中國的印章篆刻(seal carving)始于古代，貫穿于整個秦朝。篆刻的印帝最初是作為皇帝的玉璽(imperial seal)來使用的。皇家的印章被稱為璽(Xi)并且只能由皇室成員使用。秦朝之后，更多不同種類的印章出現(xiàn)了。它們作為個性化的印戳用于私人用途。這些非官方定制的印戳被稱為印(Yin)。在唐朝，由于迷信(superstition),印章的名稱被改稱為寶，理由是璽的發(fā)音與另一個表示“死亡”意思的漢字類似。
參考翻譯:
Chinese seal carving first appeared in ancient times and was used throughout the Qin Dynasty. It was initially employed as an imperial seal named Xi. These imperial seal carvings were used only by the royalty. Following this dynasty, more different kinds of seals appeared and were used by private folks as personalized stamps. These non-official stamps were called Yin. During the Tang Dynasty, the seals was renamed Bao as a result of superstition since the pronunciation of Xi is similar to that of another Chinese character which means death.
1.篆刻的印幸最初是作為皇帝的玉璽(imperial seal)來使用的:該句可譯為被動句，謂語是"最初是作為…使用”，其中“使用”可用employ來表示，屬于正式用語，故可翻譯為was initially employed as。
2.由于迷信，印章的名稱被改稱為寶:“由于”可譯為because of或as a result of, 這兩個短語后面都接名句或動名詞。
