> Name: Yael > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > #1, Posted Dec 26th 02001 10:59:33 AM next > > I am looking for an online resources that have graphical samples of > the unusual chinese script that is called "bird script" because all > lines end in little bird heads. It is from the han dynasty. May > somebody help me?
niaozhuan \u9ce5\u7bc6 'bird seal' is a decorative seal script "typeface". Here's two samples of what is supposed to be the seal of Qin Shihuang \u79e6\u59cb\u7687 (r. 221-210 B.C.), the first Chinese emperor: http://deall.ohio-state.edu/grads/chan.200/misc/niaozhuan-qinshihuang_seal-1.jpg from p. 30 of GUO Bingguang's \u90ed\u51b0\u5149 _Zhuanke rumen_ \u7bc6\u523b\u5165\u9580 [Introduction to Seal-carving] (Hong Kong: Mingtian \u660e\u5929, 1989). http://deall.ohio-state.edu/grads/chan.200/misc/niaozhuan-qinshihuang_seal-2.jpg from p. 176 of R.W.L. Guisgo's _The First Emperor of China_ (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1989). The seal consist of four columns of two characters each, read top-to-bottom, right-to-left: 7 5 3 1 8 6 4 2 It's supposed to be: \u53d7\u547d\u65bc\u5929\u65e2\u58fd\u6c38\u660c . However, notice that there are a number of differences between the two samples!--I do not know the reason for this. 'bird seal' and other decorative and/or imaginary scripts (mostly just font variants) are also covered in Knud LUNDBAEK's _The Traditional History of the Chinese Script from a Seventeenth Century Jesuit Manuscript_ (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1988). Thomas Chan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
