| Description |
In China, the art of seal engraving is recognized as one of the finest examples of traditional arts and crafts and is of immeasurable cultural value with a history of over 3,000 years. In ancient China, seals served as the personal signature of their owners, and, more significantly, also served as a symbol of legitimacy for a ruler or an entire government.
Seal engraving represents the harmonious combination of calligraphic aesthetics with the precise skills of engraving and meticulous attention to detail. The seal must use what is often a very limited space in order to convey the unique character traits of its purpose or the personality of its owner. For thousands of years, it has had both a purely functional use as well as attaining the highest levels of artistic and cultural aesthetics. Seal engravers preserve artistic traditions while also reaching out in new directions and revealing fascinatingly different styles: exaggerating the thinness or thickness of a character, elaborately curving or angling a stroke, or even deliberately re-forming traditional ideograms for artistic effect. Indeed, the work of master seal engravers is no less important than the work of well-known painters or calligraphers in Chinese history.
The engraving process is unique. The tools used for seal engraving include the knife, seal holder, seal ink, writing brush, and xuan paper. A design is made on paper—when engraved, the characters have to be written on stone surface opposite to what they will look like. After the engraving is completed, press the seal in the seal ink to make an impression on xuan paper. Additional text is often engraved on the side of the seals, from which rubbings can be made.
Seal engraving has the following unique characteristics:
1.The artists use engraved characters to show the aesthetics of traditional Chinese culture through the harmony of positive and negative and the balance of abstract and concrete forms.
2.The artists use seals to express their accumulated ideas, artistic sensibilities, and engraving skills in a very small space.
3.The creation of seals is an integration of man and nature through the engraving process.
4.Seals display the quality of the stone and the style of the calligraphy.
The art of seal engraving embodies important cultural and social functions. It is the expression of the artists’ own imagination, as well as a way of personal cultivation and the blending of art, literature, aesthetics, and language. Seals also serve as a means of communication and have been used by scholars and art collectors as a means of personal identification, a claim of ownership, or for social interaction. The art of seal engraving also reached other parts of East and Southeast Asia as part of the exchanges of culture and art among different nations. Today the art form enjoys worldwide appeal among historians, art lovers, and collectors. |
| Social and cultural significance |
As an instrument of calligraphy and painting, the seal is a work of art in itself. It expresses an entire culture’s ideas about humankind and nature. Today, seals continue to be used in official documents and private correspondence. Even though those understanding the complex characters are ever fewer, the art of seal engraving is still practised by both professionals and amateurs. |
| Transmission method |
Early seals were mostly cast of or engraved on metal, but after the 13th century, Shoushan stone (pyrophyllite), which came from the northern outskirts of Shoushan County, Fujian Province, grew in popularity. This change promoted major advances in the art of seal engraving. New innovations were made on the basis of previous techniques, and various schools and styles like the Anhui school and Zhejiang school appeared after the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, with engraving masters like Ding Jing (1695-1765), Deng Shiru (1743-1805), Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), Qi Baishi (1864-1957), and Han Tianheng (1940-). Since the 19th century, seal engravers started to form societies to express their appreciation for this traditional art. In 1904, a seal engraver named Wang Fuan (1880-1960) and others founded the Xiling Seal Engravers Society, the first seal engravers’ association in China. Today, there are more than 300 such societies and associations across the country, such as the Jinghua, Canghai and Zhongnan societies, with a total number of more than 10,000 members. In 1980, the Chinese Calligraphers Association set up a special committee of seal engraving with branches in different provinces. In 2006, the Chinese Academy of Seal Engraving was founded, and began to enroll postgraduate students in seal engraving.
Seal engraving enjoys a popular fan base in China today, and practitioners include both amateurs and professionals who hone their artistic and technical skills. Many of these practitioners are also masters of seal engraving in their own right, and have become torch bearers of this traditional art in the 21st century. |
| Community |
In Zhejiang Province, the 100-year-old Xiling Seal-Engraver’s Society, referred to by some in the trade as the “No. One Society Under Heaven,” is the best known organization specializing in the research of seal engraving in China. The tradition is best represented and embodied by Liu Jiang, born in 1926; Han Tianheng, born in 1940; and Luo Pengpeng, born in 1958. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2009 |
