Zhouwen is also called Dazhuan (greater seal script). Elucidations of the Signs and Explications of the Graphs, compiled by Xu Shen, included more than 220 Zhouwen characters. Modern scholar Wang Guowei thought that these characters featured balanced left and right parts and a bit complicated structures.

Shiguwen is the representative of Dazhuan. During the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, ten stone tablets were found in Tianxing County (present-day Fengxiang County in Shaanxi Province). Textual researches show that these stone tablets were from the late years of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) and the early years of the Warring States Period (475-221BC). Shiguwen on these tablets were all poetry paying a tribute to Emperor Qin.

Three stones carved with inscriptions were discovered in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), and contents were all malediction from the King of the Qin State to the King of the Chu State. People in the later generations called these inscriptions as Zhouchuwen (Script of Malediction to Chu). Zhouwen, Shiguwen, Zhouchuwen and part of inscriptions on bronze in the Qin State all belonged to the same style and are collectively called as Zhouwen or Dazhuan. Zhouwen, characterized by shapely strokes and compact structures, was officially prescribed standard script of that time and had been used for a long period.