Seal (Chinese)

Chinese seals are typically made of stone, sometimes of wood, bamboo, plastic, or ivory, and are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste (Chinese: 朱砂; pinyin: zhūshā). The word 印 ("yìn" in Mandarin, "in" in Japanese) specifically refers to the imprint created by the seal, as well as appearing in combination with other ideographs in words related to any printing, as in the Japanese word "insatsu". The colloquial name chop, when referring to these kinds of seals, was adapted from the Malay word cap during the colonization of the Straits Settlements, and is still used to refer to rubber stamps.

East Asia currently uses a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and increasingly, electronic signatures. [1] But notably in China, Japan, and Korea, seals remain commonly used instead of signatures when doing business, banking, artwork, marriage or other procedures, and in certain cases, only seals are acceptable.

Types

A Zhuwen leisure seal; Read up-down-right-left; Ning Hai Bi Bo

Government authorities

Emperors of China, their families and officials used large seals known as Xǐ (璽), which corresponds to the Great Seals of Western countries. Xǐ were usually made of jade (although hard wood or precious metal could also be used), and were originally square in shape. They were changed to a rectangular form during the Song Dynasty, but reverted to square during the Qing Dynasty, and officially renamed bǎo (寶, "treasure"). The Forbidden City in Beijing currently has a collection of 25 bǎo from the Qing Dynasty.

Xu Yong Yu Yin 徐永裕印, rotating character seal of Xu Yongyu

These seals typically bore the titles of the offices, rather than the names of the owners. Different seals could be used for different purposes: for example, Emperor Qianlong had a number of appreciation seals [乾隆御覽之寶] used on select paintings in their collection.

The most important of these seals was the Heirloom Seal, which was created by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuang, and was seen as a legitimising device embodying or symbolising the Mandate of Heaven. The Heirloom Seal was passed down through several dynasties, but was lost by the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

The most popular style of script for government seals in the imperial ages of China (from Song to Qing) is the jiudie wen ("ninefold script"), a highly stylised font which is unreadable to the untrained.

The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has continued to use traditional square seals of about 13 centimetres each side, known by a variety of names depending on the user's hierarchy. Part of the inaugural ceremony for the President of the Republic of China includes bestowing on him the Seal of the Republic of China and the Seal of Honor.

The seal of state of the People's Republic of China [2] is a square, bronze seal with side lengths of 9 centimetres. The inscription reads "Seal of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China". Notably, the seal uses the relatively modern Song typeface rather than the more ancient seal scripts, and the seal is called a yin (印), not a xi (玺), in a nod to modernity. Ordinary government seals in the People's Republic of China today are usually circular in shape, and have a five-pointed star in the centre of the circle. The name of the governmental institution is arranged around the star in a semi-circle.

Personal

Name 名印

Free 閑印

Are the equivalent of today's online signatures, and can contain the person's personal philosophy or literary inclination. These can be any shape, ranging from ovals to dragon-shaped.

Studio 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.

Seal paste

Chinese seal and red seal paste

There are two types of seal paste depending on what base material they are made of.

Plant-based paste tends to dry more quickly than silk-based pastes because the plant extract does not hold onto the oil as tightly as silk. Depending on the paper used, plant pastes can dry in 10 to 15 minutes. The more absorbent the paper is, the faster it dries as the paper absorbs most of the oil. Also, plant pastes tend to smudge more easily than silk pastes due to the loose binding agent.

The paste is kept covered after it has been used, in its original container (be it plastic or ceramic). It is kept in an environment away from direct sunlight and away from intense heat to prevent it from drying out.

When the seal is pressed onto the printing surface, the procedure differs according to plant or silk based paste. For silk based paste, the user applies pressure, often with a specially made soft, flat surface beneath the paper, and rocks it forward and back, left and right slightly. For plant based paste, the user simply applies light pressure. As lifting the seal vertically away from its imprint may rip or damage paper, the seal is usually lifted off one side at a time, as if bent off from the page. After this, the image may be blotted with a piece of paper to make it dry faster, although this may smudge it.

