A Cross-examination Of The Different Interpretations Of Ancient Seals

It is said that the records of ancient seals and ancient seal characters began in Tang and Song Dynasties,and most of them have been lost and have no textual research.The discussion of ancient seal characters based on the physical form can date back to Zhu Jian of the Ming Dynasty,while the concept of "private seal" was not found until in KAN ZHUAN LOU YIN PU XU written by Cheng Yaotian of the Qing Dynasty.During the period of Qing dynasty Tongzhi,when Chen Jieqi wrote the SHI ZHONG SHAN FANG YIN JU,he mentioned that "the red character bronze seal is like the Six States' characters",which has made further progress after Zhu Jian and Cheng Yaotian.In the study of the ancient seal,Mr.Wang Guowei was the one who broke the chaos.He admitted that the ancient seal characters belong to the Six States,which opened the new way of studying the ancient seal characters.Since the latest one hundred years,many researchers have made great contribution to this study,Mr.Wu Dachen recorded the ancient seal characters in SHUO WEN GU ZHOU BU for the first time in 1 883,Mr.Luo Fuyi specially recorded the ancient seal characters into GU XI WEN Zl ZHENG for the first time in 1930 and Mr.Luo Fuyi edited and printed GU XI HUI BIAN and the GU XI WEN BIAN in 1981.Based on these former studies,the achievements in the comprehensive discussion,description,textual research and interpretation,domain division,configuration and many other aspects of the ancient seal have been emerging.The study of seal characters has been a relatively mature discipline.However,there are still plenty of questions to be answered,especially the seemingly fundamental ones,such as the scholars' divergent understanding on the origin of seal,the concept of ancient seal,the concept of ancient seal characters and so on all need to be further clarified.Moreover,in terms of the textual research and interpretation of ancient seal characters,there are still a certain proportion of non-identified.For those identified characters,many "different interpretations" need to be reconsidered further.Thus,taking "different interpretation" as the breakthrough point,it is necessary to collect the divergent opinions of some difficult words and explore new interpretations.On the basis of a comprehensive review of the previous scholars'research results of ancient seal characters,five groups of ancient seal characters with more different interpretations are chosen to be discussed.We carefully discuss these different interpretations,and then put forward some new views.The different interpretations of ancient seal characters,that is to say,various interpretations of the shape,sound and meaning of a certain "seal characters" are essentially different in understanding;Each interpretation represents a possibility in understanding between the identified and the non-identified.The interpretation of this paper is also a possibility exploration.The new solutions are listed as follows:(1)As for the "??????(?)" in the ancient writings of the Warring States period,there are different interpretations,especially the word "?",with more than 20 different interpretations.New interpretation of the paper,the "?" is read in terms of "??????(?)".In this way,more than 1 00 seals,pottery,bamboo slips and diction can be read and understood throughout the Qi,Yan and Chu dynasties.At the same time,it can also be proved that the official office called”? " was established in the Warring,States period,which advanced those who originally thought that the official office "?"was established in the Northern Qi Dynasty to the Warring States period.(2)The biggest treasure in seals which named "?????? ",there have been a lot of people who have discussed it for hundreds of years,particularly,the explanation of the word "??".It can be explained by explaining it as "???" through the paper.In the same way,when "??"and "(?)" are involved,part of seals can be interpreted."??"?"(?)" and "??" are connected to each other to prove that they can not only interpret many seal characters,but also advance the homologous motivation of "?""?" "?" "(?)",etc.(3)The kind of "archaic and abstruse" in ancient seal characters,with many different interpretations.For example,XI HU I 0198T"(?)" 0199"(?)"?0200"(?)"?0201"(?)"?0202"(?)"?0322"(?)"?0148"(?)" and JI Xi 1"(?)".According to new interpretation of the paper,all the seal characters contain components"(?)"are "?".0198 writing with official script to "(?)".Interpreted as"?".that is to say,0200 is Interpreted as"????";0322 is interpreted as""??????";"?????" are the industries under the control of the"government" in previous dynasties.calling the same name,making seals to manage taxation,which has been the case since ancient times.The seal of 01 48"(?)" writing with official script"(?)",that is,the initial character of "?" and“?”.(4)The kind of "simple structure" in ancient seal characters,but with many different interpretations.For example,in XI HUI the two characters at the end of the 0312(?),and the two characters at the beginning of the 0363(?).Research on new interpretation of the paper explained:the two characters of 0312 are written in official script"(?)",which is read as"??",that is,the "??" of Xia off icials in ZHOU LI,in charge of "net hunting,prohibition of hunting"and so on;Then the related official seal and oracle inscriptions(?)(?),golden inscriptions(?).seal characters(?).pottery inscri ptions(?)and so on can be interpreted.0363 these two wor ds are written in official script "??",read as "??"(the abbreviati on of "???").After the comparison of(?),it c an also explain several related seals.(5)The kind of ancient seal characters,which is difficult to understand because of its ?special structure".For example,in XI HUI,0158"(?)"?0159 "(?)"?0161"(?)" the old interpretation basically recognized the three forms of the same character,for its upper part,it uses official script to write"(?)"?and "different" for the lower part of the character,or expressed in different official script forms,or interpreted by "decorative parts".Based on the relationship among different"shapes"?we interprets the same character as "?(?)".three shapes are the overall shape of "fish",and the lower part is like "fish tail".Its "difference" is exactly the trace of "?"dividing into "?",not the "decorative part".Based on this?the relevant seals can be interpreted.The experiences we gained from the discussion of "differentinterpretations" and the formulation of new interpretations can be regarded as an exploration of research methods.For example,on the basis of the comprehensive application of traditional interpretation methods such as "double evidence method.font comparison method,side by side analysis method,horizontal and vertical comparison method",the paper has new exploration and understanding in "seeking the same in different(seeking the same in the same),the interaction of form synonyms as components,simple(complicated)comparison,reasoning and interpretation,opposite proofs and comprehensive mutual proofs inside(outside)words".In a word,it's natural to have corresponding "different interpretations"because of the different understanding of difficult words.Therefore,although this paper is devoted to clarify each interpretation,due to the special topic and the difficult object of discussion,there are still several issues unsolved,meanwhile,the method of interpretation,the rigor of argument and other aspects are inevitably unsatisfactory,which requests further improvement in the future,only thus can "inherit the knowledge of former sages which did not pass on" better.