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1. Strong bones come from hard knocks
3. Live Strong
7. Always Striving for Inner Strength
10. Cuong Nhu
不磕不碰骨頭不硬 is a Chinese proverb that literally translates as: Without being knocked around a bit, [one's] bones won't become hard.
Figuratively, this means: One can't become strong without first being tempered by “hard knocks.”
While true for everyone, this sounds like the “Iron Body” form of Kung Fu, where practitioners' bodies are beaten (and often bone fractured) in order to become stronger.
For the rest of us, this is just about how we can be tempered and build character through the hardships in our lives.
This is not a common title for a wall scroll in China.
強い体強い心 is a way to write “strong mind, strong body” in Japanese.
Each of the two lines starts with 強い (tsuyoi) which means: strong; powerful; mighty; potent; resistant; resilient; durable; tough; stiff; hard; inflexible.
The body is represented with 体 (the ancient version is 體, romanized as karada), which means: body; build; physique; posture; torso; trunk; health.
Mind is represented with 心 (kokoro), which can mean heart, mind, or soul, depending on context.
強い體強い心 is not a common phrase in Japanese, so it's not the most natural title for calligraphy. In English, you might want to write it, “strong mind, strong body” but, “strong mind, strong body,” is more natural in Japanese.
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
While hard to translate directly, 堅強生活 is the best way to write “Live Strong” in Chinese. If you are a cancer survivor or support Lance Armstrong's ideas, this is a nice selection for a wall scroll.
The first two characters mean strong or staunch. The last two mean living or life (daily existence). While the Chinese version is the reverse order of “Live Strong” it is the only way to write it in a natural form that is grammatically correct.
Note that we are in no way affiliated or connected to Lance or his foundation. This translation is offered because of multiple requests from customers whose philosophies or ideas match those of the Live Strong idea.
鉄心石腸 is a Japanese proverb that suggests you should have the inner-strength and will as hard and steadfast as iron.
It's the Japanese way of saying, “stay strong.” This is an especially uplifting thing to say to a person in distress or recovering from a disaster. It's kind of the survivor's creed.
If you literally translate this, it means “iron will, stone guts” or “iron heart, rock-hard bowels.”
強 is a character that means strong, strength, force, powerful, better, stubborn, and stiff (yes, all of this in one character).
This “strong” has less to do with physical strength and more to do with having a winning attitude, or just having the ability to win at something.
Note that most of the time, this character is pronounced “qiang” but when used with the meaning of stubborn, unyielding, or stiff, it is pronounced “jiang” in Chinese.
Also, sometimes “qiang” is used in modern Chinese to describe people that do crazy things (For example: Bicycling from Beijing to Tibet alone). I sometimes can be found outside my Beijing apartment wearing nothing but shorts and a tee-shirt while eating ice cream during a snow storm, just to hear my neighbors call me “qiang.” Maybe they mean “strong” but perhaps they are using the new meaning of “crazy strong.”
強 can also be a Chinese surname that romanizes as Jiang in the mainland or Chiang if from Taiwan.
強 is a valid Korean Hanja character with the same meaning but is mostly used in compound Korean words.
強 is used in Japanese (though normally in compound words). In Japanese, it has the same meaning but in some contexts can mean “a little more than...” or “a little over [some amount].” Most Japanese would read this as tough, strength, stiff, hard, inflexible, obstinate, or stubborn.
The variant 彊 is sometimes seen in older literature.
頑強 means “Tenacious,” “Hard to Defeat,” or “Dogged.”
Alone, the first character means mischievous, obstinate, or stubborn. But it loses some of the mischievous meaning when the second character is added.
The second character means strength, force, power, or better.
See Also: Determination | Dedication | Devotion | Never Give Up
自強不息 is a proverb or idiom that suggests that the pursuit of self-improvement is eternal. It can also be a suggestion to strive unremittingly in life.
The first two characters mean inner strength with the idea of self-improvement. The last two characters mean “never rest” or “striving without giving up.”
Some will translate these four characters as “Exert and strive hard without any let-up.”
