Xiyin, "Shi Ming" explains: "Xi means migration, sealing things so that they can be transferred but cannot be issued. Seal means letter. So sealing things means trust and verification. It also means cause. , Seal things and pay for each other."
Before the Qin Dynasty, both official and private seals were called "Xi", which was the motto seal. After Qin unified the six kingdoms, it was stipulated that the emperor's seal should be called "Xi" alone, and his subjects would only be called "Yin". In the Han Dynasty, there were also princes, kings, queens and queens who were called "Xi". Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty changed the name to "Bao" because he felt that "Xi" has a close pronunciation with "Death" (some say it has the same pronunciation with "Xi"). From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the old system was followed and "Xi" and "Bao" were used together. The Han general's seal is called "Zhang". After that, according to the customs of people in the past dynasties, seals include: "seal", "seal", "note", "zhuji", "contract", "guanfang", "stamp", "talisman", "deed", "guaranteed" , "poke" and other titles.
Printed with official and private seals, it serves as evidence of official correspondence and private interactions. The seal of the Han Dynasty was also called "Zhang" and "Seal". After the Tang Dynasty, the seal was also called "Ji" or "Zhu Ji", and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was also called "Guanfang". But the common name is still called Yin. There are buttons in ancient seals that can be used to tie ribbons. The forms of seal buttons include bucket buttons, nose buttons, turtle buttons, snake buttons, tiger and leopard buttons, etc. The seal characters include Yang characters and Yin characters. Fonts change with the times. In the pre-Qin era, the ancient script of the Six Kingdoms was used; from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the seal script was used; in the Sui and Tang dynasties, official seals began to increase in size. With the widespread use of paper, Zhu Wen gradually replaced Bai Wen. Many official seals began to have year numbers chiselled on their backs. In terms of text, Sui Dynasty seals mostly used small seals, and began to use the curved "Nine-Died Text" to seal (the ancient "Nine" is the ultimate number, so it has this name. It does not have to be nine-fold, and it can change with the complexity of the strokes. ) to fill the printed surface. In the Tang and Song dynasties, official script began to be used in official seals. In the Qing Dynasty, official seals used both Manchu and Chinese characters and were engraved in one seal. The official seals left by the peasant regimes of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties are also cultural relics worth cherishing.
Li Shimin (January 28, 598, January 23, 599 - July 10, 649), Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (reigned from 626 to 649), was born in a martial arts department Guan Guan (now Shaanxi Wugong) was the second son of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty and Queen Dou. He was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and an outstanding statesman, strategist, military strategist and poet.
Li Shimin joined the army as a boy and went to Yanmen Pass to rescue Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin served as Shangshu Ling and General Youwuhou. He was named the Duke of Qin and later the King of Qin. He led his troops to put down warlords such as Xue Rengao, Liu Wuzhou, Dou Jiande, and Wang Shichong. During the establishment and unification process of the Tang Dynasty, Zhongli made great military exploits.
On the fourth day of June in the ninth year of Wude (July 2, 626), Li Shimin launched the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" and killed his elder brother Prince Li Jiancheng, his fourth brother Qi Wang Li Yuanji and two other princes. The son was established as the prince. Soon the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan, abdicated and Li Shimin ascended the throne, changing the Yuan Dynasty to Zhenguan.
During his reign, Li Shimin actively listened to the opinions of his ministers, governed the world internally with civility, accepted advice with an open mind, practiced strict economy, and encouraged farmers to teach farming, so that the people could recuperate and live in peace, and the country and the people were peaceful, creating a famous era in Chinese history. The rule of Zhenguan. Expanding territory, conquering Eastern Turks and Xueyantuo, conquering Gaochang, Qiuci, and Tuyuhun, inflicting heavy losses on Goguryeo, and establishing the four towns of Anxi. All ethnic groups lived in harmony, and were respectfully called "Tian Khan" by the people of all ethnic groups, setting the foundation for the later Tang Dynasty. More than a hundred years of prosperity have laid an important foundation.
