> Name: Yael
> email: Yaelu@macam.ac.il
> #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
tc31@cornell.edu
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