沖縄剛柔館 is the martial arts style Okinawan Gojukan or Okinawan Goju-Kan.
The meaning is “Okinawa hardness [and] softness hall.”
沖縄 = Okinawa.
剛 = Hard, firm, or strong.
柔 = Soft, softness, flexible, supple, yielding, gentleness, or pliant.
館 = Hall, building, school room, or an alternate word for a dojo.
剛柔 is a term that means hardness and softness or hard and soft.
剛柔 is also the Chinese character origin of the martial arts style known as Cương Nhu.
Cương Nhu or Cuong Nhu was founded by Grandmaster Ngo Dong in 1965 in Hue, Vietnam, and brought to the U.S. in 1971.
剛 means hard, firm, strong, and just.
柔 means soft, flexible, supple, yielding, softness, and/or gentleness.
Until it was romanized in the mid-17th century by Portuguese missionaries with later influence by French missionaries, Vietnamese was exclusively written in Chinese characters. With some research, you can still figure out the original way to write most Vietnamese words and titles in Chinese characters. That is what I did here to figure out that Cuong Nhu would have been 剛柔 if established in ancient Vietnam.
Same characters are used in Japanese for various Goju schools of Okinawan martial arts, though not the same lineage as the Vietnamese style described above.
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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Strong bones come from hard knocks | 不磕不碰骨頭不硬 不磕不碰骨头不硬 | bù kē bù pèng gǔ tóu bù yìng bu4 ke1 bu4 peng4 gu3 tou2 bu4 ying4 bu ke bu peng gu tou bu ying bukebupenggutoubuying | pu k`o pu p`eng ku t`ou pu ying pukopupengkutoupuying pu ko pu peng ku tou pu ying |
|
Strong Body, Strong Mind | 強い體強い心 強い体強い心 | tsuyo i karada tsuyo i kokoro tsuyoikaradatsuyoikokoro | ||
Live Strong | 堅強生活 坚强生活 | jiān qiáng shēng huó jian1 qiang2 sheng1 huo2 jian qiang sheng huo jianqiangshenghuo | chien ch`iang sheng huo chienchiangshenghuo chien chiang sheng huo |
|
Stay Strong Iron Will | 鉄心石腸 | tesshin sekichou tesshinsekichou teshin sekicho | ||
Strong Powerful Force | 強 强 | kyou / kyo | qiáng / qiang2 / qiang | ch`iang / chiang |
Tenacious Tenacity | 頑強 顽强 | gan kyou / gankyou / gan kyo | wán qiáng wan2 qiang2 wan qiang wanqiang | wan ch`iang wanchiang wan chiang |
Always Striving for Inner Strength | 自強不息 自强不息 | zì qiáng bú xī zi4 qiang2 bu2 xi1 zi qiang bu xi ziqiangbuxi | tzu ch`iang pu hsi tzuchiangpuhsi tzu chiang pu hsi |
|
Gojukan Goju-Kan | 剛柔館 刚柔馆 | gou juu kan goujuukan go ju kan | ||
Okinawan Goju-Kan | 沖縄剛柔館 沖縄刚柔馆 | okinawa gou juu kan okinawagoujuukan okinawa go ju kan | ||
Cuong Nhu | 剛柔 | gou juu / goujuu / go ju | gāng róu / gang1 rou2 / gang rou / gangrou | kang jou / kangjou |
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. |
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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.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Hard and Strong Kanji, Hard and Strong Characters, Hard and Strong in Mandarin Chinese, Hard and Strong Characters, Hard and Strong in Chinese Writing, Hard and Strong in Japanese Writing, Hard and Strong in Asian Writing, Hard and Strong Ideograms, Chinese Hard and Strong symbols, Hard and Strong Hieroglyphics, Hard and Strong Glyphs, Hard and Strong in Chinese Letters, Hard and Strong Hanzi, Hard and Strong in Japanese Kanji, Hard and Strong Pictograms, Hard and Strong in the Chinese Written-Language, or Hard and Strong in the Japanese Written-Language.