'decorative engraving script') is a style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC.

[1][2][3] The literal translation given above was coined during the Han dynasty,[citation needed] and reflects the role of the script being reduced to ceremonial inscriptions.

Due to this imprecision, modern scholars tend to avoid using the term large seal script.

One of these, the bird-worm seal script, is named for its intricate decorations on the defining strokes, and was used in the states of Wu, Chu, and Yue.

[citation needed] The Qin script—as exemplified in bronze inscriptions prior to unification—had evolved organically from the Zhou script starting in the Spring and Autumn period.

It was systematized by prime minister Li Si during the reign of Qin Shi Huang through the elimination of most character variants, and was imposed as the imperial standard.