Chapter 7 Section 3 Seal Form

The shape of the seals of the past dynasties, the formal ones are generally square or rectangular, and the square is the most commonly used.However, since the Warring States period, the shapes of seals have been changing ever-changing, especially private seals, which have a wide variety of shapes.Several common seal shapes are introduced below. Most of the ancient seals with a button were printed on one side.Most of the printing on one side is a name printing, square, and the font of the printing text is relatively standard. There are printed texts on both sides of the seal, which is called double-sided printing.Double-sided printing is mostly private printing, which began in Qin Dynasty and flourished in Han Dynasty.The printed text has one side engraved with the surname and the other side with the name, or one side with the name engraved and the other side engraved with characters, ministers, concubines, auspicious words, birds, beasts, fish, insects, etc.There are also double-sided auspicious language seals, double-sided portrait seals, and double-sided pattern seals.Most of the seals on both sides are made of copper, and some of them also have jade.The printed body is very thin, with a rectangular perforation in the middle, which can be worn with a rope and is easy to carry, so the double-sided printing is also called the belt printing.

Seals with text engraved on five or six sides are called multi-sided seals.The seals of this shape are made of copper.The five-sided seal is engraved with characters on the front and around the seal, and one side is a button.Five-sided seals are mostly seen in private seals of the Qin Dynasty, and most of the seals are auspicious characters.The six-sided seal was popular during the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. This kind of seal is in the shape of a "convex" character, with printed characters on the front, around and on the top of the nose.There are holes in the Indian nose, which can be threaded for wearing.

It is called "overprinting" to combine two or several seals of different sizes reasonably with each other to make them blend into one.There are two kinds of overprinting, one is with animal buttons, which is called "child-mother overprinting", and the other is square overprinting without buttons. Overprinting began in the Han Dynasty and prevailed in the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties.The production method is cast copper. When casting overprints of animal seals, the animal's head and body are usually cast on two seals respectively. The large seal is used as the female animal, and the small seal-shaped seal is used as the child animal. A complete animal shape, like the shape of a mother and her child.There are double overprints with one mother and one child, and three overprints with one mother and two children, which are called "mother-child overprint" or "mother-son overprint" or "mother-grandson overprint".

There are three, four, or even five or six sets of buttonless square overprints.The smallest square seal is solid, and there are also five-sided or six-sided characters engraved on it. The belt hook is the hook that the ancients put on the belt around the waist. It is made of copper, iron, and jade.Its shape is curved at the head, with round buttons on the back, and varies in size.The texture of the hook printing is all copper, and the printing surface is on the round button behind the hook, which is convenient for dual use.Most of the belt hook seals belong to the Qin and Han Dynasties, but not all belt hooks have seals on them, and only a few of them have seals.

A part of the middle of one seal is shoveled to make several small seals, engraved with surname, first name, nickname or linked to form corresponding words and sentences. This kind of seal is called "Lianzhu seal".There are two consecutive beads, three consecutive beads or four consecutive beads.Three or four consecutive beads began in the Qin and Han Dynasties.Erlianzhu began in the Tang Dynasty.For example, the two-character "Zhenguan" seal written by Tang Taizong and the two-character "Xuanhe" jade seal used by Song Huizong are all Lianzhu seals.The forms of Lianzhu printing include square, round, oval, triangular, etc., and the most common one is the upper and lower printing of the square.

Square seals are solemn and dignified. Since ancient times, no matter official seals or private seals, most of them are square.Rectangular seals, official seals account for a small amount, most of them are private seals.For example, Zhaiguan seal, poem seal, auspicious language seal, appreciative seal, and the first chapter stamped on the upper corner of calligraphy and painting, etc., seal carvers mostly like to use rectangles. Compared with oval seals and other special-shaped seals, circular seals are more standardized. There are fewer circular seals of these two shapes, and oval seals are more common in appreciation seals and introduction chapters.With this type of seal, the curved edge of the printed surface is combined with the straight line of the printed font, which looks very unique.

Alien-shaped seal (also known as "miscellaneous sampan") is a kind of irregular-shaped seal, and its shape and size are not fixed. This type of seal is generally a private seal. The earliest special-shaped seals began in the Warring States Period, and there were also many special-shaped ancient bowls in the Qin and Han Dynasties.With the continuous development of the art of seals, their shapes tend to be diversified, especially after the popularity of lithography, the shapes are even more varied.From the special-shaped bowls in the Warring States period, through the evolution of the past dynasties, its shapes mainly include coin-shaped, animal-shaped, continuous ring, bamboo leaf-shaped, gourd-shaped, horn-shaped, plum-blossom-shaped, chicken heart-shaped, tile-shaped, unequal sides, and triangles. , right angles, rhombuses, and utensils such as qin, tripod, pot, and furnace.

The production of special-shaped seals should have thought-provoking layouts, powerful fonts and knife techniques, and solemn and elegant styles, otherwise it is easy to fall into clichés. Sui Xing Yin is developed on the basis of Xing Xing Yin.This kind of seal is mostly made of stone, and it has been in use since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.A piece of stone can be broken into any shape you like at will, or carved into seals according to its natural shape in order not to damage the shape and texture of the raw material.Seals of this shape are naturally interesting, so literati, painters, and seal carvers always like to carve their favorite poems, auspicious words, epigrams, and leisure essays into random seals for play.