Attachment: Seal Character Recognition
(1) According to Shuowen Jiezi (hereinafter referred to as Shuowen).
Shuowen, written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, is the first dictionary in the history of linguistics in China to analyze glyphs, explain meanings and identify pronunciations. It occupies a very important position in the history of language development in China. Its research object is mainly seal script, so it is the first choice for us to learn and master seal script, and it is also an indispensable step to understand Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. When consulting Shuowen, most people find it difficult to interpret it, mainly because they don't understand its style. Shuowen pioneered the radical of Chinese characters, and arranged Chinese characters according to the principles of "separation" and "association by shape". At the same time, radicals are the key to Shuowen. Being familiar with the radicals of Shuowen and memorizing the structure of seal script through the radicals will help us to verify the ownership of seal script. Start with the radical and then understand its explanation. The explanation of Shuowen is the annotation of Biography, and saying that "something is also something" is the explanation of the meaning; To say that it is "like a certain shape", "from a certain to a certain" and "from a certain sound" is an analysis of glyphs; These two parts are organically related. Saying "a certain sound", "reading if" and "so-and-so cutting" are the phonetic symbols of words and the basic style of books. Yao Xiaosui's Xu Shen and Shuowen Jiezi (published by Zhonghua Book Company) introduced the related contents, styles and radicals of Shuowen in detail. Beginners can compare it with Shuowen, which will be helpful to understand and master the content of Shuowen. The most suitable edition of Shuowen is the new printed edition of Zhonghua Book Company (1964 and 1977), which is a reduced edition based on the Sun Xingyan edition under the rule of Chen Chang in Qing Dynasty.
For beginners, it must also be pointed out that it is difficult to be accurate when reading Shuowen, regardless of sound and meaning. The Qing Dynasty was known as the "four storytellers". Duan Yucai's Notes on Shuowen Jiezi, ieee fellow's Examples of Shuowen, Guifu's Evidence of Shuowen and Zhu's Notes on Shuowen are all summaries of the research on Shuowen, and each has its own emphasis. The best annotation is Duan Yucai's Notes on Shuowen Jiezi, which pays equal attention to form, sound and meaning, and is a reference book of Shuowen. It is of great inspiration and guidance for reading Shuowen. Beginners need to refer to the above monographs in order to truly understand and recognize seal script.
(2) Guided by the theory of "Six Books".
"Six Books" are six rules summarized by the ancients according to the analysis of the physical structure and usage of Chinese characters, namely "pictographic, indicative, knowing, pictophonetic, transliteration and borrowing". Its meaning mainly follows the words quoted in Shuowen. To understand the shape, sound and meaning of seal script from Shuowen, we must first understand the principle of "Six Books", and through the prompt of "Six Books", we can outline and get the purpose of fundamentally understanding seal script. To master the "six books" in learning seal script, it is important not to know which one of the "six books" the word belongs to, but to understand the structure and components of seal script. Knowing these problems, most Chinese seal scripts will naturally be solved. The basic principles of Liushu can be found in China Philology edited by Tang Lan (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House) and Outline of Philology edited by Qiu Xigui (Commercial Press).
(3) Remember the special seal method.
There are many characters in seal script with unique seal method, which is far from the shape of regular script, which is the biggest obstacle to understanding seal script. In order to distinguish the right and wrong of seal script and prevent forgery, many formulas have been compiled by predecessors according to the differences in the form and characters of seal script, such as Yuan Ying's formula for distinguishing pointillism, Zhu Qing Fan Zhi's formula for radical songs of seal script, and Qing Sha's formula for rhyme of seal script (included in Shuowen Dictionary), which are all very suitable for learning seal script. Read the mouth, easy to remember. Beginners may wish to understand it first, gradually master the form of seal script, and remove obstacles.