中國印章

　　印章就是圖章。中國歷代官、私所用的印章有印信、朱記、合同、符、契等等不同的稱謂，而帝王所用的印章古時稱璽、印、寶、章等。據(jù)史料記載，印章在戰(zhàn)國時代已普遍使用。印章的制作是將篆隸等字體、圖像用陰、陽的形式雕刻而成，形狀以圓、方為主。印章用朱色鈐蓋，除日常應用外，又多用于書畫題識，逐漸成為中國特有的藝術(shù)形式之一。

　　Chinese Seal

　　A seal can also be defined as a stamp. Boththe Chinese official and private seal of various dynasties have different titles,such as stamp, zhu note, contract, fu, lease and others. The seals used by theemperors of ancient China were called xi, yin, bao, etc. According to historicalrecords, seals were widely used during the Warring States Period(475BC-221BC).The making of a seal is to engrave fonts, such as seal characters and officialscript and so on; or images in the form of intaglio and embossment into theseal, basically shaped as round or square. Covered with a vermilion overlay, theChinese seal is not only used in daily life, but it is also used to representsignatures on paintings and calligraphies. It is gradually becoming one ofChina’s unique artworks.