Basic knowledge about seals

Seals have a wide range of contents, and their characteristics vary with different sealing materials. There are also various terms for engraving methods. Understanding this knowledge is of great use for collection and appreciation. Here is a brief introduction to some common sense.

1. Yin (white) seal, Yang (zhu) seal, Yin and Yang seal. The characters or images on the seal have two shapes: concave and convex. The ones on the four sides are called Yin characters (also called female characters), and the opposite ones are called Yang characters. However, the ancient nomenclature is the opposite of the current one, because the ancients called Yin and Yang scripts according to the mark of the seal on the sealing mud. The Yin script presented on the sealing mud is Yang script on the seal; the Yang script on the sealing mud is Yang. The seal is inscribed with inscriptions. Therefore, in order to avoid misunderstanding, the Yin script is called Baiwen and the Yang script is called Zhuwen. Some seals are mixed with white and red characters, which are called “zhubaijianwenseal”. Generally speaking, ancient seals are mostly white seals, the fonts are elegant and ancient, the writing style is strong, and the turning points should be completed in one go. Baiwenyin fonts are generally fat but not bloated, thin but withered, easy to use, beautiful in nature, and most avoid artificiality. Zhuwenyin began in the Six Dynasties and became popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties. The fonts are elegant and elegant, and the strokes are fully exposed, but the handwriting should not be thick, as roughness will look tacky.

2. Casting and chiseling. Metal seals, whether official or private, are usually carved from clay and then smelted using sand casting or wax drawing methods. This is called a “cast seal”. Most of the ancient seals were cast together with the seal text. Non-metal seals such as jade cannot be smelted and can only be chiseled with a knife. There are also metal seals that are first cast and then chiseled with seal text. This type of seal is generally called a “chisel seal.” The chiseled seals can be divided into neat and rough ones. Some official seals were hurriedly chiselled and put into use without waiting for the model to seal, so they were called “Jijiuzhang”.

3. Double-sided printing, multi-sided printing, and double-sided printing. One side is engraved with words and the other side is engraved with the name, or one side is engraved with the name and the other side is engraved with the position title, or one side is engraved with the name and the other side is engraved with auspicious words, images, etc. Those with seals engraved on both sides are called double-sided seals. Multi-sided printing is the analogy. Double-sided printing and multi-sided printing generally do not have buttons, and only a small hole is drilled in the middle for threading the belt, so it is also called “banding printing”. Two or more seals that are stacked together for portability are called “multiple seals” or “overprints.”

4. Name seal, word seal, combined name seal, and general seal. The ancients believed that seals were a symbol of credit, so they used the name seal as the official seal and the word seal as the idle seal for miscellaneous purposes. The name seal means only the name is engraved. Generally, only “seal”, “seal letter”, “seal” and “zhi seal” are added under the name. The words “private seal” and other words are not used, but the word “shi” and other idle characters are not used. Using them shows disrespect. Ziyin is also called table Ziyin. In the Han and Jin Dynasties, the characters must be connected with the surname, and the descendants may be connected or not. Generally, only the word “Yin” or the last name is added to the character seal, such as “Zhao Shi Zi’ang”. Names and characters engraved into one seal are called “name combined seals”. There are also those that engrave the place of birth, surname, given name, name, title, official position, etc. in one seal, which is called the “general seal”.

5. Palindrome printing, horizontal reading printing, and interlaced printing. Palindrome is used to deal with the name seal and character seal of two characters, which can prevent misreading and connect the two characters of the name into one. The method is to put the word “Yin” under the surname on the right, and the two characters of the first name on the left. If you read it in a loop, it will be “the surname is printed on so-and-so” instead of “the surname is printed on so-and-so”

“. For example, if the four characters “Wang Cong’s seal” are engraved normally without palindrome, it can easily be mistaken for the surname Wang Ming Cong, and it cannot be seen that the surname is Wang Ming Cong. Horizontal reading of seals and interlaced text seals are extremely rare. Generally, it is only used to engrave official titles and place names. For example, the word “Sikong” is engraved on the top and the word “Zhi” is engraved on the bottom. This is called the cross-reading seal, which is made in diagonal order. Read. For four characters, the first character is on the upper right, the second character is on the lower left, the third character is on the upper left, and the fourth character is on the lower right. For example, the character “Yang” is in the upper right corner. Under the word “jin”, the word “lv” is to the left of the word “yi”, but it is easy to misread it as “yijinyangyin” or “yiyinjinyang”.

6. Book seal and collection seal. Calligraphy and printing were more popular in ancient times. Clay seals were used from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Southern and Northern Dynasties. There was a seal behind the clay seal, but generally only the name seal was used. Later, the seals were “someone said something”, “someone announced something”, “someone said nothing”, “someone paused”, “someone respectfully kept silent”, etc. These are all book seals. The collection seal is a seal for collecting paintings and calligraphy, which began in the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had the two-character continuous seal seal “Zhenguan”, and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty had the two-character rectangular seal “Gongyuan”. Although these two seals are not marked with identification, they are of an identification nature and are the earliest identification seals. After the Song Dynasty, the content of appraisal seals became richer, and the seal carvings and materials used were very exquisite. They had a tendency to catch up with others and were favored by collectors. Secondly, the circulation of ancient precious calligraphy and paintings can also be verified through the collector’s seal. The text includes “a person’s collection”, “a person’s appreciation”, “a picture secretary of a certain house (tang, hall, pavilion) in a certain county” and so on. Many seals also include identification seals.

