This ancient Japanese proverb can be translated as "The principle of honorable death and no surrender", or simply "No surrender". If you directly translate this, you get something that means "Doctrine of suicide", or "Ideology of honorable death".

This is a specifically-Japanese proverb that embraces the long history of honorable suicide or self-sacrifice for honor in Japanese culture.

This is the title of the mythological figure (often called the Grim Reaper in western culture) in charge of taking the souls of those who die.

This title can be translated directly as "god of death" or "spirit of death". The first character literally means "death" and the second means "spirit" or "god".

This is a very strange title for a calligraphy wall scroll. I'm not even sure if my calligraphers will write it, as it has some bad superstitious feelings attached to it.

This is the Japanese version of "Death Before Dishonor". Japanese grammar is a bit different than English, so this really means something like "Rather die than to be dishonored". However, the "dishonor" is the first three Kanji, and death is the last Kanji. There are two Hiragana (より) which indicate the preference is death when comparing dishonor to death.

This was added at the request of a customer. This is not a good choice for a wall scroll unless you have a very specific and personal reason.

This means "death with dignity" or "natural death" (as opposed to extending one's life unnaturally with life support).

This almost directly matches the military idea of "Death Before Dishonor", while also being an ancient Chinese proverb.

The direct meaning is, "[A] soldier/warrior can die/kill [but he/she] cannot [allow] dishonor/disgrace [upon himself/herself]". Chinese grammar, and especially ancient grammar is a little different than English. Not nearly as many articles are needed, and a lot is implied.

There are a lot of ways to express ideas similar to "Death Before Dishonor" in Chinese, and I would rate this one in the top two.

This is the original form of this proverb with the character for "soldier/warrior" at the beginning. Most of the time, this character is dropped, and this becomes a five-character proverb (the soldier/warrior part is implied, even without the character being present in the proverb). We also offer the shorter version.

This is often translated as "Death Before Dishonor". The more literal translation is more like, "Better to die than compromise". The last two characters mean "not to bend" or "not to bow down". Some might even say that it means "not to surrender". Thus, you could say this proverb means, "Better to die than live on my knees" or simply "no surrender" (with the real idea being that you would rather die than surrender).

This is the short version of a longer Chinese proverb which means, "rather be shattered piece of jade than an unbroken piece of pottery". The characters shown above just say the "rather be a broken piece of jade" part (the second half is implied - everyone in China knows this idiom).

A little more explanation:
Death is implied with the "broken" meaning. Jade is one of the most precious materials in Chinese history, and in this case is compared with one's honor and self-worth. Pottery is just something you eat off of, it has no deep value, just as a person who has lost their honor, or had none to begin with.
Thus, this means, "better to die with honor than to live in shame" or words to that effect.

This is often translated in English as "Death Before Dishonor", the famous military slogan.

I would also compare this to the English proverb, "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees".

This is the long version of a Chinese proverb which means, "rather be shattered piece of jade than an unbroken piece of pottery".

A little more explanation:
Death is implied with the "broken" meaning. Jade is one of the most precious materials in Chinese history, and in this case is compared with one's honor and self-worth. Pottery is just something you eat off of, it has no deep value, just as a person who has lost their honor, or had none to begin with.
Thus, this means, "better to die with honor than to live in shame" or words to that effect.

This is often translated in English as "Death Before Dishonor", the famous military slogan.

I would also compare this to the English proverb, "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees".

This is an idiom. It therefore doesn't directly say exactly what it means. If you think about the English idiom, "The grass is always greener", it does not directly say "jealousy" or "envy" but everyone knows that it is implied.

This almost directly matches the idea of "Death Before Dishonor", while also being an ancient Chinese proverb.

The direct meaning is, "[you] can die/kill [but you] cannot [allow] dishonor/disgrace [upon yourself]". Chinese grammar, and especially ancient grammar is a little different than English. Not nearly as many articles are needed, and a lot is implied.

There are a lot of ways to express ideas similar to "Death Before Dishonor" in Chinese, and I would rate this one in the top two.

This is a Japanese title for "Death Sword", "Life Taking Sword" or "satsujinken". This is the opposite of katsujinken, or the "life saving sword". This title is not as commonly-used in Japanese, but pairs well when hung with katsujinken.

The first two Kanji are a word that translates as homicide; to murder; to kill (a person). This is specifically to kill a person (as the second character means person or human) as opposed to an animal, etc.

The last Kanji is the Japanese variant of the originally-Chinese character for sword.

See Also...  Katsujinken

This ancient Chinese proverb can be translated as "Rather to die than surrender", "Prefer death over surrender", "To prefer death to surrender", or simply "No surrender".

This is probably the closest proverb to the English proverb "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees".

This is the state of being "not permanent", "not enduring", transitory, or evolving. It can also mean variable or changeable. In some context, it can refer to a ghost that is supposed to take a soul upon death. Following that, this term can also mean to pass away or die.

In Buddhist context, this is a reminder that everything in this world is ever-changing and all circumstances of your life are temporary. If you take the Buddhist philosophy further, none of your circumstances are real, and your existence is an illusion anyway.

Language notes:
In Korean Hanja, this means uncertainty, transiency, mutability, or evanescent.
In Japanese, the definition orbits closer to the state of being uncertain.

This is how to write "kill" or "massacre".

This is an absolutely shocking word to have on a wall scroll. It will bewilder, scare, and perhaps offend any Chinese, Korean or Japanese person who sees it. I do not in any way recommend this for a piece of calligraphy artwork. This entry is only here because our calligraphy search engine received so many requests for "kill" and "massacre".

You are all a bunch of sick puppies!

This is the most sophisticated way to write "assassin" in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The unsophisticated way just means murderer.

This is how to write "to kill" or "killing".

This is an absolutely shocking word to have on a wall scroll. It will bewilder, scare, and perhaps offend any Chinese, Korean, or Japanese person who sees it. I do not in any way recommend this for a piece of calligraphy artwork. This entry is only here because our calligraphy search engine received so many requests for "kill".

Note: In Korean Hanja, this character is not often used alone - see the other two-character entry for "kill".

This is how to say "die with no regrets" in Mandarin Chinese.

This proverb comes from the Analects of Confucius.

See Also...  No Regrets

This phrase means "Old and ailing with little time left" or "Not long for this world".
There is a real suggestion here that someone will die soon.

This was added by special request of a customer, and is perhaps, not the most positive phrase that you could put on a wall scroll.

This would be the most offensive possible gift to give to an older person - please do not do that!