Cheng Yuxi has existed since the Warring States Period, and there are more than 100 proverbs and idioms used. For example, there are many idioms, such as "going straight", "respecting things", "benefiting the sky" and "being lucky in coming and going". The number of words varies from one to two, up to 20, which is used to express good luck and to commemorate the dead.
Flower printing
Hua Yin is also called "Bet Word", which flourished in Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, so it is also called "Yuan Bet". Yuan bet is mostly rectangular, generally engraved with regular script surnames, and engraved with Ba Si Ba Wen or Hua bet. From a practical point of view, most of the seals of past dynasties have the functions of preventing rape and distinguishing forgeries. As an individual's random writing, it is naturally more difficult to imitate and achieve the effect of anti-counterfeiting, so this seal has been used until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Button system
Most ancient seals had buttons, so that the buttons were punched and tied to the belt. This is the ancient way of "wearing a seal". Since the Han Dynasty, emperors and officials have distinguished themselves by buttons such as tortoise, camel and horse. For example, the turtle button, camel button and snake button used in the history of senior officials were common button systems for granting official seals to brothers in the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties.
There are many buttons in past dynasties, among which altar buttons, nose buttons and multi-bucket buttons are the most common. Now, some button systems are listed on the right to see a point.
Ordinary printed matter
General seal is also a kind of official seal of China. These seals are often temporary dispatches on the way to March, and they are engraved on the printed surface with a knife, which is also called "urgent printing". Pu Yin's unique style is full of interest and has a great influence on his later artistic style. In the Han dynasty, generals used seals, which are generally called "seals" rather than "seals", which is a major feature of military seals.
Ancient seal in the warring States period
Ancient seal is the general name of pre-Qin seal. Most of the earliest seals we can see now are ancient seals in the Warring States period.
Extended data:
Sui and Tang seal
Following the Qin Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty opened a new historical stage of China's ancient seal system and style. This is manifested in the following aspects:
First of all, because bamboo slips have long been completely divorced from daily life, government documents use a lot of paper, and the public seal is no longer limited to the narrow plane that can be obtained on bamboo slips, and the side length has suddenly increased from about 2.3 cm (one inch) in Qin and Han Dynasties to about 5.4 cm (about two inches in Sui Dynasty).
Due to the increase in the number of seals, the official seal was not printed with the official name and sent to the official himself, as in Qin and Han Dynasties, but sent to the official office represented by the official, completing the transformation from official seal to official seal. The official seal was no longer worn, but turned into a box and placed in the government office.
Public seal in Tang dynasty
First, new seal names such as "Bao Ji" and "Zhu Ji" appeared.
Secondly, the button seal in the early Tang Dynasty, from the nose buckle close to the Han and Wei dynasties in the Sui Dynasty to the needle buckle after the Song Dynasty, has reached a higher level. The nose button rises and the button gradually develops into a vertical rectangle. In the late Tang Dynasty, the seal had disappeared and completely evolved into a button, such as the "Niu Qian House Seal" in the Tang Dynasty collected by Xi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
In the early Song Dynasty, everything was in ruins, and the official seal once copied the old seal of the Five Dynasties. Shortly after the official seal was recast, the words "new" or "newly cast" were embedded in the seal to distinguish it from the official seal of the Five Dynasties, such as the "New Casting Seal of Dongguan County" in 1980, the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo in the Northern Song Dynasty. All official seals are made of copper, and the size varies according to different official ranks.
In the early Song Dynasty, the thickness of the seal was similar to that of the printed edge, and then the printed edge gradually widened. For example, in 989, the margin of "Gong Sheng Hou Yu Qi Du Zhu Ji" was nearly 1 times wider than the margin, reaching 0. 1 cm. By the first year of Ding Jing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1260), it was cast and printed, with a width of 0.3 cm.
References:
Baidu encyclopedia-seal