Nine-fold seal script

Nine-fold seal script
Script type	Logographic
Period	Song dynasty/Liao dynasty
Languages	Middle Chinese, Khitan
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Bronze script Small seal script Nine-fold seal script

Nine-fold seal script (simplified Chinese: 九叠篆; traditional Chinese: 九疊篆; pinyin: jiǔ dié zhuàn) or nine-fold script (simplified Chinese: 九叠文; traditional Chinese: 九疊文; pinyin: jiǔ dié wén) is a highly stylised form of Chinese calligraphy derived from small seal script, using rectilinear, highly recurve, convoluted strokes resembling a space-filling curve. It was used for Chinese characters on official seals by the Song dynasty, and for both Chinese characters and Khitan Large characters by the contemporaneous Liao dynasty.

History

Nine-fold seal script come to prominence during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The contemporaneous Khitan Liao dynasty adopted it for both Chinese-language and Khitan-language seals. The Western Xia dynasty also developed a seal-script form of the Tangut script inspired by the nine-fold seal script.

Third from top: the seal script style of Phags-pa, influenced by Chinese nine-fold seal script

The influence of nine-fold seal script continued during the subsequent Mongol-led Yuan and Manchu-led Qing dynasties, which adopted seal-script forms of Phags-pa and Manchu script influenced by nine-fold seal script.

Form

Strokes are conformed to the horizontal and vertical directions. As the name suggests, the strokes of a character are "folded" or "stacked" back on themselves. Depending on the complexity of the character and space constraints of the seal face, however, the number of "fold" rows did not always equal nine, but varied between six and ten.