Ancient Chinese seal history

Great ancient civilization was born in the vicinity of river. Mesopotamia civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates, Indus civilization in the coastal area of Indus river and Chinese civilization in the river valley of the Yellow River were that representative example.

The start of Chinese civilization is said to be in the stone age called “Yangshao culture (仰韶文化)”. In China, “Xia dynasty (夏王朝)” is told to be the very fist dynasty in China but at the moment, the oldest dynasty which has historical verifiable evidence that it was surely existed in the period is “Yin　dynasty (殷王朝)”. The birth of Yin dynasty was considered to have existed in 1348 B.C. The Chinese civilization lagged considerably behind the other three great civilizations.

Moreover, Mesopotamia civilization had cultural connection with Egypt and Indus civilizations but Chinese civilization located in the far east of the Eurasian Continent was isolated from ancient Oriental countries.

In China, the first writing called Oracle bone script is said to have been introduced in the early Yin dynasty , around 1300.

A seal called “Yin-ji (殷璽)” which existed in the period of “Yin” is regarded as the oldest seal in China. An old copper seal was excavated from the ruins of a Yin castle but the excavation situation was unclear so there are a lot of archaeologists who have doubt on the findings. This excavated copper seal was not actually excavated from the ruin of ancient Yin’s castle but was purchased from a secondhand dealer in Beijing so the possibility that it was found from a new layer of geological formations after the period of Yin cannot deny. Moreover, excavation research has been done repeatedly at not only Yin castle but also Luòyáng and Zhengzhou City since 1928 but no seal was found from these places.

However, There was “Táo yìn mó (陶印模) ” in the period of Yin, But its usage is just to put decorative pattern on the surface of jar and pottery so it cannot be called “seal” because it didn’t play significant roll in the society.

Mostly rectangular was adopted in both public seal and private seal because of the nature pf Chinese writings. Circular type seal was also used in this period of time but the mainstream of seal was rectangular-type. After invention of paper, vermilion ink-pad was used to put ink on the seal face to stamp it on the documents.

Propagation route of a seal from the western civilizations

　

　In ancient china, in the period of Spring and Autumn (775 B.C. to 403 B.C.) and Warring States (403 B.C. to 221 B.C.), seal was appeared. Those seal were used as lute to stamp it on a clay stuck on envelop and loads.
　

　In the middle of Spring and Autumn period, iron manufacturing technology pioneered by Hittite was introduced in China from Oriental countries. This was the trigger for expanding communication between China and Oriental countries. Chinese culture, society and economy were reformed by taking new stream from Oriental countries.

Custom of using seal is said to have been also propagated from the west territory as one of the communication between the east and the west. With the development of commerce, seals became widespread for a prove of authenticity and ownership of possessions and display the right of property.

The similarity with ancient Oriental culture was adopting a lot of portrait of animals and people on the impression. In China, seal which is engraved with a picture is called portrait seal “肖形印” and its theme is human and animal mainly.

Most of portrait seal was hollow relief and not flat but there was uneven gap on the engraved seal face and its portrait was quite three-dimensional when stamping the seal on a clay tablet. This is the very same style as the ancient orietal seal

A seal in this period has grip and there is opened hole into the grip. People threaded
through the hole to carry on.

–Guanyin– a symbol of power and authority in China

Official seal called “Guānyìn (官印鑑)” was specialized in sealing documents and letters among senior officers.

There is a good example that we can be inferred from the fact that the state allowed an official seal for the purpose of giving authority to mandarines depending on their ranks at the time of China.

According to Chūnqiū Zuǒshìzhuàn “春秋左氏伝” which is an ancient Chinese narrative history traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle Spring and Autumn Annals, In 543 B.C. When Ji Xing (季武子) who took hold of political affairs of Lu(魯) attacked and privatized a village governed by himself while Xiānggōng(襄公) who was the monarch in the state of Lu(魯) was away from the state.

He dispatched subordinate to sit on the fence on Xiānggōng and made a false statement that “suppressing the person in charge of governing a village plotted a rebellion has been done ” to smooth over what he did and gave Xiānggōng a report sealed with a lute which the emperor’s seal was stamped.

There had been already custom in those days that the state supplied a official seal to mandarines. Seals engraved with officer’s post like Sīmǎ, “sītú　(司馬)”, “sī(司徒)”, “gōng(司工)” was found as unearthed artifact of the Warring States period. Letters are decorated with Gold and engraved by white line. Seal materials are mostly copper.

