Bronze seal cast with Mongolian Phags-pa script, “Taiji zhiyin”, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)-China Archive

Image Number: K1A001816N000000000PBA
Dynasty: Yuan dynasty
Category: Bronzes
Function: emperor’s seal
Material: Mineral/Metal/Bronze
Description:
The plate-like pin button can be threaded and tied. The upper right corner of the printing back plate is carved with Chinese characters “Shang” to distinguish the printing direction. On the printing surface, four characters of Yangwen are chiseled on the wide and thin double sidebar, and the printing is translated into Mongolian with the characters of Basiba. The two syllables on the left can be translated into “Taiji”, which is derived from the Mongolian language of the Chinese “prince”. Here, it points out that men born in the Mongolian royal family, namely Mongolian nobles; The meaning of the two syllables on the right can be translated as “mark”. The word “mark” in Mongolian originates from Turkic language, and its meaning is equivalent to the word “mark” commonly used in official and private seals since the Tang and Song Dynasties in Chinese, which refers to “seal” here. Therefore, this seal can be translated into “the seal of Taiji”. According to the Mongolian scholar Zhao Nastu, it is the only seal of Mongolian nobles seen so far.