This Character is pronounced "fu" in Chinese.

The character "fu" is posted by virtually all Chinese people on the doors of their homes during the Spring Festival (closely associated with the Chinese New Years).

One tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (beginning in 256 B.C.) holds that putting a fu symbol on your front door will keep the goddess of poverty away.

This character literally means good fortune, prosperity, blessed, happiness, and fulfillment.

See Also...  Lucky

Perhaps the Chinese equivalent of "This blessed house" or perhaps "home sweet home". This phrase literally means "Good fortune house" or "Good luck household". It makes any Chinese person who sees it feel that good things happen in the home in which this calligraphy is hung.

This is the kind of opportunity that comes via good luck or good fortune.

This word is sometimes translated as "stroke of good luck".

While there are other ways to express "opportunity", I think this version is best for a calligraphy wall scroll or portrait.

Note: In Korean Hanja, this would also mean "Meeting someone under strange circumstances".

See Also...  Good Luck

This can mean happiness, good fortune, good luck, and in the old days, good harvest or bounty.

Note: From Japanese, this character is sometimes romanized as "sachi", and is often pronounced "kou" when used in compound words with other Kanji.

This can be translated as "good luck", "fortunate", "lucky" and/or "good fortune" in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Occasionally, this is also translated as a type of happiness.

This is a strong way to say "Prosperity and Abundance".

The characters shown here present and reinforce the ideas of being prosperous, a booming economy, well-to-do, well-off, wealth, riches and opulence.

This is the ancient / traditional Chinese way to write this, but most Japanese can fully read and understand it. It's also the correct form of old Korean Hanja (though few Koreans of the current generation will be able to read this).

This is a common phrase to hear around the time of Chinese New Years. Directly translated character by character it means, "Year Year Have Surplus". A more natural English translation including the deeper meaning would be "Every Year may you Have Abundance in your life".

On a side note, this phrase often goes with a gift of something related to fish. This is because the last character "yu" which means surplus or abundance has exactly the same pronunciation in Mandarin as the word for "fish".

This is also one of the most common titles for traditional paintings that feature koi fish.

In China, this phrase might make an odd wall scroll - a customer asked special for this common phrase which is why it appears here. See my other abundance-related words if you want a wall scroll that will seem more comfortable in Chinese culture.

Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly-used term.

See Also...  Prosperity

This word means prosperous, having abundance, well-to-do, or well-off.

It's a simple word that suggests that "you have made it" in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and Korean Hanja.

This is the Chinese, Korean and Japanese word for "Gospel" or "Word of God". This is a specifically Christian word in Asia (not used for any other religion).

The first character means "blessing", "good fortune" or "good luck". This first character is a special character used throughout China to bring good tidings and fortune - especially during Chinese New Years. The second character means "sound", "noise" or "news".

Together, these characters create a word that means "The Good News" or "The Sound of Good Fortune".

When read by a Chinese or Japanese person, this word is always perceived as "The Christian Gospel", "Word of God", or even "The Voice of God".

See Also...  Christianity | Jesus Christ | God Of Abraham

This is a phrase that means "May you have good fortune as great as the eastern oceans, and may your life last as long as the southern mountains".

In ancient Chinese mythology, the eastern oceans and southern mountains are where God resides (basically it is the same as saying "heaven"). So it's like saying, "May your good fortune and life be as vast as the heavens".

There is also a longer, 14-character version of this phrase. Also, this can be cut into two scrolls (with half the phrase on each side - great for hanging on either side of a doorway). Just let me know if you'd like a special version (there is an additional cost).

This character refers to different turtles in different languages. See individual language notes below:

Japanese: This means "snapping turtle" or "mud turtle".

This is Trionyx Sinensis.

Chinese: This means soft-shelled turtle. A specific species, Trionyx Sinensis which is native to Asia.
In China, this species is related to the "wang ba", a soft-shelled turtle sometimes known in English as a banjo turtle (due to it's long neck, and general shape). Unfortunately, there is a word, "wang ba dan" which means the egg of this species of turtle. That term has come to mean "bastard" in Chinese (a turtle hatches from an abandoned egg, and does not know who his mother or father is). This is not a good selection for a wall scroll if your audience is Chinese.

In Korean, this character can be pronounced (though most Koreans would have to look it up in a dictionary). It has not been in common use in Korea for at least a few hundred years.

General notes: You may notice that the bottom half of this character is the same as some other turtle-related titles. That bottom half is actually an ancient character that means "toad". Though not see in this way today, most turtle-related characters hold the meaning of "a toad with a shell" in their ancient origin. That toad character is rarely used alone anymore, but you can see what it looks like in the image to the right.