.

Special seals for affixing on to paintings and calligraphy were also engraved. This
was an unprecedented practice.

The seal was found in all forms, ranging from rhomboids, betel nuts, gourds, pipa, tripods, bottles, to figures, animals, birds and fish.

14. Signature seal, Yuan dynasty.

The scripts used were also very varied, apart from the traditional seal script (including bronze scripts, art seal script, bird-worm script, small seal script and other variants) there were also clerical script, standard script, signature script and scripts of non-Chinese origin such as Pagspa, Xixia and Khitan.

Of all these, the signature seals are the most interesting. The signature is found in a combination of Chinese characters, Pagspa characters or figures, and auspicious phrases. There are also signatures seals in Pagspa script alone. These are valuable examples for us to emulate and study.

Wu Changshi (1844-1927) is one of the best-known seal carvers who learned from these early specimens and modelled his own work on them.