tour 21 of 22
Enlightenment: Ancient Scripts
Chinese seals
These two seals were once in the collection of
Sir Hans
Sloane. One is made of quartz crystal and
shows a 'dog of Fo' (a Buddhist lion dog). The
other, made of red soapstone, has seal characers for long
life.
Seals were made in
China from at least the late Zhou period (fourth to third century
BC) for official, artistic, literary, commercial and personal
purposes. They were commonly used instead of a signature. The seals
were made from any material that could be carved or moulded,
including bronze, silver, stone, horn and wood. In about the
fourteenth century AD, soapstone (steatite) was found to be
particularly good and is still used today. Seals made of attractive
hardstones, such as the 'dog of Fo', were
considered to have both aesthetic and intellectual
appeal.
The script used on
seals evolved from inscriptions. The earliest surving inscriptions
are found on oracle bones dating to around 1300 BC, while good
examples of inscriptions on bronze ritual vessels survive from the
Western Zhou (about 1050-771 BC). Seal script became standardized
during the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC).
Enlightenment
scholars were interested in Chinese scripts as a sort of universal
writing that worked from a pictographic base, but which were quite
different from the spoken languages of China. Chinese scripts were
also of particular interest as the oldest writing system still in
use.