Compendium of Chinese Seals

Author: (Japan) Kohei Kobayashi, edited by Zhou Peiyan
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-06-01
Features: This book attempts to collect and dictionaryize ancient seals and Qin seals published in engravings from the late 16th century to the early 17th century and newly discovered materials. Ancient seals have been passed down by collectors across generations, and the same seal often appears repeatedly in different engravings. This book strives to cover as many as possible, using high-quality rubbings and indicating the names of the engravings and materials with abbreviations. It is difficult to distinguish between Qin seals and those from the early Han period, so many early Han seals that retain Qin-style designs have been collected. Seals from later periods that still retain ancient characteristics are also included. The arrangement of the seals is divided into white-character and red-character versions. Priority is given to major and official seals, arranged in order of similar characters. Due to many difficult-to-decode characters, they are arranged according to the sequence in Shuowen Jiezi. For characters not included in Shuowen Jiezi, appropriate entries are selected and arranged by stroke order. The characters in each title are marked with the seal script from Shuowen Jiezi, and variant ancient scripts are also indicated. Characters not included in Shuowen Jiezi are marked with modern script. Characters that are now interpreted as having the same meaning but are explained differently in different chapters of Shuowen Jiezi are uniformly included in this book. However, when characters have differences in era or form, adjustments are made to mark them as common characters. Regarding the interpretations, many new theories have recently emerged, but this book does not delve deeply into them, with some only marked with □. As a special case for ancient seals, compound characters that treat multiple characters as a single unit are collected together at the end of the volume. In addition to Luo Shu, the study of compound characters also references Mr. Wu Zhenwu's Study of Ancient Seal Compound Characters (published in Research on Ancient Characters, Volume 17). The decoding primarily follows Mr. Luo Fuyi's Compendium of Ancient Seal Characters, but the theories of Luo Shu, Hanjian, Guwen Sisheng Yun, He Linyi, Gao Ming, Wang Rencong, and others are also marked next to each seal. The book includes over 2,100 title characters and 6,965 seal images. For easy reference, a total index of paintings and calligraphy is appended at the end of the volume. Volume II includes a Shuowen Jiezi radical index. Additionally, a comparison table of Shuowen Jiezi radicals and Kangxi Dictionary radicals is included for beginners' reference. The names of the engravings and materials included in the book can be cross-referenced with the abbreviations attached to each seal image.