# What does this Chinese seal script text say? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359 "2004-09-21T18:32:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/1 "2004-09-21T18:32:06Z")
What does this Chinese “seal script” insignia say? How can it be interpreted? [http://www.dougrhess.com/misc\_photos/Seal.jpg](http://www.dougrhess.com/misc_photos/Seal.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/2 "2004-09-21T20:44:33Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > What does this Chinese “seal script” insignia say? Welcome to Chinese Restaurant. Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history and cultual hehe…just kidding. Hope someone happens along with an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/3 "2004-09-21T21:20:31Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > Welcome to Chinese Restaurant. Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history and cultual > > hehe…just kidding. Hope someone happens along with an answer. Nice to know I’m not the only one who has somehow managed to memorize that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/4 "2004-09-21T22:46:32Z")
Good luck with a translation. It looks like an archaic script form. I can’t be sure, but my guess is that your random Chinese person would not be able to read it. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/5 "2004-09-22T03:13:19Z")
IANC, but based on a half-remembered episode of of _Reading Rainbow_, it resembles a signature stamp of some sort, and so may be a stylized name or title. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/6 "2004-09-22T09:42:53Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Good luck with a translation. It looks like an archaic script form. I can’t be sure, but my guess is that your random Chinese person would not be able to read it. This is the standard “seal” style. You’re correct that this way of writing characters is much older than the script in use now, but it’s what you’d expect to find on a seal. (In Japanese, this style is called _tensho_, or _tenshotai_.) Anyway, I’m almost certain that what you have here is an English surname. I can read three characters but the bottom right one is tough. There’s no doubt that it features the “tree” radical but I can’t make out the body. What we have, thus is: road - ??? - sea - thus What it sounds like: dao - ??? - hai - si (Top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left) The last name is probably Hayes, as it appears that “hai-si” is used for that name. (At least according to Google.) Do you know anyone whose first name starts with a ‘D’ and is called Hayes, or something similar? ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/7 "2004-09-22T14:16:48Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > This is the standard “seal” style. You’re correct that this way of writing characters is much older than the script in use now, but it’s what you’d expect to find on a seal. (In Japanese, this style is called _tensho_, or _tenshotai_.) > > Anyway, I’m almost certain that what you have here is an English surname. I can read three characters but the bottom right one is tough. There’s no doubt that it features the “tree” radical but I can’t make out the body. > > What we have, thus is: road - ??? - sea - thus > What it sounds like: dao - ??? - hai - si > (Top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left) > > The last name is probably Hayes, as it appears that “hai-si” is used for that name. (At least according to Google.) > > Do you know anyone whose first name starts with a ‘D’ and is called Hayes, or something similar? Wow! You’re a genius. 😃 Seriously, that’s very impressive that you can make that all out. Do you study chinese seal script? It is supposed to say Dao-ge Hai-si or Doug Hess. My name. I just wondered if the guy who made it, well, just made it up. I couldn’t tell from the standard chinese script how this compared. Looked nothing alike. Are their dictionaries or books on Seal Script? What language or what not did it come from? I’m somewhat interested in it for design purposes more than accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/8 "2004-09-23T03:53:43Z")
Okay, I figured out the character, it means “rank” and it is indeed read _ge_. I will now attempt to input the characters below: 海道 斯格 This style of writing was created during the Qing dynasty (c. 200 BCE). Prior to that, Chinese characters had developed from pictographic elements and many characters had grown quite complex. This was one of the first attempt at simplification of ideograms. Back in those days this is what written Chinese looked like. While there were many other modifications made to the way characters are written, all the way up to the rather recent simplified Chinese script, the Qing era style kept on being used in seals and, to a lesser extent, in calligraphy. Once you know what the common radicals look like, it’s not too hard to decipher what’s written. Provided, of course, the characters aren’t too exotic. I’ve never studied seal script _per se_ but I’ve seen enough seals to recognise a few patterns. One of my dictionairies has a really cool table that shows the evolution of many common characters, from the oracle bones (the oldest known Chinese texts) to the present day. I couldn’t find anything as extensive online, but I did find [this page](http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/Horse.htm) that shows the evolution of the characters for “horse” and others. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/9 "2004-09-23T04:35:04Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > I just wondered if the guy who made it, well, just made it up. Are you sure the salesman wasn’t **Jovan**? 😉 Seriously, that’s awesome. I’d love to see how my own name looks… ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/10 "2004-09-23T04:56:16Z")
I had a chop made in Hong Kong, i’d be interested to see if it was close to my name or if it was just some random stuff they sell to foriegners 🙂 Maybe i’ll post it. ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/11 "2004-09-23T11:01:12Z")
Sorry to nitpick… > [@jovan](#): > > This style of writing was created during the Qing dynasty (c. 200 BCE). Um, it was Qin. The Qing Dinasty was the one that ruled China until 1911. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/12 "2004-09-24T04:31:35Z")
Yes, of course. Believe it or not, that was a typo. No, really. I swear. And, yes, I miss-typed it twice. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/13 "2004-09-24T12:15:20Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > What does this Chinese “seal script” insignia say? How can it be interpreted? [http://www.dougrhess.com/misc\_photos/Seal.jpg](http://www.dougrhess.com/misc_photos/Seal.jpg) It says “give me fish now please.” ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/14 "2004-09-24T13:03:47Z")
> [@Atticus Finch](#): > > Are you sure the salesman wasn’t **Jovan**? 😉 > > Seriously, that’s awesome. I’d love to see how my own name looks… Well, lots of sites will give the sound a like symbols, but there’s the issue of what it might alternately mean. So I paid a guy a little to do it. I wanted to stamp this, or digitially copy it, onto some of my artwork. The stamp is kinda small for that, but I knew that in advance and figured I’d be paying for the design effort. He’s actually making another one, becuase it was supposed to say “art seal of doug” and not “doug hess”. Website is [www.goodcharaters.com](http://www.goodcharaters.com) i believe. ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-chinese-seal-script-text-say/265359/15 "2004-09-24T13:05:57Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > Well, lots of sites will give the sound a like symbols, but there’s the issue of what it might alternately mean. So I paid a guy a little to do it. I wanted to stamp this, or digitially copy it, onto some of my artwork. The stamp is kinda small for that, but I knew that in advance and figured I’d be paying for the design effort. He’s actually making another one, becuase it was supposed to say “art seal of doug” and not “doug hess”. Website is [www.goodcharaters.com](http://www.goodcharaters.com) i believe. Typo. :wally Should be [http://www.goodcharacters.com/](http://www.goodcharacters.com/)