Chinese usage

Most people in China possess a personal name seal. Artists, scholars, collectors and intellectuals may possess a full set of name seals, leisure seals, and studio seals. A well-made seal made from semi-precious stones can cost between ¥400 and ¥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, akin to a signature. In banks, traditionally the method of identification was also by a seal. Seals remain the customary form of identification on cheques in Mainland China and Taiwan but not in Hong Kong where signatures are required. Today, personal identification is often by a hand signature accompanied by a seal imprint. Seals can serve as identification with signatures because they are difficult to forge (when compared to forging a signature) 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. Owners or collectors of paintings or books will often add their own studio seals to pieces they have collected. This practice is an act of appreciation towards the work. Some artworks have had not only seals but inscriptions of the owner on them; for example, the Qianlong emperor had as many as 20 different seals for use with inscriptions on paintings he collected. Provided that it is tastefully done (for example, not obscuring the body of the painting, appropriate inscription, fine calligraphy, etc), this practice does not devalue the painting.

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 described above, usually for a fee. On the other hand, some people take to carving their own seals using 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.

As a novelty souvenir, seal carvers also ply tourist business at Chinatowns and tourist destinations in China. They often carve on-the-spot or translations of foreign names on inexpensive soapstone, sometimes featuring Roman characters. Though such seals can be functional, they are typically nothing more than curios and maybe inappropriate for serious use.

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.

Once seals are used, as much paste as possible is wiped from the printing surface and the edges off with a suitable material. The seals are kept in a constant environment, especially seals made of sandalwood or black ox horn. Tall thin seals are best kept on their sides, in case it should wobble and fall down. More important seals, such as authority and society seals are encased or wrapped in a golden silk cloth to add more protection.

Japanese usage

Hanko off-the-shelf

Inkan with the name "Kawamura" (河村).

In Japan, seals in general are referred to as inkan (印鑑^?) or hanko (判子^?). Inkan is the most comprehensive term; hanko tends to refer to seals used in less imporant documents.

Government offices and corporations usually have inkan specific to their bureau or company, and which follow the general rules outlined for jitsu in with the following exceptions. In size, they are comparatively enormous, measuring two to four inches across. Their handles are often extremely ornately carved with friezes of mythical beasts or hand-carved haku bun inscriptions that might be quotes from literature, names and dates, or original poetry. Some have been carved with square tunnels from handle to underside, so that a specific person can slide his own inkan into the hollow, thus signing a document with both his own name and his business's (or bureau's) name. These seals are usually stored in jitsu in-style boxes under high security except at official ceremonies, at which they are displayed on extremely ornate stands or in their boxes.

For personal use, there are at least four kinds of seals. In order from most formal/official to least, they are: 'Jitsu in', 'Ginko in', 'Mitome in', and 'Gago in'.

A 'jitsu in' (実印^?) is an officially registered seal. A registered seal is needed to conduct business and other important or legally binding events. A jitsu in is used when purchasing a vehicle, marrying, purchasing land, and so on.

The size, shape, material, decoration, and lettering style of jitsu in are closely regulated by law. For example, in Hiroshima, a jitsu in is expected to be roughly 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide, usually square or (rarely) rectangular but never round, irregular, or oval, and must contain the individual's full family and given name, without abbreviation. The lettering must be red with a white background (shu bun), with roughly equal width lines used throughout the name. The font must be one of several based on ancient historical lettering styles found in metal, woodcarving, and so on; ancient forms of ideographs are commonplace. A red perimeter must entirely encircle the name, and there should be no other decoration on the underside (working surface) of the seal, though the top and sides (handle) of the seal may be decorated in any fashion from completely undecorated to historical animal motifs to dates, names, and inscriptions.

Throughout Japan, rules governing jitsu in design are so stringent and each design so unique that the vast majority of people entrust the creation of their jitsu in to a professional, paying upward of US$20 and more often closer to US$100, and will use it for decades. People desirous of opening a new chapter in their lives-- say, following a divorce, death of a spouse, a long streak of bad luck, or a change in career-- will often have a new jitsu in made.

The material is usually a high quality hard stone, and far less frequently deerhorn, soapstone, or jade. It's sometimes carved by machine. When it's carved by hand, an in tou ("seal blade"), a mirror, and a small specialized wooden vice are used. An in tou is a flat-bladed pencil-sized chisel, usually round or octagonal in cross-section and sometimes wrapped in string to give the handle a non-slip surface. The in tou is held vertically in one hand, with the point projecting from one's fist on the side opposite one's thumb. New, modern in tou range in price from less than US$1 to US$100.

