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11 votes
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How to look up seal script characters?

For a freely available method, Guoxuedashi offers an interface to look up seal script characters. Prerequisites: Internet Explorer (seal script links do not dislpay properly on other browsers, ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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10 votes
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Shen (神) character painted over a seal

well, the emperor 乾隆 was a collector, he used four characters "神", "妙", "能" & "逸" to categorise artworks (calligraphy, or painting). and then, he used his seal to chop on the artwork :(
水巷孑蠻's user avatar
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8 votes

Meaning of seal and engraved characters on teapot

For the seal identification portion, as mentioned elsewhere, the characters are 汪寅仙製 (meaning made by 汪寅仙, a very famous Chinese ceramics artist who passed away earlier this year; whether it's really ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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7 votes

How to look up seal script characters?

Looking up seal characters is not as hopeless as other answers seem to indicate, even though it is considerably harder than looking up modern characters. In any case, the lookup needs to consist of ...
米好 '-''s user avatar
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7 votes
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Artist seal and meaning

it's 羅綺, in traditional chinese, in Small Seal Script (小篆) the left character is 羅 http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=羅 the right one is 綺 http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu....
水巷孑蠻's user avatar
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7 votes

What does this seal of 宋高宗 say?

The characters are 御書㞢(之)寶, which means seal of imperial writing/literature. The characters are heavily stylised in a blockish/squarish aesthetic (方篆) seen on many imperial seals. The explanation of ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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6 votes

What are the characters on this seal? (Characters identified: 李濟懋印)

As the other answer stated, the characters are 李濟懋印. Approximate idea of character development - this may not be strictly how the characters evolved over the years. 李 「李」(originally a kind of ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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6 votes

This is a seal on a porcelain piece. I am not sure if it is from China or Japan. Can anyone tell me what it says? (Characters identified: 大明嘉靖年製)

From right to left, up to down: 大明嘉靖年製 Made during the Jiajing era of Great Ming 大明 is the official name of the Ming dynasty. 嘉靖年 refers to the Jiajing era (1521–67). 製 is a verb meaning 'to make', ...
L Parker's user avatar
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5 votes
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What is the name of the university in this seal?

It reads: 早稻田 大學 圖書 A Japanese Waseda University collection.
broccoli forest's user avatar
5 votes

Chinese Poem And Seal Translation Needed

the text, with my best guess: 水殿亭¹亭荷 飛鳧浴³晚波 香 凮²吹不斷 時送采蓮歌 為 兆南五兄大人雅正之 丁酉冬月石泉何濂畫 ¹the actual character is a variant (u+20158), i guess most os, app can't display it correctly. have a look of this ...
水巷孑蠻's user avatar
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5 votes

Please help identify traditional Chinese painting

Starting from the seal script, the left character is either 歡 or 觀 (from 趙孟頫 as well). I can't guess which one because the top-right part is blurred. As for the right-hand side one, I don't know ...
Firmin Martin's user avatar
5 votes

What is the signature and red seal on my landscape painting? (Characters identified: 廣城作)

Regular script transcription The cursive calligraphy says 作廣  城 Work of 廣城 (Mandarin Pinyin: Guǎng Chéng) The seal says ⿸厂𡕛 (廣) 𩫨 (城) 廣城 Where 廣城 is the artist's name (probably using a ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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5 votes
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What do these seal stamps and characters on my pair of Chinese paintings mean?

Seals: 虛靜恬淡: This is from 《莊子》, one of the most important taoist works. The original is 夫虛靜、恬淡、寂漠、無為者,天地之平而道德之至,故帝王聖人休焉。Ctext translates it as "Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, ...
lilysirius's user avatar
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4 votes
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What are the characters on this seal? (Characters identified: 李濟懋印)

Just to venture a guess. I think these characters (mirror them before you read of course) should read 李濟懋印, meaning this seal was a private one that belonged to the person known as 李濟懋 (or 李济懋 in ...
Vim's user avatar
  • 219
4 votes

Where can I find a decent Seal Script font?

http://web.hku.hk/~jwilam/chinese/font.htm There's two: bnucdp.ttf ebas927.ttf (link broken; try https://www.moedict.tw/fonts/truetype/cns11643/) Note that 說文 records many variants, so the default ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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4 votes

Meaning of seal and engraved characters on teapot

No idea on the first picture as it seems to be ancient writing. However, for the 2nd and 3rd picture, it is a famous poem from this guy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bai Night Thoughts (靜夜思) ...
Cheok Yan Cheng's user avatar
4 votes
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What are the six characters on this seal? (Characters identified: 漢高皇帝後裔)

edited, according to info provided by droooze. the recognised character in sequence: 531 642 character 5:後 (u+5f8c) http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=後 character 6:裔 (...
水巷孑蠻's user avatar
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4 votes

What does this seal stamps on chinese painting mean?

