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You can buy a wall scroll with "The Five Elements" in Chinese characters.

The five elements are earth (soil), water, gold/metal, wood, and fire. In Chinese astrology these five elements go through a five-year-cycle. Each year has a certain element assigned to it.

If you want to really get into it, there are also twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac which have a 12 year cycle.
If you are looking for more info on the Five Elements (Wu Xing) try this... Wikipedia: Five Elements (Wu Xing).

Quick links to words on this page...

  1. Five Elements
  2. Gold / Metal
  3. Wood
  4. Water
  5. Fire
  6. Earth
  7. Five Elements Tai Chi Fist
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Five Elements

Mandarin jīn mù shuǐ huǒ tǔ
Korean 금목수화토
金
木
水
火
土

This is a list of the Chinese characters for the five elements in a comfortable order (meaning that they simply "feel right" to a Chinese person who views this arrangement).

The order is metal, wood, water, fire, earth.

Note that sometimes the metal element is translated as gold. And earth refers to soil versus the whole planet earth.

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Five Elements (Japanese)

Japanese chi sui ka fuu kuu
地
水
火
風
空

This is the specifically-Japanese version of the five elements. This is a little different than the ancient or original Chinese version.

The elements are written in this order:
1. Earth / Terra / Ground
2. Water
3. Fire
4. Wind / Air
5. Sky / Emptiness / Void / Ether

Note: This set of Kanji can also be romanized as "ji sui ka fuu kuu", "jisuikafuukuu", or "jisuikafuku".

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Five Elements

Mandarin wǔ xíng
Japanese gogyou
Korean 오행
五
行

This is the title of the five elements which are: wood, fire, water, earth and metal. The first character means "5" and the second character is simply "elements".

According to ancient Chinese science, all matter in the world is made up of these elements. One idea presented with the five elements is that when energy is added, matter is believed to expand. When energy is removed, matter contracts. Oddly, this concept is not far from Einstein's theories, and modern science. Just a few thousand years before Einstein.

See Also...  Wood | Fire | Water | Earth | Metal

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Gold / Metal

(One of the five elements)

Mandarin jīn
Japanese kane / kin
Korean 금 or 김
金

This is the symbol for metal (often means gold or money) in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

In an interesting twist, in Japanese, this Kanji can also mean "Friday". I guess Friday is "the golden day" in Japan.

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Wood

(One of the five elements)

Mandarin
Japanese ki
Korean
木

This is the symbol for wood in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. This can sometimes mean "tree" depending on context. In fact, the character comes from a pictogram that is supposed to resemble a tree.

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Water

(One of the five elements)

Mandarin shuǐ
Japanese mizu
Korean
水

This is the symbol for water in Japanese and Chinese.

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Fire

(One of the five elements)

Mandarin huǒ
Japanese hi
Korean
火

This is the symbol for fire, flame, or blaze in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

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Earth

(One of the five elements)

Mandarin
Japanese tsuchi
Korean
土

This is earth, soil, ground or Terra.

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Five Elements Tai Chi Fist

Mandarin wǔ xíng tài jí quán
Japanese go gyou tai kyoku ken
Korean 오행태극권
五
行
太
極
拳

This is a certain school or style of Tai Chi (Taiji). The characters literally mean "Five Elements Tai Chi Fist".

Notes:
In Taiwan, it would be Romanized as "Wu Hsing Tai Chi Chuan" - see the standard Mandarin method above in the gray box (used in mainland China and the official Romanization used by the Library of Congress).

The last three characters are sometimes translated as "Grand Ultimate Fist", so the whole thing can be "Five Elements Grand Ultimate Fist" if you wish.

I have not confirmed use of this title in Korean, but if it is used, it's probably only by martial arts enthusiasts. The pronunciation is correct as shown above for Korean.

Small-sized standard calligraphy wall scrolls on this page start at the following prices:

1 character $26.88

2 characters $33.88

5 characters $46.88

We dispatch any size order to any country worldwide for a flat rate US$9.80 P&P


After you select your calligraphy, our website will take you through the process of customizing your artwork.

Options for other mounting such as portraits are available for $13 less.

We also offer the services of Chinese and Japanese master calligraphers for an additional fee if you are looking for investment-quality calligraphy.

If you chose a master-calligrapher, you also get more choices for silk and paper colors and the option for larger artwork.




A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "regular size"
4-character wall scroll.
As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.
(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form of art alive.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.


A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.



See: Our list of specifically Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls. And, check out Our list of specifically old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.



The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese

Title
 
Characters
Simplified
Traditional
Japanese Romaji
(Romanized Japanese)
Various forms of Hanyu-Pinyin
(Romanized Chinese)
Five Elements金木水火土
金木水火土
n/ajīn mù shuǐ huǒ tǔ
jin mu shui huo tu
jin1 mu4 shui3 huo3 tu3
jinmushuihuotu
Five Elements (Japanese)地水火风空
地水火風空
chi sui ka fuu kuu
chisuikafuukuu
chi sui ka fu ku
n/a
Five Elements五行
五行
gogyou
gogyo
wǔ xíng
wu xing
wu3 xing2
wuxing
Gold / Metal
kane / kin
kane/kin
jīn
jin
jin1
jin
Wood
ki
mu
mu4
mu
Water
mizushuǐ
shui
shui3
shui
Fire
hihuǒ
huo
huo3
huo
Earth
tsuchi
tu
tu3
tu
Five Elements Tai Chi Fist五行太极拳
五行太極拳
go gyou tai kyoku ken
gogyoutaikyokuken
go gyo tai kyoku ken
wǔ xíng tài jí quán
wu xing tai ji quan
wu3 xing2 tai4 ji2 quan2
wuxingtaijiquan
If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why we spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "Five Elements" listings above.
If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich.


All custom calligraphy items are made-to-order in our little Beijing artwork-mounting workshop.
Please note: Rush service can be as fast as two weeks, but regular service is over a month for delivery.


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Last modified: Mar 06 2010 21:58