Related: Chinese Seals

As an art form born out of the combination of calligraphy (mainly seal script) and carving, Chinese seal cutting was once listed -- along with calligraphy, painting and poetry -- as one of the four essential skills required of an ancient scholar. A seal in red on a calligraphic work or a painting represents not only a signature, but also an indispensable touch to liven it up.

Though modern seal cutting did not appear until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ancient seal-cutting as an art existed as early as in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period with its unique style and high degree of artistry, laying a solid foundation for the seal-cutting art.

The art dates back about 3,700 years to the Yin Dynasty and has its origin in the cutting of oracle inscriptions on tortoise shells. It flourished in the Qin Dynasty of 22 centuries ago, when people engraved their names on utensils and documents (of bamboo and wood) to show ownership or authorship. Out of this grew the cutting of personal names on small blocks of horn, jade or wood, namely the seals as we know them today.

The earliest of ancient seals are the "guxi" (antiquated seals), most of which were made during the Warring States Period, with a few of them from the Spring and Autumn Period. There were private and official seals, both known as "xi" regardless of the owner's superiority or power. The seals might be carved in relief or intaglio and into different shapes, with contents ranging from official post, names to auspicious words and sketchy graphics.

The Han Dynasty witnessed the prosperous development of seal cutting. At that time, only the royal seals were called "xi", and the others "yin." Besides, the official seals were often referred to as "zhang" or "yinzhang," and the private ones "xinyin" or "yinxin." That's why seals are called "yinzhang" in Chinese. Seals of this time were richer in both form and content, especially in the variety of private seals, bearing zhuanshu or curly script, which explains why the art of seal-cutting is still called zhuanke and also why the zhuanshu is also known in English as "seal characters." As time went on, the other script styles appeared one after another on Chinese seals, which may now be cut in any style except caoshu (cursive hand) at the option of the artist. The Han seals fell into two types: cast or chiseled. Most of the Western Han seals were cast while the Eastern Han seals were largely chiseled. This was because in the late years of that period, officials were constantly transferred or died due to the chaos caused by unceasing wars, and there was no time to cast new seals for newly appointed officials. Hence, contents were chiseled on the prepared seal bases. Featuring completely different styles, the two types of seals significantly influenced and inspired the seal cutting art of the later generations.

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