安貧樂道 means “It's better to be happy than rich” in Chinese.
Even if you are poor, you should still feel satisfied in your life...
...Satisfaction, happiness and the meaning of your life come from within yourself and not from money or riches of the world.
In Chinese, there are a lot of four-character proverbs which express some very old philosophies.
Though there are only four characters on this scroll, in Chinese, the meanings often surpass the dictionary definition of each character.
In this case, you should not set your expectations too high for the money or riches you wish to have. One who sets their expectations too high is almost always disappointed. Instead, you should cherish what you have, seek to improve yourself from within, and not measure your worth by the size of your bank account.
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title
Characters
Romaji (Romanized Japanese)
Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Better to be Happy than Rich
安貧樂道安贫乐道
ān pín lè dàoan1 pin2 le4 dao4an pin le daoanpinledao
an p`in le taoanpinletaoan pin le tao
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size" single-character wall scroll. We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
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.
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.
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.
Some people may refer to this entry as Always Be Satisfied and Happy Kanji, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Characters, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Mandarin Chinese, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Characters, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Chinese Writing, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Japanese Writing, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Asian Writing, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Ideograms, Chinese Always Be Satisfied and Happy symbols, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Hieroglyphics, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Glyphs, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Chinese Letters, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Hanzi, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in Japanese Kanji, Always Be Satisfied and Happy Pictograms, Always Be Satisfied and Happy in the Chinese Written-Language, or Always Be Satisfied and Happy in the Japanese Written-Language.