芳草有情,夕陽無語,雁橫南浦,人倚西樓。 This sentence is a part of 宋詞 (a form of classical Chinese poetry )《風流子·木葉亭皋下》 written by 張耒. 張耒(1054年-1114年),字文潛,號柯山,生於楚州淮陰(今江蘇淮安市),祖籍亳州譙縣(今安徽亳縣)。北宋詩人。 The whole article is ...
vuluvsa's user avatar
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4 votes

What are the characters in this seal script inscription on an ancestral altar? (Characters identified: 孝思維則)

as @drooze revealed, it's "孝思維則" reading from right to left: 孝: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=孝 思: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?...
水巷孑蠻's user avatar
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4 votes

What are the characters in this seal script inscription on an ancestral altar? (Characters identified: 孝思維則)

The characters are 孝思維則, which comes from a line in a poem called 《下武》 in the anthology Classic of Poetry - Major Court Hymns. 《詩經・大雅・下武》:「永言孝思,孝思維則」 As an idiomatic expression removed from ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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4 votes
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Is this the character 良?

Yes, it is「良」. That's just a minor shape variation, probably influenced by Qin bamboo or Han clerical brush writing. In small seal script, the bottom of「良」is corrupted into「亾」(「亡」), so as long as ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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4 votes
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Round seal stamp on a teapot (Characters identified: 沈紅英制)

沈 (right top) 紅 (right bottom) 英 (left top) 制 (left bottom)
user16115's user avatar
  • 1,599
4 votes

Help translating artist names and signatures

The first one is 師任堂 which corresponds to the art name (號) of a female Korean artist in the 16th century. By identifying the corner, we can see that is a copy of this painting.
Firmin Martin's user avatar
4 votes
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Can someone identify the characters in this Seal Script? (Characters identified: 江上清風 山間明月)

山 江 间 上 明 清 月 风 “江上清风, 山间明月” from 《赤壁赋》 by 苏轼. it means: Breeze over the river and moon between the mountains. 江: river, especially Changjiang river. 上: above, over 清: refreshing 风: wind, breeze 山: ...
River's user avatar
  • 2,606
4 votes

Can somebody please translate main 4 symbols and the 6 little ones for me? (Characters identified: 格物致知)

格物致知 - refers to study the principles of things to gain knowledge 丁酉 - 2017 (or 1957) 秋 - autumn 杜金恆 /Dù jīn héng/ - author's name These are called 'Chinese characters', not 'symbols'
Tang Ho's user avatar
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4 votes

Meaning of seal (Characters identified: 媒體勇士)

The characters are 媒體勈(勇)⿻士八(士) which literally translate to media warriors. The only thing I can find about this is a CGTN announcement about a competition for the next face of CGTN ("CGTN The ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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4 votes
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Can you please help to read this seal?

The characters look like 「百雲初晴」 (clearing up after endless clouds). Note that the whole thing isn't really "seal script", it's really just characters written rather inconsistently. 「百」 is ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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4 votes

I'm trying to figure out who the artist is on a painting. I don't know if it's Chinese or Japanese (Characters identified: 新羅山人 秋岳)

The artist used two courtesy names in the piece: One in the calligraphy, 新羅山人; One in the seal, 秌(秋)𡵽(岳). The artist's real name is 「華嵒」 (Mandarin Pinyin: Huà Yán), a Qīng Dynasty painter. Notes ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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3 votes

Help please me find out what this means

As pointed out, the characters are 天寶紋銀, and are engraved in the small seal (小篆) style. There are several character components which don't really resemble their regular script counterparts. 天 「天」 ...
dROOOze's user avatar
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3 votes

Meaning of seal and engraved characters on teapot

The inscriptions are actually a poem written by Li Bai (李白). It was originally written in the Tang Dynasty (唐朝). The poem is called 靜夜思. The poem goes as follows: Night Thoughts (Thoughts in the ...
Puffy's user avatar
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