Bird-worm seal script

Bird-worm seal script (Simplified Chinese: 鸟虫篆; Traditional Chinese: 鳥蟲篆; Pinyin: Niǎo Chóng Zhuàn ), is a type of ancient seal script originated from China.

Contents

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", respectively.

The other names of this kind of seal script include:

It has two subcategories (sub-styles), including:

Introduction and history

Seal script evolved from Oracle Bone Script, and diverged into different forms in the Spring an Automn Period after the power of the Zhou dynasty waned and China began to divide into different states.

This kind of seal script 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. Each state in China during the WArring States Period had its own variety of script.

This kinds of seal script declined after Qin Dynasty, most likely due to the unification of writing scripts by Qin Shi Huang (unified into the small seal script), after he unified all of China, although they could be also seen during the Han Dynasty,[2] and as late as the Tang Dynasty (on some Tang Dynasty stone tablets).

Usage

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 swords, to indicate ownership or date of manufacture. The characters engraved on the famous Sword of Goujian provide a fine example. A few examples of the bird seal script can be seen in or on containers and jades of that period. The bird seal script was also used occasionally in Han Dynasty seals.[3]

The worm seal script is more common, and probably first originated from Wu Kingdom (now roughly Jiangsu Province) or Chu Kingdom (now roughly Hunan Province and Hubei Province). Examples can be seen on antique 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 good example of this category of seal script.

References

Books:

Internet references:

  1. ^ Yutang Lin (1967). Yutang Lin. ed. The Chinese theory of art: translations from the masters of Chinese art. Putnam Sons. p. 44. http://books.google.com/books?ei=D7uUToK6K-Tg0QHzy_nWBw&ct=result&id=n_PpAAAAMAAJ&dq=Actually+like+birds+and+worms.+Another+related+form+not+mentioned+here+is+the+%27tadpole+script%27%2C+the+strokes+being+like+tadpoles&q=birds+worms+script. Retrieved 11th of October, 2011. (the University of Michigan)
  2. ^ Qi Huang (2004). Gong Qi, Jerry Norman, Qi Huang, Helen Wang. ed. Chinese characters then and now. Volume 1 of Ginkgo series (illustrated ed.). Springer. p. 34. ISBN 3211227954. http://books.google.com/books?id=YdTAugdUQDQC&pg=PA34&dq=birds+worms+script&hl=en&ei=ybiUTpCTN6bD0AHLt4TLBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=birds%20worms%20script&f=false. Retrieved 11th of October, 2011. 
  3. ^ The Baidu.com Chinese Encyclopedia: the bird seal script
  4. ^ Hudong.com Chinese Encyclopedia: The seal of bird-worm script
  5. ^ Book information: General Study of Bird-Worm Seal Script, by CAO Jinyan; Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Press; June 1999
  6. ^ The Great Collection of Bird-Worm Seal Script, by Xu Gupu; Shanghai Bookstore Press.

See also