The piriod of Qin秦（BC221～BC206) ・Han漢(former han BC206～AD8, Latter Han: AD25～220)
seal letter and shape of grip to thread strap through and its material and the color of strap are fixed by officer’s position ,class and dress. In the public service regulation at the time, wearing seal is put in the statutory form .

This regulation was maintained in different forms even after Sui 隋（589～619） and Tang 唐(619～907）as transforming its shape.
How were these seals made? A seal from Spring and Autumn and the warring states period to Han period, made by casting technology pouring melted metal like Gold,Sliver, and copper into mold.

Casting technology for making bronze ware had been already progressive at the time in China. Moreover, There was manufacturing section of official seal that the government officially produced in army workshop. Army had ability to make seal by casting metals because army had technology of metallurgy of manufacturing and repairing weapon. There seem to have been often the case it needed seals during war and army activity frequently and seal was manufactured as needed,

A seal at the time has two different types which were official seal and private seal. Official one was to identify the sender who send official documents and goods and to seal on lute to avoid being opened and tampered. Therefore, format of a official seal was strictly ruled and most of them showed the position of the seal’s owner. In contrast, private seals were also made to send letter or goods in private. Private seal didn’t have such a strict rule that official seal had but its size and format were decided freely. People’s name and emotional part of poem and others were engraved on the seal face.

Regardless of what the name seal was, an official seal guaranteed autheticity of a document that it is stamped to show legitimate authority at the same time identifying the owner of the official seal.

Army award called “Ce ming 冊名”gifting ranked official seals to a mandarines instead of medals

There had been an officer award system called Cè míng “冊名”　and battle ax made of copper was gifted when a officer was appointed to governor of a city. In the Zhōu period, a bow and an arrow were gifted to the new general as celebration.

By the way, in the period of “Han”, official seal was gifted to a officer in promotion in the appointment of a government post. In other words, official seal became a symbol of a government post and title.

Here is an episode that we could know how influential a seal was as a symbol of authority.

In the middle of “Han” period There was a person named “Zhu Maichen 朱買臣” who made a living by selling firewood. He liked to read books and He always walked reading book while he carried a bundle of firewood. People always made fun of him whom didn’t find a steady job and was absorbed in reading books every day.

But later, “Zhu Maichen 朱買臣” became secretary of government officials and went to “Cháng’ān 長安”. Then, “Zhuāngzhù” who was from Wú where there was Zhu Maichen’s home town recommended him to an empty post of army with sympathetic consideration as country fork.

“Zhu Maichen” was allowed to see an Emperor after all and he presented his theory of “Spring and Autum” and ” Chu Ci” which is an anthology of Chinese poetry to the Emperor. The Emperor was very happy to hear that and appointed “Zhu Maichen” to the post of ” Dahu 大夫”.

He got promoted steadily until he took up the post of “Tàishǒu” that is “Kuaiji Commandery”. One day, he deliberately wore a casual cloth with a seal hidden inside his cloth and visited Kuaiji Government office by walk. Reaching the office, Officers held a banquet there but they paid no attention to him. “Zhu Maichen 朱買臣” also enjoyed drinking there with officers together, then one officer noticed a seal of “Taishou” he hid inside his cloth. As soon as they saw the seal, they were thrown into a commotion and formed a line into a courtyard.

Most of seals excavated from Tomb at the period of Han was not in practical use. According to public survice regulations of Han, if an officer is dead, the seal wore by a officer needs to be returned to Empire but if an officer dies with great achievement, the seal is gifted and burying it with body in the earth is allowed. But most of seal excavated from Tomb was burial accessories indicating the post of officer and seal face was engraved roughly.

In contrast, there is high possibility that seals excavated from Tomb in Mengjiang area “蒙疆地区” at the period of Han was in practical use. There was bloody battle between Xiōngnú and Han army around this district and a seal equiped by a soldier killed in battle was covered with sand.

Revolutionary invention of paper completely changed the concept of seal from stamping an impression on wet clay into stamping an impression on paper with ink.

In the later period of Han, innovative technology was created in the long history of Chinese seal. It was invention of paper. “Cai Lun”蔡倫 integrated paper manufacturing technology pioneered by the former Han dynasty and invented the method of manufacturing practical paper. Since then, speaking of seal, it was mainly used for stamping an impression on clay . Its size was limited but after a paper was invented, this kind of limitation was abolished and the size of seal got bigger and bigger.
　Seal face changed from hollow relief to raised relief to stamp clearly on a flat piece of paper.
　

Picture seal engraved with high relief which were often seen from the warring states period to Qin and Han period couldn’t portray the three dimensional effect on paper so it faded with time.

