Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Xiaozhuan
Xiaozhuan (小篆), or Hsiao-chuan was the title of a work on Chinese characters compiled by Li Si during the reign of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.
Before the Qin conquest of the other regions of China, regional characters were used, and under unification of China, currency, laws, weights and measures and writing was to be systemised. Thus, the characters which were different to those found in Qin were discarded, and Li Si's xiaozhuan character became the standard.
Li Si's compilation is known only through Chinese commentaries through the centuries. It is purported to contain 3,000 characters. The name of the work gives rise to the style of characters used, "small seal script".
12-03-2008 10:22:39
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details