The jitsu in is always kept in a very secure place such as a bank vault or hidden carefully in one's home. They're usually stored in thumb-sized rectangular boxes made of cardboard covered with heavily embroidered green fabric outside and red silk or red velvet inside, held closed by a white plastic or deerhorn splinter tied to the lid and passed through a fabric loop attached to the lower half of the box. Because of the superficial resemblance to coffins, they're often called "coffins" in Japanese by enthusiasts and hanko boutiques. The paste is usually stored separately.

A 'ginko in' is used specifically for banking; ginko means "bank". A person's savings account passbook contains an original impression of the ginko in alongside a bank employee's seal. Rules for the size and design vary somewhat from bank to bank; generally, they contain a Japanese person's full name; a Westerner may be permitted to use a full family name with or without an abbreviated given name, such as "Smith", "Bill Smith", "W Smith" or "Wm Smith" in place of "William Smith". The lettering can be red or white, in any font, and with artistic decoration.

A foreigner's ginko in displayed in a typical Japanese savings account passbook. Note the boundary showing maximum size (1.0 x 1.5 cm) and extreme design freedom in font and decoration.

Most people have them custom-made by professionals or make their own by hand, since mass-produced ginko in would offer zero security. They are usually stone and carried about in a variety of thumb-shaped and -sized cases resembling cloth purses or plastic pencil cases. They are usually hidden carefully in the owner's home.

Banks always provide stamp pads or ink paste, in addition to dry cleansing tissues. The banks also provide small plastic scrubbing surfaces similar to small patches of red artificial grass. These are attached to counters and used to scrub the accumulated ink paste from the working surface of customers' seals.

A 'mitome-in' (認印^?) is a moderately formal seal typically used for signing for postal deliveries, signing utility bill payments, signing internal company memos, confirming receipt of internal company mail, and other low-security everyday functions.

Mitome in are commonly stored in low-security, high-utility places such as office desk drawers and in the anteroom (genkan) of a residence.

A mitome in's form is governed by far fewer customs than jitsu in and ginko in. However, mitome in adhere to a handful of strongly observed customs. The size is the attribute most strongly governed by social custom. It is usually the size of an American penny or smaller. A male's is usually slightly larger than a female's, and a junior employee's is always smaller than his bosses' and his senior co-workers', in keeping with Japan's strong sexism and office senpai social heirarchy. To violate this custom would be roughly equivalent to a Western company's junior employees parking in a senior employee's reserved parking spot. The mitome in always has the person's family name, and usually does not have the person's given name (shita no namae). It is often round or oval, but square ones are not uncommon, and rectangular ones are not unheard-of. They are always regular geometric figures. They can have red lettering on a blank field (shu bun) or the opposite (haku bun). Borderlines 'round their edges are optional.

Plastic ones in popular Japanese names can be obtained from stationery stores for less than US$1, though mitome in made from inexpensive stone are also very popular. Prefabricated rubber stamps are unacceptable for business purposes.

Mitome in and lesser seals are usually stored in inexpensive plastic cases, sometimes with small supplies of red paste or a stamp pad included.

Most Japanese also have a far less formal seal used to sign personal letters or initial changes in documents; this is referred to by the also broadly generic term hanko. They often display only a single hiragana, kanji ideograph, or katakana character carved in it, They are as often round or oval as they are square. They vary in size from 0.5 to 1.5 cm wide; women's tend to be small.

'Gago in' are used by graphic artists to both decorate and sign their work. The practice goes back several hundred years. The signatures are frequently pen names or nicknames; the decorations are usually favorite slogans or other extremely short phrases. A gago in can be any size, design, or shape. Irregular naturally occuring outlines and handles, as though a river stone where cut in two, are commonplace. The material may be anything, though in modern times soft stone is the most common and metal is rare.

A modern gago in spelling out "Mitsuko", a popular woman's given name in Japan. Note the uniform line widths and extremely archaic forms of the ideographs for "fire/light/bright" (Mitsu) and "child" (Ko), read right-to-left.

Traditionally, inkan and hanko are engraved on the end of a finger-length stick of stone, wood, bone, or ivory, with a diameter between 25 and 75 millimetres (1 and 3 in). Their carving is a form of calligraphic art. Foreign names may be carved in rōmaji, katakana, hiragana, or kanji. Inkan for standard Japanese names may be purchased prefabricated.

