印章就是圖章。中國(guó)歷代官、私所用的印章有印信、朱記、合同、符、契等等不同的稱謂，而帝王所用的印章古時(shí)稱璽、印、寶、章等。據(jù)史料記載，印章在戰(zhàn)國(guó)時(shí)代已普遍使用。印章的制作是將篆隸等字體、圖像用陰、陽(yáng)的形式雕刻而成，形狀以圓、方為主。印章用朱色 鈐蓋，除日常應(yīng)用外，又多用于書(shū)畫(huà)題識(shí)，逐漸成為中國(guó)特有的藝術(shù)形式之一。

【參考譯文】

A seal can also be defined as a stamp. Both the Chinese official and private seal of various dynasties have different titles, such as stamp, zhu note, contract, fu, lease and others. The seals used by the emperors of ancient China were called xi, yin, bao, etc. According to historical records, seals were widely used during the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC). The making of a seal is to engrave fonts, such as seal characters and official script and so on; or images in the form of intaglio and embossment into the seal, basically shaped as round or square. Covered with a vermilion overlay, the Chinese seal is not only used in daily life, but it is also used to represent signatures on paintings and calligraphies. It is gradually becoming one of China’s unique artworks.