Chinese Seals

A Chinese seal is a stamp containing Chinese characters that is used to prove identity on documents, contracts, art, or similar items where authorship is considered important.

Chinese seals are typically made of stone, but sometimes they are made of wood. They are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste. The colloquial name for a seal is a chop. This term was adapted from a Malay word during the colonization of the Straits Settlements.

East Asia currently uses a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and increasingly, electronic signatures. In Japan and China, seals are still commonly used and are used instead of a signatures when doing business or other procedures. In certain cases only seals are acceptable.



Types of Seals

• Zhuwen (朱文, lit. "red characters") seals imprint the characters in red ink, sometimes referred to as yang seals.
  
  

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• Baiwen (白文, lit. "white characters") seals imprint the background in red, leaving white characters, sometimes referred to as yin seals.
  
  

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• Zhubaiwen Xiangjianyin (朱白文相間印, lit. "red-white characters combined seal") seals use zhuwen and baiwen together.
  
  

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Name Seals 名印 Denote the person's name.
These seals are almost always square.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Example	Use
姓名印	Xingming Yin	Personal Name Seal	李小狼 or 李小狼印	State the family and personal name of a person
表字印	Biaozi Yin	Style Name Seal	字矗昊 or 矗昊	State the style name of a person
臣妾印	Chenqie Yin	Subject Concubine Seal	臣美櫻	Used in imperial times by concubines or officials
書簡印	Shujian Yin	Simplified Word Seals	如佩信印	Used in letters, instead of writing well wishes by hand, the seal takes its place
總印	Zong Yin	General or Combined Seal	大英伯明皇龍正之章	States the personal name and the place name where he/she is from
迴文印	Huiwen Yin	Rotating Character Seal	徐永裕印	Same as the personal name seal, but characters are read in an anti-clockwise direction, rather than from the top-down, right-to-left. Sometimes used in writing (i.e. to sign a preface of a book, etc).

Free Seals 閑印are like online signatures, and can contain the person's personally philosophy or literary inclination.

These can be any shape, ranging from ovals to dragon-shaped.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Example	Use
肖形印	Xiaoxing Yin	Portrait Seal		Has images with no words to express the users character
吉語印	Jiyu Yin	Lucky Sayings Seal	日就富貴	Has lucky sayings and proverbs
黃神越章	Huangshen Yuezhang	Exceeding Seal of the Yellow God	黃神越章天帝神之印	Used in ancient times on letters as a protective charm on letters to ward off wild beasts and demons of the recipient. Now used mainly as a well-wishing convention on letters to people who travel abroad
封泥	Feng Ni	Sealing Stamp		Used to seal letters or packages, often after the sealing tag/strip has been stuck on the flap

Studio Seals 齋印 carry the name of the person's private studio 書齋, which most literati in ancient China had, although probably in lesser forms. These are more or less rectangular in shape.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Example	Use
齋館印	Zhaiguan Yin	Studio or Study Seal	雅目齋	States the name of the studio or body. This includes society and company seals
別號印	Biehao Yin	Alias Seal	白石道人	States aliases that the user uses. These include artistic names, painting names, pen-names, etc
收藏印	Shoucang Yin	Storage Seal	松雨彗齋圖書印	Used on books or paintings that are kept by the user. This includes appreciation seals used on paintings and books that the owner admires
詞句印	Ciju Yin	Poetry Seal	問松消息	Has poems or proverbs inscribed, used on paintings, etc. Size can range from big to small depending on how long the inscription is
花押印	Huaya Yin	Flower Signature Seal		A mark used in place of a signature. Often small, sometimes with images, the design can be varied in style

Seal Paste

There are two types of seal paste depending on what base material they are made of. One is silk based (mixed with cinnabar et al.) to form a very thick substance. The other is plant based to form a very loose substance.

Silk: The red paste is made from finely pulverized cinnabar, mixed with castor oil, and silk strands. The silk strands bind the mixture together to form a very thick substance. It has a very oily appearance and tends to be a bright red in color.

Plant: The red paste is made from finely pulverized cinnabar, mixed with caster oil, and moxa punk. Because the base is a plant one that has been pulverized, the texture is very loose due to the fact that it doesn't bind. The appearance is sponge like and not oily and tends to be a darker shade of red.

Usage—Most people in China possess a personal name seal. Artists, scholars, collectors and intellectuals may have a full set of several seals: name seals, leisure seals, and studio seals. A well-made seal made from semi-precious stones can cost between &Yen;400 - &Yen;4000.

Seals are still used for official purposes in a number of contexts. When collecting parcels or registered post, the name seal serves as an identification. Today, personal identification is often by a hand signature accompanied by a seal imprint. Seals can serve as as identification with signatures because they are difficult to forge and only the owner has access to his own seal.

Seals are also often used on Chinese calligraphy works and Chinese paintings, usually imprinted in such works in the order (from top to bottom) of name seal, leisure seal(s), then studio seal.

Seals are usually carved out by specialist seal carvers, or by the users themselves. Specialist carvers will carve the user's name into the stone in one of the standard scripts and styles. On the other hand, some people take to carving their own seals out of soapstone and fine knives, which are widely available and is cheaper than paying a professional for expertise, craft, and material. Results vary, but it is possible for individuals to carve perfectly legitimate seals for themselves.

Determining which side of the seal should face up may be done in a number of ways: if there is a carving on top, the front should face the user; if there is an inscription on the side, it should face to the left of the user; if there is a dot on the side, it should face away from the user.