On the 4th day of May in the 23rd year of Zhenguan (July 10, 649), Li Shimin died of illness in Hanfeng Hall at the age of 52. In the 23rd year of his reign, the temple name Taizong was buried in Zhaoling.
Li Shimin loves literature and calligraphy, and has poems and calligraphy handed down from generation to generation.
Li Shimin’s father was Li Yuan, an official of the Sui Dynasty at the time, and his mother was the Dou family of the Northern Zhou royal family. When Li Shimin was 4 years old, a scholar came to his family who claimed to be able to meet him. He said to his father Li Yuan: "You are a noble man, and you have a noble son." When he saw Li Shimin, the scholar actually said: "You are like a dragon and a phoenix. According to the sun, when he is twenty years old, he will be able to help the world and bring peace to the people." Li Yuan named his son "Shimin" based on the meaning of "helping the world and bringing peace to the people."
The "Li Shimin Seal" weighs 4.6 kilograms and is 21cm high (the largest of the "Twenty-Five Treasures" of the Qing Dynasty is 19cm).
Jade quality: Hetian white jade. There are several stages of Hotan white jade. The early jade quality in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was Lantian white jade, which had the texture of rock sugar. In the Han Dynasty, because the white jade in Lantian was exhausted, people went to the more remote Hotan to collect white jade. At this time, the white jade was pure in color and had fine inclusions.
By the Tang Dynasty, the white jade was the color of rice soup, and the transparency of the material was slightly lower than that of the Han Dynasty, but the texture and hardness were still excellent. , the texture and color of this printed white jade exactly match. In the Song Dynasty, the inclusions of Hetian jade mined began to be a little obvious, but the jade quality was whiter than in the Tang Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, there were so many locks and leather shells that the jade quality was generally poor. In the Qing Dynasty, Hetian jade had obvious cysts and relatively loose inner quality.
Shape description: The body of the seal is shaped like a tall square city wall; the surface of the seal is decorated with a human face pattern wearing a crown, which is majestic; the buttons of the seal are carved into auspicious animals with dragon heads, lion bodies, and eagle wings, and the buttons are ingots. Pattern.
Jade seal is a very precious and rare type among ancient seals. In ancient times, "pei jade" was also an elegant fashion for famous officials, noble officials and scholar-bureaucrats. Generally speaking, jade seals are well-made, rigorous in composition, and graceful in writing. At first glance, the strokes are square and upright, but there is no sense of rigidity at all. Because jade is hard and not easily susceptible to cuts, a special seal cutting technique was developed, the so-called "cutting method" of "flat knife going straight down". And because jade is not easily corroded and damaged, the seal handed down from generation to generation can better retain its original appearance.
Official seals in the past dynasties each had their own systems to distinguish official ranks and show noble rank. The seals of emperors, generals and prime ministers are generally larger than private seals, more solemn and more square, with nose buttons, and the layout of the seals is naturally stretched and not messy.
This seal is of the quality of Hetian white jade. It is carved using the method of subtracting ground from official script popular in the Tang Dynasty to make a red seal. It is also in the shape of a square (the size of official seals used by low-level officials is about the size of ordinary square official seals). Half of the seal is rectangular, with the character "日" (日), which is called "Bantong Seal"); the button is made into the shape of a dragon, a lion, and an eagle, symbolizing the emperor's auspicious beasts; plus a large and heavy royal seal regulation; and the Qin Dynasty After the unification of the six kingdoms, it was stipulated that the emperor's seal should be called "Xi" alone, and the subjects would only be called "Yin".
It can be concluded that this seal was the royal seal of Qin King Li Shimin before he ascended the throne.
