Chinese Seals

Chinese seals, much like current-day signatures, were used to produce important unique and distinct marks in ancient Chinese times to prove the authenticity and identity of a document’s issuer. These marks were usually produced using red-colored ink, and by stamping a seal that was either carved out of wood, ivory, bamboo, jade, or metal.

There are three main types of marks that could be made by these seals. The first is produced where the characters themselves are carved into the material so that, when the seal is pressed to a surface, the characters will remain un-inked. The seal characters are therefore visible in the negative spaces; this is called “bai-wen." The opposite, where the positive space forms the characters, is called “zhu-wen." The third type of seal, where both techniques are employed, is called “zhubaiwen xiangjianyin."

Chinese seals were not only valued for the marks they made. Great value was also placed in the quality of the carving. To the Chinese literati, carving a seal was viewed as its own art form, equal to painting or drawing.

Quick Facts

• Historically, the most important seals, particularly those of the emperor, were made of jade. The Heirloom Seal of the Realm, a seal created by the First Emperor, was the most significant in that it represented the passing of the Mandate of Heaven to subsequent rulers
• The characters within these Chinese seals are typically carved in a highly stylized manner called “nine-fold script” that is illegible to an untrained individual
• By the Qing Dynasty, there were about 25 Imperial seals. These seals were likely collected in attempt to diminish the importance of the Heirloom Seal, as it had been lost by early Ming Dynasty