Although there were books which discussed seals from an artistic point of view already in the Tang period, BEI Futsu in the Northern Sung Dynasty was regarded as the first Bunjin who engraved a Tenkoku.
唐代には既に印章を美術的に論じた文献がみられるが、北宋の米芾がはじめて篆刻した文人とみなされている。