The oldest Chinese engraved characters include the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty, the bell and tripod inscriptions of the Zhou Dynasty, and the carved stones of the Qin Dynasty. Any characters carved on gold, copper, jade and other materials are generally called "gold and stone". The seal is included in the "gold and stone". The origin of the seal may be said to be the Shang Dynasty or the Yin Dynasty, but there is still no conclusion yet. According to relics and historical records, it appeared at least during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was widely used during the Warring States Period. At first it was only used as a certificate when exchanging goods in business. After Qin Shihuang unified China, the scope of seals expanded to a legal object proving the rights and interests of those in power. They were held by those in power as a symbol of the supreme rule. The text form changes with the times, and the styles are different. Seals in the pre-Qin and Qin-Han Dynasties were mostly used for sealing objects and slips. The seals were placed on the sealing mud to prevent unauthorized removal and for verification. The slips in the back tube are easily turned into paper and silk, and the use of sealing them with mud is gradually abandoned. The seal is covered with a vermillion-colored seal. In addition to its daily use, it is also often used for inscriptions in calligraphy and painting, and has become one of China's unique works of art. In ancient times, copper, silver, gold, jade, colored glaze, etc. were mostly used as sealing materials, followed by teeth, horns, wood, crystal, etc. Stone seals became popular after the Yuan Dynasty. Judging from the auction market in recent years, as imperial utensils have been sought after by collectors, imperial seals are also among them. In the autumn auction of 2009, Chinese art entered the era of 100 million yuan. At the same time, hot money from the capital market also poured into the art market. At present, China's art market can be regarded as rising. As a symbol of imperial power, the emperor's imperial seal has always been an important item in the collection market. At Sotheby's Autumn Auction in Hong Kong in 2008, Imperial Majesty Bandai - the Qianlong imperial seal collected by the French Guimet family specially auctioned a white jade seal with a dragon button and an imperial treasure of the Qianlong Emperor. The transaction price was RMB 55.77 million. Two years later, in the 2010 Sotheby's Autumn Auction in Hong Kong, an important private collection of royal craftsmanship from the Qing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor's White Jade Seal with Dragon Knot, was sold for RMB 106.17 million. The jade seal auction has also entered the billion-dollar market.
The imperial seals and imperial treasures used by the emperor, in addition to those tokens of trust symbolizing state power, also contained many personal seals and seals. For example, Emperor Qianlong's "continuous self-improvement" and "Tai Shang Emperor" of the later dynasty fall into this category. There are also different types of leisure seals. Those that express collection and appreciation are called collection seals, such as "Qianlong Yulan", "Shiqu Baoji", etc.; those engraved with a certain palace or pavilion are called pavilion seals, such as "Yangxin Palace Treasure", "Wenyuan Pavilion Treasure" and so on. Historically, Emperor Qianlong had many free seals. According to the "Qianlong Seal Sou", there were as many as 1,800 seals. Only a few of the imperial seals, imperial seals, and imperial treasures of the Qing Dynasty emperors are preserved in the Forbidden City, while the vast majority live in society.
The history of the development of seals
The period of scattered production
The unearthed motto seals passed down from generation to generation were first made in the Warring States Period. The seals have different sizes, squares and circles. It is divided into two and three layers. Most of them have small nose buttons on the top. The seals have ancient inscriptions from Jin, Qi, Chu and other countries. The layout is sparse and well-proportioned.
Unified period of form
Qin, Han, Wei and Jin all had unified printing, which was the reason for the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The emperor's special jade is called a seal, and the rest is made of copper and is called a seal. During this period, the seals came in various shapes, such as large and small, square, round, rectangular, etc., and the seals became thicker and thicker, with nose buttons and turtle buttons being the most common ones. The form of seal script in the Qin Dynasty was the small seal script with inscribed inscriptions, which had bounded patterns. The seal scripts of the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties were all square and round. They were regarded as models and were called false seal scripts. In addition, there are bird and insect scripts and similar writings, seals plus decorations and tangible seals, which are common in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The seals of the Southern and Northern Dynasties inherited the works of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and are full of ancient interest.
