Listen to this articledàzhuàn 大篆
Greater Seal Script
汉字发展演变中的一种书体。与“小篆”相对。有广狭两方面含义：狭义专指籀文（先秦刻石书体），以战国时的秦国石鼓文为其典型代表，其特点是笔画凝重，构形多重叠，比金文更为规范、严正；广义指“书同文”之前包括金文、籀文及春秋战国时期各国的刻石文字。秦统一以后为小篆代替。
The greater seal script is a form in the evolution of Chinese characters. Standing in contrast to the lesser seal script, it has two meanings. The narrow meaning specifically refers to the pre-Qin script engraved on stones (zhouwen 籀文), modeled after stone-drum script in the Kingdom of Qin during the Warring States Period. It features heavy strokes, duplicated structures and an overall pattern more regular and standard than inscriptions of earlier times on bronze objects. The broader meaning refers to all kinds of stone-engraved characters including inscriptions on bronze ware, greater seal script and the stone script of all kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was replaced by the lesser seal script after the Kingdom of Qin unified China.
引例 Citations：
◎《史籀》十五篇。［自注］周宣王太史作《大篆》十五篇，建武时亡六篇矣。（《汉书·艺文志》）
（《史籀》一共有十五篇。［班固自注］周宣王时的太史籀创作了《大篆》十五篇，汉光武帝建武年间（25—56）已经亡佚了六篇。）
Shizhou, the oldest textbook for children in China, has 15 chapters. Ban Gu’s own note: During the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, the Grand Historian Zhou wrote 15 chapters for a collection entitled Greater Seal Script. By the time of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, six of them had been lost. (The History of the Han Dynasty)
◎古籀之亡，不亡于秦，而亡于七国，为其变乱古法，各自立异，使后人不能尽识也。（吴大澂《说文古籀补·叙》）
（大篆的灭亡，不是灭亡在秦朝，而是灭亡在战国七国时期，因为它改乱了古时的书写方法，每个国家都有各自的书写形态，致使后来之人难以全都认识。）
The demise of the ancient script and the greater seal script did not occur during the Qin Dynasty; it had already disappeared in the earlier Warring States Period. The reason is because ancient ways of writing were changed as each kingdom developed its own script, so people in later times had difficulty recognizing all such scripts. (Wu Dacheng: Ancient Script and Greater Seal Script: A Supplement to Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters)