Almost every stationery store, five-and-dime store, large book store, and department store carries small do-it-yourself kits for making hanko. These include instructions, hiragana fonts written forward and in mirror-writing (as they'd appear on the working surface of a seal), a slim in tou chisel, two or three grades of sandpaper, slim marker pen (to draw the design on the stone), and one to three mottled, inexpensive, soft square green finger-size stones.

A certificate of authenticity is required for any hanko used in a significant business transaction. Registration and certification of an inkan may be obtained in a local municipal office (e.g. city hall). There, a person receives a "certificate of seal impression" know as inkan tōroku shōmei-sho (印鑑登録証明書^?).

The first evidence of writing in Japan is a hanko dating from AD 57, made of solid gold and belonging to the Emperor. At first, only the Emperor and his most trusted vassals held hanko, as they were a symbol of the Emperor's authority. Noble people began using their own personal hanko after 750, and samurai began using them sometime in the Middle Ages. Samurai were permitted exclusive use of red ink. After modernization began in 1870, hanko finally came into general use throughout Japanese society.

The increasing ease with which modern technology allows hanko fraud is beginning to cause some concern that the present system will not be able to survive.

Korean usage

The seal was first introduced to Korea in approximately 2nd century BCE. The remaining oldest record of its usage in Korea is that Kings of Buyeo used royal seal (oksae: 옥새, 玉璽) which had inscription of Seal of the King of Ye (濊王之印, 예왕지인). The use of seals became popular in Three Kingdoms period.

In case of State Seals in monarchic Korea, there were two types of it in use: Gugin (국인, 國印) which was conferred by the Emperor of China to Korean kings, in sense of keeping relations between two countries as brothers(Sadae-jui). This was used only in communications with China and coronation of kings. Others, generally called eobo (어보, 御寶) or eosae (어새, 御璽), are used in foreign communications with countries other than China, and domestic uses. With declaration of establishment of Republic of Korea in 1948, its government created a new State Seal, guksae (국새, 國璽) and it is used in promulgation of constitution, designation of cabinet members and ambassadors, conference of national orders and important diplomatic documents. [3]

Seals were also used by government officials in documents. These types of seals were called gwanin (관인, 官印) and it was supervised by specialist officials.

In traditional arts, like China and Japan, an artist of Chinese calligraphy and paintings would use their seals (generally leisure seals and studio seals) to identify his/her work. These types of seals were called Nakkwan (낙관, 落款). As seal-carving itself was considered a form of art, many artists carved their own seals. Seals of Joseon-period calligraphist and natural historian Kim Jung-hee (aka Wandang or Chusa) are considered as antiquity.

In modern Korea, the use of seals is still common. Most Koreans have personal seals, every government agency and commercial corporation has its own seals to use in public documents. While signing is also accepted, many Koreans think it is more formal to use seals in public documents.

Personal seals (dojang in general reference) in Korea can be classified by their legal status. It is very similar to that of Japan: ingam (인감, 印鑑) or sirin (실인, 實印), meaning registered seal, is the seal which is registered to local office. By registering the seal, a person can issue a "certificate of seal registration" (ingam-jungmyeong-seo (인감증명서, 印鑑證明書) in Korean) which is required documents for most of significant business transactions and civil services. While ingam is used in important business, other dojangs are used in everyday purpose such as less-significant official transactions. Thus most Koreans have more than two seals.

Korean seals are made of wood, jade, or sometimes ivory for more value. State Seals were generally made of gold or high-quality jade. Rare cases of bronze or steel seals are remaining.

Other usage

Seal of Ilkhan Ghazan, over the last two lines of his 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII. It reads "王府定國理民之寶" in Chinese script, meaning "Seal certifying the authority of his Royal Highness to establish a country and govern its people".

While Chinese seals are typically used in China, Japan and Korea, it could be occasionally used outside these countries. For example, the rulers of Ilkhanate, a division of Mongol Empire in Persia, used seals containing Chinese characters in each of their diplomatic letters, such as the letter from Arghun to French King Philip IV and the letter from Ghazan to Pope Boniface VIII. These seals were sent by the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, a ruling dynasty of China and Mongolia, especially Kublai Khan and his successor Emperor Chengzong.

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