Development and change period
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the seal body increased in size, and the nose button turned into a small rectangular handle, until it became taller and became a cylindrical handle with a small top and a wide bottom. The official seal characters are all written in Yang script, which has changed from the fine-stroke and slightly curved Tang seal script to the nine-fold seal script. There are also seal scripts with Western Jin script, Mongolian script, Manchu script and Manchu-Han seal script combined into the seal. The seal edges are getting wider and wider, and the layout is becoming more and more sophisticated. Fuller, strokes and spaces become more even. The Twenty-Five Treasure Seals of the Qing Palace were completed in the eleventh year of Qianlong's reign (1746). They were passed down as national treasures and were used exclusively for state affairs. Except for one gold and one sandalwood seal, the rest were all made of jade. They were large in size and made of various dragon buttons. They were used in previous generations. Nothing, the seal inscriptions include Manchu and Manchu and Han seal scripts. Most of the other seals, large and small, are made of stone and are used by imperial pens and connoisseurs. They are private seals in nature, but the stone materials and buttons are extremely exquisite, and they are solemn and precious.
Carrying forward the past and ushering in the future
Most of the private seals in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were made of stone, with a small amount of bamboo seals replacing the copper seals. Seals are mainly made by calligraphers and painters themselves, or engraved by seal masters. They all follow the ancient seals of the Qin, Han and Six Dynasties and create their own personal styles. For example, Mingwen He, the Zhejiang Hui School in the Qing Dynasty, and Zhao Zhiqian and Wu Changshuo in the late Qing Dynasty are all famous. Prominent masters, they not only wrote a splendid chapter for the history of Chinese seals, but also had a good influence on the development of seal cutting art in neighboring countries in the east.
Most of the ancient seals handed down from ancient times are found in the ruins of ancient cities, rivers and ancient tombs. Some were abandoned by the defeated in the war when they were in exile, and some were abandoned on the battlefield by those who died in the war. As a rule at that time, all seals captured on the battlefield must be handed over, and officials were required to remove their seals and ribbons after they moved to their posts and died. pay. There are many others, such as those with official titles and names, as well as auspicious language seals, zodiac seals, etc., which are generally buried objects, not actual products. Other pottery and standard measuring instruments from the Warring States Period, as well as gold coins from some vassal states, were stamped with names and recorded the names and surnames of the craftsmen or symbols of a pictorial nature, which have also been passed down.
Many of the characters on the earliest ancient seals of the Warring States Period are still unknown to people today. Most Zhuwen ancient seals are equipped with wide edges. The strokes of the seal are as thin as a hair, and they are all made of casting. Most of the ancient seals with white text are added with side bars or a vertical border in the middle, and the characters are cast or chiseled. The seal text of the official seal includes names such as "Sima" and "Situ", as well as various irregular shapes. The content is also engraved with auspicious words and vivid animal patterns.
The seals that were popular from the Warring States Period to the early Western Han Dynasty used a script called Qin Zhuan. Judging from the calligraphy style, it is very similar to that of the Qin and Han Dynasties, Qin stone carvings and other writings, so it is easier to understand than the ancient writings of the Warring States Period. Qin seals are mostly chiselled in white, often with the character "田" on the surface, and are mostly square. The official seals used by lower-level officials are about half the size of ordinary square official seals, and are rectangular in shape, with the character "日" in the pattern, which is called "half". Tongyin". Private seals are generally rectangular, and there are also round and oval forms. In addition to the official name, name, and auspicious words, there are also mottos and idioms such as "respect for things" and "harmony with everyone" in the seal, and the style is bright and elegant. Together with Han seals, it was learned by later generations of seal carvers.
The only thing that has been seen so far is the private seal of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, which is the "Zhenguan" seal engraved by Li Shimin with his reign name. The original has been lost and can only be seen on some inscriptions. This "White Jade Auspicious Beast Button Li Shimin Seal" can be called the most precious orphan treasure in history. It is the seal of China's greatest emperor and is extremely precious.