Why Do Stamp Characters Look Different? The History and Art of Seal Script
Listen to the Deep Dive:
In case you wonder why characters on the stamp look different from the standard characters you may be used to seeing, the answer is that Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans write with standard characters but use an ancient seal script for engraving on stamps and seals. The seal script is the ancestor of modern standard characters. Ancient characters have even and thin lines that don’t look like brush strokes because they were created during the time when “writing” was carving on bones, metal, or other hard materials, before paper and brushes were invented. So using seal script for stamps and seals is actually more reflective of history. The seal character stamps are traditionally deemed the official form and perceived as authoritative and artistic. The reality is most Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans can recognize only a limited number of ancient seal characters, but the seal is more like a signature and logo than something to be read as legible text. If you look carefully, you’ll find some resemblances between modern and ancient characters. But some are quite different.
Examples of Official Seals Using Seal Script:
The following are some examples of official seals using seal script:
(1) The Seal of the Republic of China and the Seal of Honor
(4) National Seal of South Korea (1949)