Use of vermilion ink-pad for printing an impression on paper

Vermilion mud ink-pad was used to stamp impression on paper. Vermilion mud ink-pad was sticky red ink kneading blend of moxa and cinnabar with oil or water. Vermilion ink-pad appeared lately in the history ,which was in the Song period. Before this period, people used vermilion mud ink-pad. Vermilion ink-pad is sealing method in lieu of luting

　Originally before former Han dynasty, when sealing a box with important goods and bunch of Bamboo and wooden slips containing confidential contents, lute were used as certification to indicate where the responsibility lies so that its size was set limitation but after paper became widespread in China, social status of seal owners was distinguished by its size.

　

　Generally, the seal size at the period of Sui and Tang doubled in comparison with the size at the period of Qin and Han. A seal which identified a position and class was put around waist with plaited cord but after paper was invented, a seal was kept in government office.v　
　 Task of government office became complex because seals needed to be managed by its purpose.　So the government provided the special position in charge of managing seal called “Wang fu Lang 王符郎”. This is pretty similar with Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.

　

A seal used as signature of artists for their art work

In the period of Song, seals started to be used for calligraphy and pictures in art. What we call, writers and penman started to use a seal for the purpose of their hobbies .

Unique twisty typeface called “kujo” seal script was used in order to prevent fraud. This custom had been maintained until the Qing dynasty. However, this kujo seal script lacked in artistic quality and writers and penmen who preferred elegant and graceful seal were not supportive of this seal.

Some of writers in China used pseudonym except for their name.
There was a case that one writer had several pseudonyms to use these depending on the time and situation, and some writers change their pseudonyms in the turn of new age.

Chinese seal was away from its original purpose and became subject to appreciation, which consisted of a part of art of calligraphy and was indispensable for Chinese people’s hobby in this period.

Transition of raw materials consisting of seals

Usage of seal changed from legit use to appreciation and a seal which was used for identifying an official position turned into a tool of hobbies for scholar-officials and personal preference had an great impact on the selection of seal material. For that reason, various seal materials were adopted to create seal.

Raw materials used for seals were mainly gold, silver and copper from the warring states period to former Han period but from later “Han” period to three Kingdoms period and the Northern and Southern Courts period, following materials down below were used to make seal.

/**fang and horn**/

Rhinoceros cornus, Cervus horn, tiger’s fang

/**Rare stones**/

Jade, Agate, Amber, Crystal, Coral, Blue Gold

/*Plants*/

Ceramics, fragrant trees, red sandalwood, yellow rye, takahe

　In the period of Ming, high quality stones were found one after another, stone seal was all the rage and If you say “seal material” in this period, it refers to stones. Ancient Chinese people treasured jewel stone and thought lightly of stone itself. At least as long as seal materials were concerned, great stones which were found to be used for making a seal was evaluated much higher than gold and jewel stones.
　

Great boom of carving seal as one of artistic accomplishments and lack of stone materials.　

Stone carving is the way to make a pattern of seal. This came from ancient China and mainly stone carving is to engrave seal script on its impression, which emphasized the aspects of industrial art which harmonizes calligraphy with sculpture, especially this was writer’s hobby. There are a lot of people having a hobby of stone carving even now.

Seal materials like Metals, rare stone, fang and horn was really hard so that it couldn’t be helped but to place an order to expert craftsman to carve those materials with special tool. However, when a beautiful soft stone appeared, writers and penmen came to be able carve impressions for themselves. With widespread of stone carving, demand of high quality beautiful stones raised but a stone suitable for making seal was produced in limited areas of region.　For that reason, from the terminal stage of Min to the start of Qing dynasty , the quarry was exhausted because of overhunting stones.
　　

Seal with Chinese character

The history of Chinese seal was presumed to have started from the warring states period which was the end of Zhou dynasty but China had had already considerable highly-developed culture at the time.

Usage of seal introduced from ancient oriental countries was applied to characteristics of invented paper and ancient Chinese character. Chinese culture, politics, economy, society and cultural life was successfully harmonized with introduced sealing culture

Chinese civilization was relatively fresh compared with the other three civilizations of Mesopotamia , Egypt and Indus but in contrast that other civilizations went the way of downfall sooner or later, Chinese history has lasted at least for over 3500 years till now.

China had got a late start with seal culture compared with Oriental countries but
Chinese writings which is traditional intellectual property of Chinese civilization must have influenced greatly to the seal culture of neighboring countries like Korea and Japan belonging to the territory of East Asian cultural sphere.