The Han Dynasty seal referred to the seals used from the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Han Dynasty seals had certain characteristics in shape, text and material. In terms of shape, the Han Dynasty seals were mostly square or rectangular, with a balanced layout and neat text structure, dignified and vigorous, rich and elegant. In terms of text, the Han Dynasty seal's text was simpler, brighter, and more enthusiastic than Qin Zhuan, and its structure was similar to modern regular script. In terms of material, Han Dynasty seals were mostly cast in white, with thick and even lines, clear and full seals. In the Han Dynasty, official seals and private seals were different in their usage and production. Official seals were mostly written in white and were used for official business, while private seals were used for personal use and had more varied forms. The Han Dynasty seal occupied an important position in the history of Chinese seals, becoming a model for later generations to learn the art of seal carving.
The seal of the Han Dynasty mainly used white characters, that is, yin characters. The seal was carved into a concave shape, and the seal was white on a red ground. There were also some chiseled seals in the Han Dynasty, most of which were worn by generals, and most of which were white seals. The seal script was written in Miao Zhuan, a seal script with the intention of official script. The seal of the Han Dynasty was clear and full, with thick and even lines. The overall style was dignified and magnolias bark, well-proportioned and square, exquisite in design, and calm in bearing. The artistic style of the Han Dynasty seal was simple and unadorned. It looked clumsy on the outside but was ingenious on the inside. It was dignified, natural, and elegant.
Han Dynasty seals mainly used three kinds of characters, namely Miao Zhuan, Bird Insect Script, and Official Script. Amongst them, Miao Zhuan was the main font, occupying the vast majority of seals. Miao Zhuan was one of the six characters set by Wang Mang of the Han Dynasty. It was developed from the imitation seal script of the Qin Dynasty. The font was curved and dense, taking the meaning of correcting mistakes, which was similar to official script. Bird and insect calligraphy was only used for a few seals. Its font was curved, and the strokes were decorative art characters in the shape of fish. Official script could only be found in stone seals used for funerary purposes. Compared to Miao Zhuan, official script was closer to the writing style of modern regular script. The characters of the Han Dynasty seal were dignified, well-proportioned, square, exquisite, calm, and without any pretentious feeling. The Han Dynasty's seal art was outstanding and was regarded as a model by later generations of seal carvers.
The seals of the Han Dynasty were square, rectangular, and round. Among them, the official seals of the Han Dynasty were mostly square, with a balanced layout and clear side columns. The Han Dynasty private seals were more varied, with one-sided seals, two-sided seals, multi-sided seals, mother and son overprints, giant seals, and so on. In addition, there were some special forms of seals in the Han Dynasty, such as the seal of the commander of the chariot. The seal was square, the button was a crawling turtle button, the back of the turtle was raised, and there was a hole under the abdomen to wear the seal ribbon. In general, the Han Dynasty seals had various forms and displayed a rich artistic style.
The search results of the Han Dynasty Seal Picture Encyclopedia contained a large number of photos and atlases of Han Dynasty seals. These pictures show the variety and unique charm of the Han Dynasty seals. The Han Dynasty seals were square, rectangular, circular, ladder-shaped, and cam-shaped. Amongst them, jade seals were the most common type. Because of the jade's fine texture and high light transmission, it was very suitable for carving patterns. The patterns of the Han Dynasty's seals were rich and varied, with a wide range of subjects, showing the pursuit of beauty and artistic breakthroughs of ancient literati. However, the specific content of the Han Dynasty seal picture encyclopedia needed to be further checked in the relevant atlases or websites.
The Han Dynasty used official script.
There were two ways to Optical Character Recognition the characters on the Han Dynasty seals. The first was a two-stage method, which was text detection + Optical Character Recognition. First, the text detection model was used to detect the text inside the seal. The model needed to be able to detect irregular text lines. Then, the Optical Character Recognition model was used to identify the text content of the text line. For the recognition of the characters in the seal, the text correction method needed to be used to straighten the curved text for recognition. One could even choose to detect each single character in the seal, and then recognize the characters one by one, and then connect the single character recognition results according to a certain reading order rule to obtain the seal Optical Character Recognition result. The second method was a one-stage method, which was end-to-end Optical Character Recognition. The method directly predicted the text content of the input image from the image containing text, reducing the intermediate processing process. These two methods had their own advantages and disadvantages. The choice of which method to use depended on the specific needs and application scenarios.
There were four main types of Han seal scripts: Xiaozhuan, Miaozhuan, Bird Insect Script, and Official Script. Among them, the small seal script was influenced by the official script, and the calligraphy style was simply square; the Miao seal script was a unique seal script art character of the Han Dynasty. The strokes were curved and extended, and the strokes were curved and flowing; the bird insect script was a type of font in the Han jade seal, and the strokes were decorative art characters in the shape of fish; the official script was currently only found in the stone seal used for burial. The Han seal's handwriting was neat, straight and square, simple and unadorned, clumsy on the outside but clever on the inside, solemn and solemn, round in the square, neat and beautiful. The Chinese characters had a huge impact on the art of seal carving, and were valued by seal carvers.
There were two main characteristics of the Song Dynasty seal. First of all, the size of the official seal of the Song Dynasty gradually increased. The side of the seal was about 45 mm to 55 mm, and the outer frame of the seal was also getting wider and wider. Secondly, the official seals of the Song Dynasty mostly used the "Nine Stacks Seal Script". This method of deliberately folding the strokes of the seal had an impact on the seals of later generations. In addition, the literati of the Song Dynasty also began to display their elegance and literary cultivation on the seal. Various nicknames, idioms, and cultural symbols often appeared on the seal. In general, the seals of the Song Dynasty had various and rich characteristics in terms of shape, content, use, and artistic form.
In the Song Dynasty, the development of seals had a new feature, from the simple creation of craftsmen to the participation of many literati. This was due to the development of epigraphy and philology at that time, as well as the rise of calligraphy and painting seals and the popularity of literati collecting calligraphy and painting. There were many types of seals in the Song Dynasty, and the most important one was the idle seal. In addition, there were jade seals, palace seals, and official seals. The date and unit of production of the chiseled seal on the back of the Song Dynasty official seal could be used as a symbol to identify the Song Dynasty official seal. During the Song Dynasty, there were political powers established by ethnic minorities, and their official seal systems were influenced by the official seal system of the Song Dynasty to varying degrees. Of course, they also had their own characteristics. The Nine-Fold Seal Script was a special type of seal script that was popular in the Song Dynasty. In general, the seals of the Song Dynasty were diverse and rich in shape, content, use, and artistic form.
The characteristic of the Shang Dynasty seal was that both the emblem and the characters were used together. The seal characters were so ancient that some could no longer be recognized. The seal of the Shang Dynasty required perfect characters, skilled engraving skills, and superb smelting and casting techniques. The bronze ware manufacturing technology of the Shang Dynasty had reached its peak. The bronze ware of the Shang Dynasty was world-famous, with exquisite technology and complicated craftsmanship. The seal of the Shang Dynasty had a unique surface structure, which had a rich sense of character modeling. The seals of the Shang Dynasty were varied in shape and function, including appointing officials, trading, sealing, carrying, engraving, branding, and burial. The discovery of the Shang Dynasty seal proved the existence and use of the Shang Dynasty seal. The Shang Dynasty seal had become mature and widely used.