More Love in Chinese / Japanese...

The first character here means “love.”

The last two mean forever, eternity, eternal, perpetuity, immortality, and/or permanence.

愛永遠 is the shortest and most universal way to express this idea in Chinese and Japanese.

Japanese note: This sound more like a title than a phrase in Japanese (if that makes any sense). 愛永遠 is a great title for a romantic book, the title of a movie, the name of a perfume, or even a name for a store.

See Also:  Eternal Love | Forever Love

情義 means to love and honor in Chinese. 情義 is more or less the kind of thing you'd find in marriage vows.

The first character suggests emotions, passion, heart, humanity, sympathy, and feelings.

In this context, the second character means to honor your lover's wishes and treat them justly and righteously (fairly). That second character can also be translated as “obligation,” as in the obligation a husband and wife have to love each other even through difficult times.

In the context outside of a couple's relationship, this word can mean “comradeship.”

Japanese may see this more as “humanity and justice” than “love and honor.” It's probably best if your target is Chinese.

This is the short and sweet form, there is also a longer poetic form (you can find it here: Love and Honor if it’s not on the page you are currently viewing).

See Also:  Love and Honor

深情厚義 means to love and honor.

This is more or less the kind of thing you'd find in marriage vows.

The first two characters suggest deep love or deep emotions, passion, and feelings.
The last two characters mean generous justice or thick honor (the third character is an adjective that means generous or thick). It just means that you will honor your lover's wishes and treat them justly and righteously (fairly).

This is the longer four-character version, there is also a short and sweet two character version.

See Also:  Love and Honor

愛 universally means love in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, old Korean Hanja, and old Vietnamese.

愛 is one of the most recognized Asian symbols in the West and is often seen on tee shirts, coffee mugs, tattoos, and more.

愛 can also be defined as affection, to be fond of, to like, or to be keen on. It often refers to romantic love, and is found in phrases like, “I love you.” But in Chinese, one can say, “I love that movie” using this character as well.

This can also be a pet name or part of a pet name in the way we say “dear” or “honey” in English.

This can be a girl’s name “Ai” in both Chinese and Japanese.

More about this character:

This may be hard to imagine as a westerner but the strokes at the top of this love character symbolize family & marriage.

The symbol in the middle is a little easier to identify. It is the character for "heart" (it can also mean "mind" or "soul"). I guess you can say that no matter if you are from the East or the West, you must put your heart into your love.

The strokes at the bottom create a modified character that means "friend" or "friendship."

I suppose you could say that the full meaning of this love character is to love your family, spouse, and friends with all of your heart, since all three elements exist in this character.

See Also:  I Love You | Caring | Benevolence | Friendliness | Double Happiness Happy Marriage Wall Scroll

In Chinese, this can mean losing one's love; to breaking up (in a romantic relationship); to feel jilted.

In Japanese Kanji, this means disappointing love, broken heart, unrequited love, or being lovelorn.

失戀 is also valid in old Korean Hanja, which means unrequited love, unreturned love, a disappointment in love, or a broken heart.

Note: In modern Japan, they will tend to write the more simple 失恋 form instead of 失戀. If you order this from the Japanese master calligrapher, expect the more simple modern version to be written (unless you give us instructions to use the older or more traditional version).

It's very uncommon (some will say taboo) to say “I love you” in Japanese culture. It's especially awkward for a man to tell a woman this in Japanese. Everyone is more likely to say “Watashi wa anata ga suki desu” or “I like you” (literally, “I regarding you, have like.”

If you have to say “I love you” in Japanese, 愛してる is a selection of Kanji and Hiragana that provide a way.

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

愛忠敬 is a Chinese word list that means love, loyalty, and respect.

愛忠敬 is the shortest way to express these words/ideas. Word lists are not as natural in Chinese as they are in English - phrases or proverbs are more common.

精神伴侶 means “Spiritual Soul Mates.” The first two characters mean “spiritual” or “soul.” The second two characters mean “mates,” “companions,” or “partners.”

This is more about the spiritual connection between partners rather than a “fate-brought-us-together” kind of soul mates.

Both halves of this title have meaning in Japanese but I've not yet confirmed that this is a commonly used title in Japan.