7. Jade seal. Among printing materials, jade is the most precious. Its texture is clean and moist, not abrasive or phosphorous, and can be damaged or broken without destroying its texture. Therefore, ancient people liked to wear jade seals, which meant that a gentleman would wear jade and the jade’s steadfastness would be appreciated. The older the jade is, the more expensive it becomes. In order to deceive the market and make a profit, some merchants often put new jade in a frying pan and fry it to make it look patina.

8. Metal stamp. Refers to seals engraved with gold, silver, copper, lead, iron and other metals. The texture of gold and silver is too soft, making it difficult to use the knife, and it is more difficult for the brush edge to appear. Therefore, copper is generally mixed with copper when making seals, which is not only easy to shape, but also easy to engrave. Generally speaking, most of the gold and silver seals are coated with gold and silver, and pure gold and pure silver are relatively rare. Gold and silver in official seals are used to distinguish grades, while gold and silver are rarely used in private seals. Since the gold and silver seals are difficult to engrave on the knife and the handwriting is soft and sharp, they are not of great value from the perspective of collection and appreciation. The copper seal has strong calligraphy with back beads. In terms of methods, there are chiseling and engraving, and there are also gold and silver. Lead seals and iron seals were generally rare in ancient times except for giant seals. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial censors used iron seals to express their uprightness and selflessness. However, iron is easy to rust and corrode, so few of them have been passed down.

9. Ivory prints and rhino bone prints. Tooth seals were official seals in the Han Dynasty, but private seals were mostly made after the Song Dynasty. They were made of ivory, which is soft, tough and greasy, making it difficult to use a knife. If the inscriptions are engraved in red, the sharpness of the brushwork can still be seen, while if the white inscriptions are engraved, there is no spirit. Therefore, seal carvers and collectors do not cherish tooth marks very much. Ivory smells bad for people, and when it comes into contact with rat urine, black spots will appear immediately, right down to the bottom, and they can never be removed. I am also afraid of heat and sweat, so I don’t wear it often even if there are teeth marks. Rhinoceros horn seal, only Han Dynasty two thousand stones to four

Baishiguan uses black rhinoceros horn as its seal, and rarely uses anything else. Its texture is thick and soft, and it will deform over time. Others use the bones and horns of cattle and sheep as seals. This is more popular among the people. It is rarely used by official seals and wealthy families. The relevant records have not yet been found, so it is unclear when it started. “

10. Crystal seal, agate and other seals. The texture of crystal is hard and brittle, so it is not easy to carve. It will break if you apply a little force, and the engraved words will be slippery and unintelligible. The texture of agate is harder than five, and it is the most difficult material to engrave on among all printing materials. The engraved text appears to be sharp and lacks elegance. Porcelain seals first appeared in the Tang Dynasty and became more widespread in the Song Dynasty. They are hard and difficult to carve. Coral is easy to crack, while jade is easy to break and hard. In short, crystal and other seals are not easy to carve, and making seals is actually half the effort with twice the effort. Collectors and connoisseurs only play with them as a kind of embellishment.

11. Bamboo wood seal. Wood seals are generally made of boxwood, which is easy to cut and not loose. Roots, bamboo roots, melon stems, fruit cores, etc. can also be used for engraving. Choose bamboo with straight, thin roots and no cracks. If the distance between the two nodes is appropriate and the root nodes are regularly distributed, it will be very beautiful and worthy of being treasured. As for the core, olive seeds from Guangdong are the most expensive (olive seeds are larger than olives and are inedible). They are tough in texture, while most others are soft. They can only be cut and carved, but it is difficult to fully realize the beauty of seal carving. Bamboo wood seals can be carved into various shapes, integrating handicrafts and seals into one, so they are also a range of collectors and connoisseurs.

12. Seal button and seal ribbon. The high bulge on the back of the seal with holes for threading belts is called the seal button. The shape of the early seal button was simple, with only a raised shape carved on the back and a hole across it. Later generations called it the “nose button”. With the development of seal and engraving technology, the production of seal buttons has become more and more exquisite, and there are more and more types. Most of them are animals such as animals, insects, and fish, such as dragon buttons, tiger buttons, chi buttons, turtle buttons, and evil spirits buttons. There are also curved buttons, straight buttons, spring (ancient copper coin) buttons, tile buttons, bridge buttons, bucket buttons, altar buttons, etc. Some seals have no buttons, and are engraved with landscapes and figures around the seal, which is called “Bo Yi” – thin and picturesque. The seal ribbon is the belt worn on the fingerprint button, which was mostly made of cotton in ancient times. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the color differences of official seals and ribbons had certain grade differences and could not be overstepped.

In short, the collection and appreciation of seals generally include three aspects: the variety of seal materials, shape characteristics and text engraving. The types of printing materials have been described in detail. The shape characteristics mainly include the seal surface and the seal button, while the seal-cut characters are distinguished in form from ancient Chinese, large seal script (籀), small seal script, eight-body script, and six-body script. In terms of charm, we also need to look at whether the seal cutting of each character in the seal is coherent (seal method), whether the layout is reasonable, beautiful, and novel (composition method), whether each stroke is full of spirit and flow, solemn and elegant, or stagnant (brushwork method), Whether the strength of the knife is appropriate fully reflects the sharpness of the brush and the charm of calligraphy. As well as whether the depth of carving is appropriate (sword technique), these four techniques also involve specialized knowledge of seal carving.