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Chinese Seal - Chinese Art Web |
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 A Chinese seal is a seal or stamp containing Chinese characters used in East Asia to prove identity on documents, contracts, art, or similar items where authorship is considered important.
Chinese seals are typically made of stone, sometimes of wood, and are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste. The word yin specifically refers to the imprint created by the seal. The colloquial name chop, when referring to these kinds of seals, was adapted from a Malay word during the colonization of the Straits Settlements.
East Asia currently uses a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and increasingly, electronic signatures. But notably in China, Japan, and Korea, seals remain commonly used instead of signatures when doing business or other procedures, and in certain cases, only seals are acceptable.
Types of Seals- Zhuwen (lit. "red characters") seals imprint the Chinese characters in red ink, sometimes referred to as yang seals.
- Baiwen (lit. "white characters") seals imprint the background in red, leaving white characters, sometimes referred to as yin seals.
- Zhubaiwen Xiangjianyin (lit. "red-white characters combined seal") seals use zhuwen and baiwen together.
Seals used by government authorities
Emperors of China, their families and officials used large seals known as Xi, which corresponds to the Great Seals of Western countries. Xi were usually made of jade (although hard wood or precious metal could also be used), and were originally square in shape. They were changed to a rectangular form during the Song Dynasty, but reverted to square during the Qing Dynasty, and officially renamed bao (treasure). The Forbidden City in Beijing currently has a collection of 25 bao from the Qing Dynasty.
These seals typically bore the titles of the offices, rather than the names of the owners. Different seals could be used for different purposes: for example, Emperor Qianlong had a number of appreciation seals used on select paintings in their collection.
The most important of these seals is the Heirloom Seal, which was created by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuang, and was seen as a
legitimizing device embodying or symbolizing the Mandate of Heaven. The Heirloom Seal was passed down through several dynasties, but was lost by the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
The most popular style of script for government seals in the imperial ages (from Song to Qing) is the jiudie wen ("ninefold script"), a highly
stylized font which is unreadable to the untrained.
The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has continued to use traditional square seals of about 13
centimeters each side, known by a variety of names depending on the user's hierarchy. Part of the inaugural ceremony for the President of the Republic of China includes bestowing on him the Seal of the Republic of China and the Seal of Honor.
The seal of state of the People's Republic of China is a square, bronze seal with side lengths of 9
centimeters. The inscription reads "Seal of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China". Notably, the seal uses the relatively modern Song typeface rather than the more ancient seal scripts, and the seal is called an yin, not a xi, in a nod to modernity. Ordinary government seals in the People's Republic of China today are usually circular in shape, and have a five-pointed star in the centre of the circle. The name of the governmental institution is arranged around the star in a semi-circle.
Personal seals
There are many classes of personal seals:
Name seals
Denote the person's name. These are almost always square.- Personal Name Seal - State the family and personal name of a person.
- Style Name Seal - State the style name of a person.
- Subject Concubine Seal - Used in imperial times by imperial consorts or officials.
- Simplified Word Seals - Used in letters, instead of writing well wishes by hand, the seal takes its place.
- General or Combined Seal - States the personal name and the place name where he/she is from.
- Rotating Character Seal - Same as the personal name seal, but characters are read in an anti-clockwise direction, rather than from the top-down, right-to-left. Sometimes used in writing (i.e. to sign a preface of a book, etc).
Free seals
Are the equivalent of today's online signatures, and can contain the person's personal philosophy or literary inclination. These can be any shape, ranging from ovals to dragon-shaped.- Portrait Seal - Has images with no words to express the user's character.
- Lucky Sayings Seal - Has lucky sayings and proverbs.
- Exceeding Seal of the Yellow God - Used in ancient times on letters as a protective charm on letters to ward off wild beasts and demons of the recipient. Now used mainly as a well-wishing convention on letters to people who travel abroad.
- Sealing Stamp - Used to seal letters or packages, often after the sealing tag/strip has been stuck on the flap.
Studio seals
Carry the name of the person's private studio, which most literati in ancient China had, although probably in lesser forms. These are more or less rectangular in shape.- Studio or Study Seal - States the name of the studio or body. This includes society and company seals.
