Studies On Seal Character Stone Inscription In The Han Dynasty

Seal characters in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty in ancient China had been evolved into modern Chinese characters after a gradual transformation into the clerical script, which is widely regarded as the heritage as well as the termination of ancient Chinese characters. Therefore, studies on the seal characters in the Han Dynasty are of great significance to exploring the evolution from ancient Chinese characters to modern ones. Meanwhile, the studies may also contribute a lot to relevant research on lesser seal script (xiaozhuan in Chinese calligraphy) contained in Origin of Chinese Characters, a classic dictionary explaining the origin and meaning of ancient Chinese characters completed during the mid-Han Dynasty.Seal character stone inscription in the Han Dynasty constitutes an important part in the whole seal character works at the time, and accordingly the key targets of this research are historic and representative stone inscriptions in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, namely Yuan Family Steles in the Han Dynasty, Songshan Watchtowers in the Han Dynasty, Nanyang Steles in the Han Dynasty, Fenglongshan Steles of Yuan Family in Hebei Province, Ancient Langya Inscriptions in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, Ancient Pengcheng Steles in the Han Dynasty and the Frontier Area Steles in the Han Dynasty. In addition to an overall research on the seven groups of "Inscriptions" hereinabove, this dissertation also makes further and in-depth survey including proofreading, investigating and explaining rare and difficult characters on the most famous stone inscriptions, namely Kaimu Watchtower Inscription, Shaoshi Watchtower Inscription, Yuanchang Stele, Sacrificing Sangongshan Stele, Yanguang Stele. Finally, this research explores into the rules in the evolution of seal characters in the Han Dynasty on the basis of a preliminary description of seal character stone inscriptions at the time.The seal character inscriptions aforementioned have generated long-lasting puzzles to researchers in the history of studies in the field. Nevertheless, there has been fruitful achievement on some of them by a myriad of renowned researchers in the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty including Gu Yanwu, Niu Yunzhen, Huang Yi, Ji Yun, Wang Chang, Gui Fu, Weng Fanggang, Wang Niansun, Ruan Yuan, Gong Zizhen, Wang Renjun, Liu Xizai, Lu Zengxiang, Yu Yue, Yang Shoujing, Fang Ruo, Ouyang Fu, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Luo Zhenyu as well as modern researchers like Ma Heng, Rong Geng, Shang Chengzuo, Xu Zhongshu, Qi Gong, Ma Ziyun, Gao Wen, Rong Yuan, Qiu Xigui, Ye Chengyi, Xu Yongnian, Lv Pin, Xu Ziqiang, Xu Yuli, Mao Yuanming, Zang Kehe, Cong Wenjun and Zhao Pingan.Some of the puzzles have already been solved with the arduous work by researchers and scholars over the time, the achievement of whom also gives directions and lays solid foundation for the research herein. On the other hand, studies on the seal character stone inscriptions in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty still have a long way to go. Some of the puzzling characters and incomplete characters are still the Bermuda Triangle that no one dares to touch or are leading the research into a standstill. Meanwhile, previous research on the inscriptions by some researchers is not very satisfactory for not being precise and accurate enough. Therefore, further exploration in this research becomes necessary and possible.This research, which is based on stone inscriptions, archaeological materials and literature over the time, makes combined and multi-dimensional survey and exploration into individual characters, complete articles and original steles. Meanwhile, the researcher tries all means to conduct on-site watching, survey and interview of the stone inscriptions as many as possible and then makes comprehensive comparative studies on ancient rubbings and exquisite rubbings as well as on all the supplemented carvings, repaired carvings, duplicated carvings and coined carvings available.One of the key research findings is that the seal characters in the Han Dynasty and those in the Qin Dynasty are different in terms of "Spirit", though they seemed to be similar or even identical in nature. According to Wang Shu, a famous calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty, the lesser seal characters by Li Si are embedded with traditional Chinese "Five Virtues", i.e."Benevolence for being mellow, clear and harmonious, propriety for being in accordance with rules and norms, righteousness for being of neat overall structure, wisdom for being of rational flexibility and sincerity for being with consistent style." Therefore, the fundamental principles in creating the lesser seal character works of the Qin Dynasty are "Prudently following the rules and creating harmony in details". As to the seal character stone inscriptions of the Han Dynasty, the features of standard lesser seal characters of the Qin Dynasty in terms of structuring rationale, structural design, form and stance and lines are more or less abandoned, and a more striking difference is the loss of the core value embedded in the lesser seal character inscriptions of the Qin Dynasty, namely "Rigorous, Prudent and with the Spirit of Golden Mean". The key difference in terms of "Spirit" is due to the following reasons. Firstly, it is too difficult to learn to write lesser seal characters of the Qin Dynasty. Characters used in the Qin Dynasty had been inherited and promoted with great efforts as of the overthrowing of the cruel Qin administrations by the Han administrations, but it is inevitably difficult to imitate the characters of the previous dynasty like those by Li Si. Secondly, stone inscriptions remained a minor part in the whole family of seal character works compared with the specialized character styles adopted in mould official seals, carved tally like the tiger-shaped bronze tally issued for deploying troops and signals on flags for secret official or military message. Thirdly, it is general that there should be some typical things pertaining to each empire or dynasty, with no exception to character system. Xiaozhuan in the Qin Dynasty is famous for "restrained stroke", while the clerical script in the Eastern Han Dynasty, often called as the "Silkworm Head but Wild Goose Tail" style, features "open and explicit stroke with a graceful upward orientation". The different stroke styles and