'Phags-pa is the "square script" Drogon Chogyal Phagpa devised in 1269 for Kublai Khan — a Tibetan-derived alphabet meant to write every tongue of the Mongol empire in one angular hand. Read top-to-bottom, left-to-right, its glyphs stack into rigid blocks. On Yuan seals those blocks were cut in relief and pressed in cinnabar vermilion against darkened silk, the red mark itself serving as signature and sovereign authority.

This system treats the page as a stamped document, not a printed one. Vermilion seal-boxes frame the composition, paiza gold flickers as sparing imperial accent, and the ground stays the deep brown of aged silk. Every surface should feel impressed, bordered, and vertical — the weight of a chancery seal rather than the lightness of a manuscript page.