What is the important position of seal script in the history of calligraphy and archaeology in China?

Shuowen Jiezi, compiled by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, is regarded as the imperial work in the history of China's writing research, and it is the first writing book in China to systematically analyze the form of Chinese characters and study their etymology. This great work of philology was actually compiled by Xu Shen according to the Biography at that time and referring to the scripts of the Warring States and pre-Qin countries. This book is of great significance not only for studying the origin and evolution of China characters, but also for understanding the seal script at that time.

But for a long time, for the public, seal script is very mysterious and far away. Like Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it seems to be an early script used by ancient people. Even now, when we look at many seal scripts, we often feel confused and can't understand the relationship and correspondence between these seal scripts and the Chinese characters we use now. After all, their looks are too different.

But in fact, seal script is of great significance to the finalization, standardization and development of Chinese characters. As abstract symbols used by early humans, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Da Zhuan often have certain concreteness and vividness.

For example, in 1950s and 1960s, many remains of primitive pottery were found in Dawenkou area, and there were many depicting symbols on these pottery. The most representative is the depiction symbol called Dawenkou cultural symbol, which is suspected to be the embryonic form of the word "Dan".

We can see that this depiction symbol is very vivid as a whole, and it consists of three parts. According to our understanding today, these three parts are "sun", "fire" and "mountain". If this really means the word "Dan", then it clearly reflects the complexity of the symbols depicted at that time. Although quite abstract, it is far from the word "Dan" we see today.

Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi and many later philologists' research significance on philology are to reveal their evolution laws and differences in evolution forms through the investigation of these abstract symbols, so as to explore the evolution significance of people behind them and the thinking mode of ancestors.

In order to connect the ancient characters in China with the characters we use now, seal script is the style that we must understand and explain.

Seal script is the first character with normative significance in the history of China characters. In particular, Qin Shihuang unified the six countries and established the normative status of seal script.

Before the reunification of the seven countries, the characters of the vassal States were different, which reflected the disorder of the characters to some extent. Xiao zhuan unified the characters of the six countries and re-established the order of the characters. Although it was of great help to the economic development and national construction at that time, it also obliterated the differences between the languages of various countries to some extent, and these differences were an important way for us to understand the way of thinking of the people of various vassal States at that time.