Bird-worm seal script
Bird-worm seal script (Simplified Chinese: 鸟虫篆; Traditional Chinese: 鳥蟲篆; Pinyin: Niǎo Chóng Zhuàn ), is a kind of ancient seal script originated from China.
Names
The Chinese character "鸟" (or "鳥" in traditional Chinese, and "Niǎo" in Pinyin) means "bird"; The Chinese character "虫" (or "蟲" in traditional Chinese, and "Chóng" in Pinyin) means "insect" or "worm"; The character "篆" means "seal script", repectively.
The other names of this kind of seal script include:
- Niao-Chong Shu (Simplified Chinese: 鸟虫书; Traditional Chinese: 鳥蟲書; Pinyin: Niǎo Chóng Shū). The Chinese character "书" (or "書" in traditional Chinese, and "Shū" in Pinyin) here means "script".
It has two subcategories (sub-styles), including:
- Bird seal script (Simplified Chinese: 鸟篆; Traditional Chinese: 鳥篆; Pinyin: Niǎo Zhuàn. Or, Simplified Chinese: 鸟书; Traditional Chinese: 鳥書; Pinyin: Niǎo Shū), and
- In this style, the stroke has head and tail of bird's like. It's a combination of sela script and bird's shape.
- Worm seal script (Simplified Chinese: 虫篆; Traditional Chinese: 蟲篆; Pinyin: Niǎo Zhuàn. Or, Simplified Chinese: 虫书; Traditional Chinese: 蟲書; Pinyin: Niǎo Shū)
- In this style, the stroke is similar to a worm. It's a combination of seal script and worm's shape.
Introduction and history[1]
This kind of seal scripts first appeared in the mid era of the Spring and Autumn Period. It became popular during the late Spring and Autumn Period, and most popular during the Warring States Period. It was often seen in some southern kingdoms, like the Wu Kingdom (roughly today's Jiangsu Province), Yue Kingdom (roughly today's Zhejiang Province), Chu Kingdom (roughly today's Hunan and Hubei provinces), Cai Kingdom, Xu Kingdom, and Song Kingdom.
This kind of seal scripts declined after Qin Dynasty, most likely due to the unification of writing scripts by Qin Shi Huang (unified into the small seal script). But they could be also seen in Han Dynasty, and as late as Tang Dynasty (on some Tang Dynasty stone tablets).
Usage
King Goujian of Yue (Chinese: 越王勾踐) (reigned 496 BC - 465 BC) was the king of the Kingdom of Yue (present-day Shanghai, northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu) near the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, named Si Goujian (姒勾踐)[2]. Goujian was the son of Marquess Yunchang of Yue.
The bird seal script is quite often seen in bronze and iron antiques of Yue Kingdom (now roughly from Zhejiang Province). This script was often used in bronze and iron weapons, like on a sword, to indicate the ownership and/or manufacural date of the weapon. An very good example is the engraved characters in the famous Sword of Goujian. A few of cases of the bird seal script can also be seen in/on the containers and jades of that period. The bird seal script was also used in the seals of Han Dynasty, occasionally.[3]
The worm seal script is probably more often seen in the history, and probably first originated from Wu Kingdom (now roughly Jiangsu Province) or Chu Kingdom (now roughly Hunan Province and Hubei Province). They can be seen from antiques of bronze weapons, containers, jades, and seals[4], and even constructional or decorative parts like tile, etc. The characters on the famous Spear of Fuchai would be a very good example of this category of seal script.
References
Books:
- Shuowen Jiezi, by Xu Shen. (It mentioned the bird-worn seal script was one of the eight writing scripts in Qin Dynasty ("秦书八体"), so it was still used in Qin Dynasty.)
- 《鸟虫书通考》 (General Study of Bird-Worm Seal Script), by CAO Jinyan (曹锦炎); ISBN 9787805128498.[5]
- 《鸟虫篆大鉴》 (The Great Collection of Bird-Worm Seal Script), by Xu Gupu (徐谷甫); ISBN 7805693684; Shanghai Bookstore Press.[6]
Internet references:
- ^ The Baidu.com Chinese Encyclopedia: The Bird-Worm Seal Script
- ^ Bo Yang, Outlines of the History of the Chinese (中國人史綱), vol. 1, pp. 184-187.
- ^ The Baidu.com Chinese Encyclopedia: the bird seal script
- ^ Hudong.com Chinese Encyclopedia: The seal of bird-worm script
- ^ Book information: General Study of Bird-Worm Seal Script, by CAO Jinyan; Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Press; June 1999
- ^ The Great Collection of Bird-Worm Seal Script, by Xu Gupu; Shanghai Bookstore Press.