Adventures in Asian Art



Buy a Custom Mother Chinese or Japanese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

We have many options to create artwork with the Chinese characters / Asian symbols / Japanese Kanji for Mother on a wall scroll or portrait.
If you want to create a cool Mother Asian character tattoo, you can purchase that on our Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Image Service page and we'll help you select from many forms of ancient Asian symbols that express the idea of Mother.

Quick links to words on this page...

  1. Mama / Mother / Mommy
  2. Loving Mother
  3. Holy Mother / Saint Mary
  4. You May Learn from Victory,...
  5. Experience is the Mother of Wisdom
  6. Failure is the Mother of Success
  7. No man knows what he owes to his parents...
  8. Mother and Daughter
  9. Mother Nature
10. Mother and Son

Mama / Mother / Mommy


媽

This is the oral way that most Chinese people refer to their mothers. Often, they will put this together twice (two of the same character in a row) to create a word that sounds like "Mama". That's absolutely what little kids call their mothers in China. This Chinese "Mama" is the rough equivalent of "Mommy" in English. Beyond a certain age, Chinese will start to just say "Ma", which is like saying "Mom".

This entry is just here for a language lesson. This would make a strange wall scroll by Chinese standards. In Chinese, there are sometimes oral words that don't seem appropriate when written in calligraphy, and this is one of them. See our entry for "Loving Mother" for a better selection.

See Also...  Loving Mother | Family

Loving Mother

cí mǔ
ji bo
자모
慈
母

These characters create the title of loving mother, affectionate mother, or merciful mother. A great gift for your mom.

See Also...  Family

Holy Mother / Saint Mary

shèng mǔ
seibo
성모
聖
母

This is the title for the Holy Mother, Madonna, or Virgin Mary as used by Catholic Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people. I think this would be a very cool wall scroll for a devout Catholic who also appreciates Asian artwork and language.

Note: Koreans often put a third character after these two which creates a title that means "Hail Mary", however, this character is not added, or used in the same way in Japanese or Chinese. If you want that Korean title, just let me know, and we'll add that character for you. The two-character title shown to the left is universal, so I think it's the best choice.

You May Learn from Victory,
You Will Learn from Failure

bǎi shèng nán lǜ dí
sān zhé nǎi liáng yī

三
折
乃
良
醫
百
勝
難
慮
敵

Characters shown
above are read
vertically, starting
from the right

This literally translates as: [Even a general who has won a] hundred victories [may be] hard put to see through the enemy's [strategy], [but one who has] broken [his] arm three [times] [will] be a good doctor.

Figuratively, this means: One cannot always depend on past successes to guarantee future success, but one can always learn from lessons drawn from failure.

See Also...  Failure - Mother Of Success | Experience - Mother Of Success | Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 | Hard Knocks

Experience is the Mother of Wisdom

jīng yàn shì zhì huì zhī mǔ
慧
之
母
經
驗
是
智

Characters shown
above are read
vertically, starting
from the right

It's been said that wisdom comes from good judgment, and good judgment comes from experience, while experience comes from a series of times when you used bad judgment.

This Chinese proverb makes the simplest connection between experience and wisdom.

See Also...  Failure Is The Mother Of Success | Wisdom | Learn From Wisdom

Failure is the Mother of Success

shī bài shì chéng gōng zhī mǔ
실패시성공지모
功
之
母
失
敗
是
成

Characters shown
above are read
vertically, starting
from the right

This means exactly what you think.

Every failure that you experience is a chance to learn from it and find success.

Knowing what does not work is just as important as finding out what does work.

See Also...  Experience Is The Mother Of Wisdom

No man knows what he owes to his parents
till he comes to have children of his own

ko wo motte shiru oya no on
知
る
親
の
恩
子
を
持
っ
て

Characters shown
above are read
vertically, starting
from the right

This Japanese phrase can be translated a few different ways:

No man knows what he owes to his parents till he comes to have children of his own.

One knows not what one owes to one's parents till one comes to have children of one's own.

Only after you have a baby, you will appreciate your parents or feel the way they do.

Only after becoming a parent yourself do you realize how much you owe [how indebted you are] to your own parents.

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Mother and Daughter

mǔ nǚ
모녀
母
女

This simply means "mother and daughter" kind of as a unit, or as if mother and daughter are a whole together.

This is an unusual selection for a calligraphy wall scroll, and can be read many different ways. Your native Asian friends might wonder what you are trying to say. They might even read it as meaning "a mother and daughter without a dad".

This entry was added to our database for a customer's special request. It has the same meaning in Chinese Characters and Korean Hanja.

See Also...  Mother And Son

Mother Nature

dà zì rán
dai shi zen
대자연
大
自
然

This is the simple way to express "mother nature" in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

This can also be translated as "the great nature" or "all of nature".

Mother and Son

mǔ zǐ
bo shi
모자
母
子

This simply means "mother and son", or the essence of the relationship and bond between mother and son.

This is really a single word that expresses this idea (showing how important or significant this bond is).

This is not the most common choice for a wall scroll, it is acceptable if you feel this term is important to you.

See Also...  Mother And Daughter

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A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "medium 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 Romanized Chinese
Mama / Mother / Mommy
n/a
ma
ma1
ma
Loving Mother慈母
慈母
ji bo
jibo
cí mǔ
ci mu
tz`u mu
ci2 mu3
cimu
tzumu
tzu mu
Holy Mother / Saint Mary圣母
聖母
seiboshèng mǔ
sheng mu
sheng4 mu3
shengmu
You May Learn from Victory, You Will Learn from Failure百胜难虑敌三折乃良医
百勝難慮敵三折乃良醫
n/abǎi shèng nán lǜ dí sān zhé nǎi liáng yī
bai sheng nan lv di san zhe nai liang yi
pai sheng nan lü ti san che nai liang i
bai3 sheng4 nan2 lv4 di2 san1 zhe2 nai3 liang2 yi1
Experience is the Mother of Wisdom经验是智慧之母
經驗是智慧之母
n/ajīng yàn shì zhì huì zhī mǔ
jing yan shi zhi hui zhi mu
ching yen shih chih hui chih mu
jing1 yan4 shi4 zhi4 hui4 zhi1 mu3
jingyanshizhihuizhimu
Failure is the Mother of Success失败是成功之母
失敗是成功之母
n/ashī bài shì chéng gōng zhī mǔ
shi bai shi cheng gong zhi mu
shih pai shih ch`eng kung chih mu
shi1 bai4 shi4 cheng2 gong1 zhi1 mu3
shibaishichenggongzhimu
shih pai shih cheng kung chih mu
No man knows what he owes to his parents
till he comes to have children of his own
子を持って知る親の恩
子を持って知る親の恩
ko wo motte shiru oya no on
kowomotteshiruoyanoon
n/a
Mother and Daughter母女
母女
n/amǔ nǚ
mu nv
mu nü
mu3 nv3
munv
Mother Nature大自然
大自然
dai shi zen
daishizen
dà zì rán
da zi ran
ta tzu jan
da4 zi4 ran2
daziran
Mother and Son母子
母子
bo shi
boshi
mǔ zǐ
mu zi
mu tzu
mu3 zi3
muzi

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 I spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "Mother" 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.

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