- Alias Seal - States aliases that the user uses. These include artistic names, painting names, pen-names, etc.
- Storage Seal - Used on books or paintings that are kept by the user. This includes appreciation seals used on paintings and books that the owner admires.
- Poetry Seal - Has poems or proverbs inscribed, used on paintings, etc. Size can range from big to small depending on how long the inscription is.
- Flower Signature Seal - A mark used in place of a signature. Often small, sometimes with images, the design can be varied in style, often a stylization of a single Chinese character.
Seal paste
There are two types of seal paste depending on what base material they are made of.- Silk: The red paste is made from finely pulverized cinnabar, mixed with castor oil and silk strands. The silk strands bind the mixture together to form a very thick substance. It has a very oily appearance and tends to be a bright red in
color.
- Plant: The red paste is made from finely pulverized cinnabar, mixed with castor oil and moxa punk. Because the base is a plant one that has been
pulverized, the texture is very loose due to the fact that it doesn't bind. The appearance is sponge like and not oily and tends to be a darker shade of red.
Plant based paste tends to dry more quickly than silk based pastes because the plant extract does not hold onto the oil as tightly as silk. Depending on the paper used, plant pastes can dry in 10 to 15 minutes. The more absorbent the paper is, the faster it dries as the paper absorbs most of the oil. Also, plant pastes tend to smudge more easily than silk pastes due to the loose binding agent.
The paste is kept covered after it has been used, in its original container (be it plastic or ceramic). It is kept in an environment away from direct sunlight and away from intense heat to prevent it from drying out.
When the seal is pressed onto the printing surface, the procedure differs according to plant or silk based paste. For silk based paste, the user applies pressure and rocks it about slightly. For plant based paste, the user simply applies light pressure. As lifting the seal vertically away from its imprint may rip or damage paper, the seal is usually lifted off one side at a time, as if bent off from the page. After this, the image may be blotted with a piece of paper to make it dry faster, although this may smudge it.
Chinese usage
Most people in China possess a personal name seal. Artists, scholars, collectors and intellectuals may possess a full set of name seals, leisure seals, and studio seals. A well-made seal made from semi-precious stones can cost between ¥400 - ¥4000.
Seals are still used for official purposes in a number of contexts. When collecting parcels or registered post, the name seal serves as an identification, akin to a signature. In banks, traditionally the method of identification was also by a seal. Today, personal identification is often by a hand signature accompanied by a seal imprint. Seals can serve as identification with signatures because they are difficult to forge (when compared to forging a signature) and only the owner has access to his own seal.
Seals are also often used on Chinese calligraphy works and Chinese paintings, usually imprinted in such works in the order (from top to bottom) of name seal, leisure seal(s), then studio seal. Owners or collectors of paintings or books will often add their own studio seals to pieces they have collected. This practice is an act of appreciation towards the work. Some artworks have had not only seals but inscriptions of the owner on them; for example, the Qianlong emperor had as many as 20 different seals for use with inscriptions on paintings he collected. Provided that it is tastefully done (for example, not obscuring the body of the painting), this practice does not devalue the painting.
Seals are usually carved out by specialist seal carvers, or by the users themselves. Specialist carvers will carve the user's name into the stone in one of the standard scripts and styles described above, usually for a fee. On the other hand, some people take to carving their own seals using soapstone and fine knives, which are widely available and is cheaper than paying a professional for expertise, craft, and material. Results vary, but it is possible for individuals to carve perfectly legitimate seals for themselves.
As a novelty souvenir, seal carvers also ply tourist business at Chinatowns and tourist destinations in China. They often carve on-the-spot or translations of foreign names on inexpensive soapstone, sometimes featuring Roman characters. Though such seals can be functional, they are typically nothing more than curios.
Determining which side of the seal should face up may be done in a number of ways: if there is a carving on top, the front should face the user; if there is an inscription on the side, it should face to the left of the user; if there is a dot on the side, it should face away from the user.
Once seals are used, as much paste as possible is wiped from the printing surface and the edges off with a suitable material. The seals are kept in a constant environment, especially seals made of sandalwood or black ox horn. Tall thin seals are best kept on their sides, in case it should wobble and fall down. More important seals, such as authority and society seals are encased or wrapped in a silk cloth to add more protection.
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