A Study of Seals of the State of Yan

With a Focus on the Character Duan 鍴 in the Text of Rectangular Seals

Abstract

Judging from artefacts that have been unearthed to date, the rectangular seals taken up in this article were special seals found only in the state of Yan 燕 during the Warring States period, and no similar seals have been found in any other states of the same period. These seals are all made of bronze. Another characteristic that distinguishes them from other contemporaneous state seals is that they have a long grip and a knob on the side of the grip. The text of the seal is always carved in relief. In addition, the character duan 鍴 is used as the final character of the seal text, and this character is not used in other state seals of Yan, nor is it found in seals from other states of the Warring States period. Consequently, in previous research on ancient state seals, in seal-engraving circles, and in archaeological circles these rectangular seals distinctive of Yan have been called duan, and they have been regarded as a typical characteristic of Yan seals when periodizing ancient state seals. But this understanding of the character duan is incorrect.
  Among pottery shards unearthed in the former territory of Yan and contemporaneous with these rectangular seals from Yan bearing the character duan there have been found some shards of the same shape as the face of these rectangular seals, and there have also been discovered shards bearing the character duan. In this article, referring to these seal impressions on shards from Yan and to whole pottery pieces and also to corroborative unearthed materials and texts, as well as the research findings of earlier scholars, I examine the rectangular state seals of Yan engraved with the character duan and show that the current understanding which identifies duan with state seals does not conform with the actual situation. I also show that in reality duan was not a state seal, but referred to the articles to which the rectangular state seals of Yan bearing the character duan were affixed.