The Style Of Han Jade Seal And Its Influence On The Balanced Seal In The Later Periods

The paper analyses the development of Han jade seal and the development of the balanced seal from Ming and Qing dynasty to the present, sorting through the different roles of Han jade seal played in different periods. The development of the art of seal carving is based on traditional inheritance, seal cutters belonging to the style of the balanced seal in Ming dynasty inherited the appearance of Han jade seal; Qing dynasty style seal adopted and developed the way of sensate expression by using lines of Han jade seal; most modern seal cutters of the balanced seal imitated the multi-style of Han jade seal, trying to keep the original shape and spirit, bringing their own cutting work into Han jade seal, thus it is hard to tell the modern part from the ancient part. The contemporary seal cutters of the balanced seal adopt the elaborate arrangement of the red and white part of the seal and sensible usage of lines.Han jade seal has its own artistic characteristics different from other seals (such as copper seal, silver seal, gold seal and so on) because of its special material used in making it. All its characters:balanced layout, Chinese character structure, the clever way of cutting, and the natural defect beauty resulted from slight damage of the hard and fragile material, played different roles in different periods, expressed different and corresponding temperament of the different seal cutters. In the history of seal cutting, the studies of Han jade seal by seal cutters varied from pursuit of imitating physically and spiritually to the learning of single or multiple items:rules of layout, character structure, lines, way of cutting etc. furthermore, they developed the art further by forming their own artistic temperament, and created seal cutting products combining the ancient taste, the characteristics of the present time and their own personal styles.