Seal script

Uncommon card · No. 115335

Seal script or sigillary script (traditional Chinese: 篆書; simplified Chinese: 篆书; pinyin: Zhuànshū; lit. 'decorative engraving script') is a style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of bronze script during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). The variant of seal script used in the state of Qin eventually became comparatively standardized, and was adopted as the formal script across all of China during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). It was still widely used for decorative engraving and seals during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). The literal translation given above was coined during the Han dynasty, and reflects the role of the script being reduced to ceremonial inscriptions.

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