Yinzhang – Chinese seal is supposed to originated as identification of transaction, with a pity that no such a related recordation was served.
According to Yu Xingwu’s book shuangjianyi guqiwu tulu <<雙劍簃古器物圖錄>>, three tongxi 銅璽 (bronze seal) (
) were unearthed in the Yin Dynasty Ruins of Anyang in Henan Province, these seals are thought to be the ones in earlier history of Chinese seals are thought to be the ones in earlier history of Chinese seal while all are disable to be confirmed as productions passed down since the Shang Dynasty for lacking basis in fact. These three seals might be come from later dynasties, and there are still many unsolved questions about the excavation at that time. Following the principles of respecting the history, I would rather hang it I doubt than pronounce a premature conclusion of the identification of these three seals.
In ancient documents, such as the accepted book of the Warring States Periods – zhouli <<周禮>>, both of “xi 璽” and “xijie 璽節” are confirmed for three times as seals with an application in many kinds of commercial operation and transaction in that period, from which we can know that the emergency of seals are closely related to the social economy.
There were also, the concept above is reflected in another two books – liji yueling <<禮記 . 月令>> and zuozhuan <<左傳>>. The saying of “gufeng xi 固封璽” in the former one refers to the seals used in business operation, and while in the later one, the usage in official paper was verified in a record history that Ji Wuzi 季武子sent Gongye 公冶 to deliver a stamped official document to Lu Xianggong 魯襄公.
There are quite a few seals with inscriptions cut both in intaglio and in relief recorded in many ancient documents and antiques, including many purposely compiled collections, such as ganxizhai guxi xuan <<幹璽齋古璽選>>. Unfortunately, few researches could be launched and few conclusions could be made since those improperly obtained seals even did not come with any “identification” of their birth information.
For several decades, more or less ancient seals (
) were unearthed throughout the national territory (
), such as in Wujialing of Changsha, Dongsun Dam of Baxian County. Shixi 石璽 had been once found in Tomb No.1 in Shanbiao Town of Ji County (
). We have so far obtained some ancient seals that confirmed to be artifacts of the Warring States Period. By far, no seals unearthed could be identified to *be from the Spring and Autumn period.
On the basis of the above, we can say that with the development of society, a credit against a transaction appears to be more and more important, for which seals were widely accepted and applied. According to shi shuqi <<釋書契>>in Shiming <<釋名>> of Liu Xi 劉熙, seals specially used to seal goods and documents for transportation or warehousing. The intial usage of seal may not be as the saying, however, there is still something we can sense of in what Liu Xi said.
To sum up, it would be the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Period when seals have had entered into a general use for developed agriculture, industry and commerce at that time, and the sealed letters of Ji Wuzi in the Spring and Autumn Period could be a good evidence. Till now, there is still a great number of the existing ancient seals could not be identified conclusively that were supposed to be from the Spring and Autumn Period. When it came to the Warring States Period, a fundamental change had taken place in the social nature, and further, seals were widely used for the needs of social development in an all-round way.