orientations manifest different values and aesthetics of the two periods respectively. Among the numerous works of stone inscriptions on steles in the Han Dynasty, the seal character inscriptions can only be called the "splendid flowers blooming in the royal parks left by the Qin Dynasty during the early stage of the Grand Han Empire".Thirdly, it is general that there should be some typical things pertaining to each empire or dynasty, with no exception to character system. Xiaozhuan in the Qin Dynasty is famous for "stroke embedded in the style of ink", while the clerical script in the Eastern Han Dynasty, often called as the "Silkworm Head but Wild Goose Tail" style, features "open and explicit stroke with a graceful upward orientation". The different stroke styles and orientations manifest different values and aesthetics of the two periods respectively. Among the numerous works of stone inscriptions on steles in the Han Dynasty, the seal character inscriptions can only be called the "splendid flowers blooming in the royal parks left by the Qin Dynasty during the early stage of the Grand Han Empire".The second significant findings of this research are that the seal character stone inscriptions in the Han Dynasty are of verified styles during their development. The seal character carving on the head of Songshan Three-Watchtower Inscription is a typical representative of authentic seal character works; the ordered structure of the seal character head inscriptions of steles in the Eastern Han Dynasty became no longer a typical feature gradually; the spirit of seal character style of the Warring States Period could be detected in the head inscriptions of Dibai Stone Inscription, Yuan Chang Stele and Zhao Kuan Stele; the seal characters on the Yanguang Stele and in the texts along some intaglio stone relieves indicated a trend towards Seal&Symbol Seal Character; and the whole text on the Pingshan Shrine Stele showed the features of "Seal character spirit and regular script orientation in clerical script" and announced the beginning of a new approach in the transformation from seal characters to regular scripts.Another focus of this research is on the styles and features of seal characters before and after the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (hereinafter referred to as Emperor Wu) respectively. The seal characters prior to the period of Emperor Wu can be roughly categorized into seal characters in the natural trend towards clerical script, which is defined in this research as "Seal Character with Natural Trend towards Clerical Script" and is characteristic of being similar to lesser seal character in plain style, form and structure, consistent style of characters in a certain text and limited number of characters with supplemented radicals. On the other hand, the seal characters after the Emperor Wu period, especially those in the Eastern Han Dynasty, are completely under the influence of the clerical script style prevailing at the time. That new style, which is defined as "Seal Character Written with Free Clerical Script", began to show typical clerical script style in stroke, structuring and form, e.g. strange form of characters, mixed styles of characters in a certain text, a good number of characters with supplemented radicals, different character structure from lesser seal character though written with clerical style. At the time with clerical script as the major orientation, the features of clerical script became inevitable, no matter in the "Seal Character with Natural Trend towards Clerical Script" or in the "Seal Character Written with Free Clerical Script". And there appeared many variations. Accordingly, the lesser seal characters in Origin of Chinese Characters, a classics completed by Xu Shen in the Emperor An Administration of the Eastern Han Dynasty, are more or less influenced by the background of a mixture of seal character and clerical script of the Han Dynasty.According to elaborate survey and statistics in this research, there are usually six approaches to blending the seal character style and the clerical script style in the works of "Seal Character Written with Free Clerical Script", namely blending of multiple character styles in one text, blending common characters and wrongly-written characters/demotic characters, blending two interchangeable characters into a new one, blending two characters with similar form or related meaning into a new one, blending radicals pertaining to seal characters and clerical scripts respectively into a new character and blending the different forms of a certain character in different times into a new one.The common practice of blending seal character and clerical script in stone inscriptions in the Eastern Han Dynasty generated three masterpieces, the Sacrificing Sangongshan Stele, the Yanguang Stele and the Xiacheng Stele, and generated the trend of calligraphy with blended style in the later periods and dynasties including Han, Wei, Jin and Tang. It can also be inferred that Cai Yong should be the calligrapher of the Xiacheng Stele, since he was the dominant master of blending calligraphy style in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. As the quote of Cai Wenji cited by Zhou Yue of the Song Dynasty in his A History of Calligraphy goes,"My father created the Eight Style clerical script (in fact shaped and structured like the counterpart of the English word eight in Chinese), which was embedded20%of Cheng’s clerical script spirit and80%of Li Si’seal character spirit." Therefore, it can be inferred the earliest Eight Style calligraphy in history should be the "Eight Style Blending" created by Cai Yong.Furthermore, this research also achieved some new findings after exploring into the origin of some major steles in the Han Dynasty. For example, the Yuan Chang Stele was the monument for Yuan An’s second son; the Yanguang Stele was for one of the descendants of Gai Gong, a renowned scholar in the Western Han Dynasty; the Changshan Minister recorded in the Sacrificing Sangongshan Stele must be Fenglong of Shaanxi Province, the sponsor of the Guangwu Stele; the Inscription for Xu Azhai’s Stone Relief was carved and built in Guanghe4th Year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (181) or shortly after that; Pingshan Shrine Stele was carved and built in Jianwu9th Year (33), prior to which Liaocheng Vassal State had already been set at the location of current Democratic People’s Republic of Korea territory by the Eastern Han administration and "Huishi", ambassador had been commissioned hereto.