seal script: yin Gao English
seal script
seal script, one of the ancient scripts of Chinese characters, is also called seal script. Is a general term for ancient Chinese characters. "The seal maker, who spreads it, spreads its physics, and applies it endlessly." The ancients thought that seal script was made by Cang Xie, but it is not credible. The generation of a kind of writing takes a long process of development, and it is impossible for a person to complete it in a short period of time. Generally speaking, seal script includes all scripts before Lishu and their extended genera, such as inscriptions on bronze, Shi Guwen, ancient prose of Six Kingdoms, small seal script, Miao seal script and overlapping seal script. Narrow sense mainly refers to "Da Zhuan" and "Xiao Zhuan". The characters of seal script are rounded, and the structure is in accordance with the meaning of the six books, so Sun Guoting in Tang Dynasty said, "Seal script is graceful and fluent".
The history of its birth
During the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the inscriptions carved on Zhong Ding Yi wares, that is, bronze inscriptions, were also widely popular in Zhong Dingwen. After Qin Shihuang's reunification, it was collectively called Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan. The so-called seal script is actually an official book. It is a standardized common font for official documents. According to the literature. Before Qin dynasty, there was no special name for Chinese characters. The seal script was gradually evolved from the characters of Qin in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Because it is an official book. Xiao Zhuan is only suitable for grand occasions. Such as recording merit and carving stone. Uncle's imperial edict. Soldiers and tigers and things like that. The style of standard seal script is neatly arranged. The pen is round and round. The lines are even and long. Presenting a solemn and beautiful style. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen, it has some basic characteristics: the shape is slender. And the tight drawing extends downward. It constitutes a visual illusion that the upper part is dense and the lower part is sparse. This is also related to the top-down layout. The lines are even, no matter how long the stippling is. The strokes are uniform in thickness. This kind of strength. A pen with even speed. Give people a pure and simple aesthetic feeling. In addition, the font structure tends to be simple and fixed. The layout of the seal script can better form the order of vertical and horizontal rows. Qin Zhuan is different from Fang Bi with a round pen. The round pen is represented by Qin carved stone. Fang Bi is represented by the copyright amount of Qin imperial edicts. It is a vulgar style in Qin Zhuan. The Han and Wei Dynasties were a spent force for Qin Zhuan. Besides being used for inscriptions, seals and objects. It is rare to have an independent seal script. Tang seal. Recovered from Li Yangbing. Ren Qin Zhuan's magnificent spirit has gone. The study of epigraphy in Song Dynasty and the retro style of calligraphy in Yuan Dynasty. The right to use seal script has risen slightly. There are many people who are famous for their seal scripts, but they lack the power to surpass them. The wind of inheriting yuan dynasty in ming dynasty. The pace is even. The seal script of Qing Dynasty is full of flowers. It entered the stage of great prosperity in pushing the Tang Dynasty to surpass the Qin Dynasty.
font classification
dazhuan
dazhuan refers to the inscriptions on bronze, bronze and six kingdoms, which preserve the obvious characteristics of ancient hieroglyphics. Xiao Zhuan, also known as "Qin Zhuan", is a common character of Qin State, and a simplified font of Da Zhuan, which is characterized by uniform and neat shape and easier writing than Shu Wen. In the history of the development of Chinese characters, it is the transition between the official seal script and the official seal script.
in the late western Zhou dynasty, Chinese characters developed into big seal script. The development of the seal script has produced two characteristics: first, the lines with uneven thickness in the early days have become uniform and soft, and the lines they draw with the objects are very concise and vivid; The second is standardization, and the glyph structure tends to be neat, gradually leaving the original shape of the picture and laying the foundation for the square characters. Dazhuan is for later Xiaozhuan. The broad sense of Da Zhuan includes Xiao Zhuan, the former Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the bronze inscription and the six-nation script. The big seal here refers to the characters of Qin State that prevailed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. As Zhou Pingwang moved eastward to Luoyang, Qin occupied the hometown of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and at the same time inherited the characters of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was developed by inheriting the bronze inscriptions. Regional, some are difficult to identify.
dazhuan script, also known as shua (zhòu) script. It got its name because it was recorded in the word book Shi Shuan Pian. History of Han, Art and Literature: "There are fifteen pieces of Shi Shu, and Mrs. Wang Shi Shu of Zhou Shi made a big seal." There are 225 essays in Shuowen, which were collected by Xu Shen on the basis of the nine essays in Shi Shuan, and are the main materials for us to study Da Zhuan today.
the original seal script is generally regarded as "Shi Guwen". In the early Tang Dynasty, in Chencang, Tianxing County (now Fengxiang County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, which was called Yongcheng in ancient times, was the capital of the pre-Qin period for more than 4 years, with a large number of pre-Qin cultural relics), the diameter of the south domain was about three feet, with a small top and a large bottom, and the top was round and the bottom was flat like a steamed bun. Carved on it are ten four-character poems written by Qin Xiangong in the eleventh year, which are the earliest carved stone characters in China. After being lost and recovered, it is lost again. More than 7 words were originally engraved, and more than 3 words are now in existence. These ten stone towns exist in the Forbidden City. Because the content recorded the hunting, it was named "Hunting or Carving Stone in Yongyi". Wei Yingwu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, thought that the stone was shaped like a drum and renamed it "Shi Guwen". Now it is the representative of Dazhuan.
Xiao Zhuan
Xiao Zhuan was a unified writing form of Chinese characters after Qin Shihuang unified China (221 years ago), which was carried out under the policy of unified measurement, and was under the responsibility of Prime Minister Li Si. On the basis of the original seal script used by Qin State, it was simplified, and the variant characters of other six countries were cancelled. It was popular in China until the end of the Western Han Dynasty (about 8 AD), and it was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers.