Large seal script (original) (raw)

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Chinese character forms c. 1050–400 BCE

Large seal script
Script type Logographic
Period Eastern Zhou
Languages Old Chinese
Related scripts
Parent systems (Proto-writing)Oracle bone scriptBronze scriptLarge seal script
Child systems Small seal script
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Large seal script
Chinese name
Chinese 大篆
TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyindàzhuànBopomofoㄉㄚˋ ㄓㄨㄢˋWade–Gilesta4-chuan4Tongyong Pinyindà-jhuànIPA[tâ.ʈʂwân]
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet Đại triện
Chữ Hán 大篆
Chinese characters
Chinese characters
Chinese family of scripts Written Chinese Kanji Hanja Chữ Hán
Neolithic symbols in China Oracle bone Bronze Seal Large Small Bird-worm Clerical Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Flat brush Modern typefaces Fangsong Ming Hei
Components Strokes order Radicals Orthography jiu zixing xin zixing Digital encoding
Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716) Commonly Used Characters (PRC, 2013) Commonly-Used Characters (Hong Kong, 2007) Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009) Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982) Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010)
Simplified characters second round Traditional characters debate Japanese script reform kyūjitai
Literary and colloquial readings Kanbun Idu
Zetian characters
Kana man'yōgana hiragana katakana Jurchen script Khitanlarge small Nüshu Bopomofo Slavonic transcription
Transliteration of Chinese
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The term large seal script traditionally refers to written Chinese dating from before the Qin dynasty—now used either narrowly to the writing of the Western and early Eastern Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 – 403 BCE), or more broadly to also include the oracle bone script (c. 1250 – c. 1000 BCE). The term deliberately contrasts the small seal script, the official script standardized throughout China during the Qin dynasty, often called merely 'seal script'. Due to the term's lack of precision, scholars often prefer more specific references regarding the provenance of whichever written samples are being discussed.

During the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), when clerical script became the popular form of writing, the small seal script was relegated to limited, formal usage, such as on signet seals and for the titles of stelae (inscribed stone memorial tablets which were popular at the time), and as such the earlier Qin dynasty script began to be referred to as 'seal script'. At that time, there remained knowledge of even older, often more complex glyphs dating to the middle-to-late Zhou dynasty, directly ancestral to the Qin forms—which resembled the Qin forms in their rounded style, as opposed to the rectilinear clerical script style prominent during the Han.[1] As a result, the 'large' and 'small' terms emerged to refer to the respective scripts. The Han-era Shuowen Jiezi dictionary (c. 100 CE) credits sometimes traditionally identified with a group of characters from the Shizhoupian (c. 800 BCE), preserved by their inclusion within the Shuowen Jiezi. Xu Shen, the latter text's author, included the variants differing from the structures of small seal script, and labelled the examples as zhòuwén (籀文), referring to the name of the original book, not the name of the dynasty or of a script

  1. ^ "中國古代簡帛字形、辭例數據庫". Archived from the original on 2014-12-18. Retrieved 2014-12-18.