Seal script

Small seal script, 小篆 , from the Qin Dynasty

The seal script ( Chinese  篆書  /  篆书 , Pinyin zhuànshū , Jyutping syun ⁶ syu ¹ ) is one of the five main categories of Chinese calligraphy .

In the seal script, the vertical and horizontal lines are evenly designed, the ends are slightly pointed. The seal script was divided into two main subgroups, the dàzhuàn ( 大篆 ), "large seal script" and the xiǎozhuàn ( 小篆 ), "small seal script". Examples of the larger seal script were found on cylindrical stones and on engraved bronze kettles ( 鼎 , dǐng ). The winding, wire-like lines are characteristic of the smaller seal script.

Seal script reached its peak in the Qin Dynasty . The minister Li Si left a stone inscription on Tai-Shan for posterity , which is an example of the smaller seal script.

See also

• Oracle bones

Web links

Commons : Siegelschrift  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Greater Seal Script - English
• TCA / China NB: Document L2 / 15-281: Proposal to encode Small Seal Script. (PDF, 89 MB) Unicode Consortium, October 20, 2015, accessed on November 5, 2015 (English).  (Suggestion to encode the small seal font in UCS / Unicode )