Fengni kaolüe 封泥考略

Fengni kaolüe 封泥考略 "Brief study on letter seals" is a book on seal inscriptions compiled during the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Wu Shifen 吳式芬 (1796-1856) and Chen Jieqi 陳介祺 (1813-1884). The word fengni 封泥, also nifeng 泥封 or yini 藝泥, was used to denote the treatment of official documents of the early imperial period by wrapping them (or the box or bag in which they were enclosed) with a thread and sealing it to signify the integrity of the document.

The book of 10 juan length is a kind of catalogue reproducing 849 seal inscriptions from the Warring States 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE) to the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) many of which had been discovered in rather recent times. The images are arranged according to the type of seal, beginning with official seals (imperial and princely), followed by private ones. All inscriptions in seal-script style are transcribed into regular script. The basic edition of the book dates from 1898, with a reprint from 1904.

Figure 1. Seal reproduction of the Fengni kaolüe 封泥考略

Seal of the Counsellor-in-chief, with explanations on the office. From Guangming zhi men 光明之門.

In 1928, the Jinghua Yinshuju 京華印書局 in Beiping 北平 (Beijing) published this book together with two supplementary collections, Zhou Mingtai's 周明泰 (1896-1994) Xu fengji kaolüe 續封泥考略 with a length of 6, and Zaixu fengni kaolüe 再續封泥考略 with a length of 4 juan, resulting in a catalogue of more than 800 reproductions. Zhou's supplements include seals also published in the collections Qi-Lu fengji jicun 齊魯封泥集存 by Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 (1866-1940) and Chengqiuguan cang gu fengni 澂秋館藏古封泥 by Chen Baochen 陳寶琛 (1848-1935).

A modern edition was produced by Wu Xiong 吳熊 (1902-1971), courtesy name Youqian 幼潛, who assembled the three catalogues in an edition with the title Fengni huibian 封泥彙編. It was published in 1931.