Kan-huang is one of the stones found on Mount Shou, a "brother" to t'ien-huang stone and huang-shou-shan stone. Its texture, color, luster, and price rank between the other two stones.
Transparency counts as value in stones used for seal carving. Semilucent t'ien-huang has a fineness, integrity, and gentleness that puts it in the top rank; although huang- shou-shan is somewhat translucent, it is coarse, "loose," and harsh," and takes the lowest rank. Although kan-huang isn't translucent, it nonetheless isn't as deficient as huang- shou-shan, and thus takes middle rank.
Last month Sinorama introduced the two types of seal carving, concave yin and convex yang. This month we introduce the script forms used in seal carving. The script forms include chuan (seal), li (clerk), and k'ai (regular) scripts and others. Chuan is the most beautiful of these, and the most widespread.
Chuan script is divided into ta chuan and hsiao chuan (large seal and small seal), and sometimes further categorized in such varieties as mou-chuan, chiu-tieh-chuan, "bird script," and "insect script." To-chuan is also called "old script," or "bronze inscription script." This is the script of the ancient bronzes, simple and elegant, strong and marvelous.
Hsiao-chuan is also called "seal script," and was developed by Li Su of the Ch'in Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) to unify and simplify Chinese writing. To this day hsiao-chuan is the most common script form on Chinese seals.
Mou-chuan developed in the Han Dynasty, chiu-tieh-chuan after the T'ang. "Bird" and "insect" scripts were used much earlier in the Warring States period, mostly for decorating weapons.
The major classes li and k'ai have been widely used by many dynasties. (K'ai script forms the basis for modern printed characters, as in this magazine.) Seal inscriptions are not necessarily words, but can be pictures, or both pictures and words. Most pictures show animals, such as dragons and phoenixes, but even playful pigs and mice appear.
Chinese Signets (7) Kan-huang is one of the stones found on Mount Shou, a "brother" to t'ien-huang stone and huang-shou-shan stone. Its texture, color, luster, and price rank between the other two stones. Transparency counts as value in stones used for seal carving. Semilucent t'ien-huang has a fineness, integrity, and gentleness that puts it in the top rank; although huang- shou-shan is somewhat translucent, it is coarse, "loose," and harsh," and takes the lowest rank. Although kan-huang isn't translu
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