Mr. Tong, Da-Nian, whose original name was Gao and style name was You-Lai, changed his name to Da-Nian at age 32. His literary names were Xin-Kan and many other variants. As Mr. Tong, Xie-Geng's fifth son, he was born on the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month of 1873 in Hangzhou. He died in 1953 at age 81.

His father, Mr. Tong, Xie-Geng, came from Chongming, Jiangsu; had style name Song-Jun and literary name Jie-Chao; used to be the county magistrate of Deqing. Xie-Geng was famous for the invention of a tangram game using 15 pieces to solve puzzles in all kinds of shapes and figures. The game along with related poems and stories were published in the book "Yi Zhi Tu"

Mr. Tong, Da-Nian's four elder brothers were all good at inscription, painting and calligraphy. Especially his third elder brother, Mr. Tong, Yan (style name Shu-Ping, literary names: Jian-Bo and Tao-Zhai) who rose to prominence in these areas in early years. Yan was a student of Mr. Ren, Xun (style name Fu-Chang); he was good at painting figures and flowers. He also inscribed seals in his spare time. At age 30, Yan imitated the "The 72 Seasons Seal Chart" from Mr. He, Xue-Yu. He became mentally deranged in his later years, was also known as "Tong, the Lunatic". He died in 1902 at age 46. His story was mentioned in "Zai Xu Yin Ren Zhuan" and "Guan Yin Ren Zhuan". One of his seals, "Yi Yi Room", was also included in "Ding Chou Jie Yu Yin Chun" Volume 10.

Under the influence of this 27-years-older brother, Mr. Tong, Da-Nian became interested in seal inscription. He started cutting seals at age 8. At age 17, he collaborated with his third and fourth elder brothers, and published "Unparalleled Charts" and "The Legend of Chivalrous Swordsman" (both collections were name seals), "Wa-dang Seals from Qin and Han Dynasties"(imitation in scaled-down sizes). At age 18, he published "The Remuneration for the Owner of Wen-yu-shan-guan" to pay for his wine.

At age 19 and 20, Mr. Tong studied the inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets, he admired the ones from Qin and Han dynasties (221 B.C. ~ A.D. 20) so much, he named his study room "Yi Gu House" ("Yi Gu" means inherited from ancient). He started collecting ancient seals, charts, calligraphy, paintings and tablet impressions when he was young, however most of his collections were damaged or lost during World War II when Japanese Imperial Army attacked Shanghai on January 28, 1932. Fortunately he gave the 60-volume "Xi Yin Ji Lin" to the son of his close friend Mr. Lin, Shu-Chen as a present, which survived the war and later was published in 1938.

In his early years, Mr. Tong, Da-Nian had positions in large industry and business in Shanghai; he worked for Hangzhou Railroad Bureau in his middle age. Although he held various offices for long time, he kept on practicing seal inscription and improving his skills in his spare time. His seal inscription artworks followed the style of the ones from Qin, Han, and dynasties before them; he also inscribed seals in the forms from Han Wadang, Fengni, to various styles of Zhe and Wan schools of art. He dealt with a wide range of inscription art forms; he cut many seals on many different materials with different styles, which presented one a scene majestic in all its variety within inches. His inscriptions attained a level never known before. Among his colleagues in West Ling Inscription Art Society, Mr. Tong was admired and respected. When the society published "Current Chinese Inscription Collection" in 1932, it dedicated volume 8 to his artworks. He devoted himself to painting after age 60, and signed "Xiao Song (small pine)" as literary name on his paintings. His paintings of fruits and flowers are all tranquil and exquisite.

This book included all the seals from the 4-volume "Mr. Tong, the Kid's Inscription"" which was compiled by Mr. Tong, Da-Nian in 1943 at age 71. However in this book, the editor (Mr. Eiki Sano) made different arrangement: excluding the first two seals about Mr. Tong's ancestry, the rest of the book maintains the ascending order of the creation date of each artwork ranging from 1892 to 1946. This book photocopies the seal impressions in the book "Mr. Tong, the Kid's Inscriptions" collected by Mr. Shimura and stored in San Zi House. The only blemish in an otherwise perfect thing, that book only included Mr. Tong, Da-Nian's personal seals.

Mr. Tong's other published seal charts also include "Seal Inscription In Yi Gu House".