seal script

An archaic style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC.

The term seal script may refer to several distinct varieties, including large seal script and small seal script. Without qualification, "seal script" usually refers to small seal script. It originated during the Yin and Zhou dynasties in ancient China. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, he promoted the standardizing the writing system, and Li Si was appointed to organize and simplify the script into small seal script, which became the first officially unified writing standard in Chinese history.

Examples

Left: Regular script
Right: Seal script

See also

• Chinese text
• Archaic Japanese text
• seal impression
• Tag group:Text

External links

• Wikipedia: Seal script