可愛い子には旅をさせよ is a Japanese proverb that means “If you love your children, send them out on a journey into the world.”

This is kind of similar to the western phrase, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”

More literally, this reads, “Cute child, a journey granted.”
That “granted” could also be understood as “should be initiated.”

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

愛心 literally means “loving heart.” It can also be translated as “compassion.”

In Chinese, it carries more of a compassionate meaning.

愛心 is rarely used in Japanese anymore, so best if your audience is Chinese.

See Also:  Compassion | Love

草莓 is the Chinese word for strawberry.

Sometimes jokingly means “love bite” (in Taiwan more than the mainland).

好學近乎知力行近乎仁知恥近乎勇 is a Saying from Confucius which relates certain actions to virtues.

A more verbose translation:
To love learning is akin to knowledge,
to study diligently is akin to benevolence,
to know shame is akin to courage.

欲樂 is the Chinese and Japanese title representing the Buddhist and Jainist joys of the five desires.

Kama comes from the Pali/Sanskrit काम. The meaning is “desire, wish, longing.”

In Jainism, it can include sensual pleasure, sexual desire, and longing.

However, the Buddhist context refers more to any desire, wish, passion, longing, the pleasure of the senses, desire for, longing to and after, the aesthetic enjoyment of life, affection, or love, enjoyment of love is particularly with or without the enjoyment of sexual, sensual and erotic desire, and is often used without sexual connotations.

Some people like to say, “I love you” but others might want to say “I need you.” 貴方が必要 is “I need you” in Japanese.

The first two characters mean “You.”

The middle character is a connecting particle. In this case, it more or less means “are.”

The last two characters mean necessary, needed, essential, indispensable, or necessity.

The “I” in the title is implied. Effectively this means “I need you.”

至 is a little strange as calligraphy, but 至 would be the character that means “best” or “extreme” in Chinese and Korean.

The problem is, this is seldom used alone. It's mostly used in combination with other characters to make words like “best friend,” “best food,” and “best love.”

I do not recommend this character for a wall scroll. It's better if you find a more specific term that fits your circumstances.

Note: This can be pronounced in Japanese and has a similar meaning but it is rarely if ever used in modern Japanese.

茶緣 is a special title for the tea lover. This kind of means “tea fate,” but it's more spiritual and hard to define. Perhaps the tea brought you in to drink it. Perhaps the tea will bring you and another tea-lover together. Perhaps you were already there, and the tea came to you. Perhaps it's the ah-ha moment you will have when drinking the tea.

I've been told not to explain this further, as it will either dilute or confuse the purposefully-ambiguous idea embedded in this enigma.

I happen to be the owner of a piece of calligraphy written by either the son or nephew of the last emperor of China, which is the title he wrote. It was given to me at a Beijing tea house in 2001. 茶緣 is where I learned to love tea after literally spending weeks tasting and studying everything I could about Chinese tea. I did not understand the significance of the authorship or the meaning of the title at all. Some 10 years later, I realized the gift was so profound and had such providence. Only now do I realize the value of a gift that it is too late to give proper thanks for. It was also years later that I ended up in this business and could have the artwork properly mounted as a wall scroll. It has been borrowed for many exhibitions and shows and always amazes native Chinese and Taiwanese who read the signature. This piece of calligraphy I once thought was just a bit of ink on a thin and wrinkled piece of paper, is now one of my most valued possessions. And fate has taught me to be more thankful for seemingly simple gifts.

道 is the character “dao” which is sometimes written as “tao” but pronounced like “dow” in Mandarin.

道 is the base of what is known as “Taoism.” If you translate this literally, it can mean “the way” or “the path.”

Dao is believed to be that which flows through all things and keeps them in balance. It incorporates the ideas of yin and yang (e.g. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)

The beginning of Taoism can be traced to a mystical man named
Lao Zi (604-531 BC), who followed, and added to the teachings of Confucius.

More about Taoism / Daoism here.

Note that this is pronounced “dou” and sometimes “michi” when written alone in Japanese but pronounced “do” in word compounds such as Karate-do and Bushido. It's also “do” in Korean.

Alternate translations and meanings: road, way, path; truth, principle province.

Important Japanese note: In Japanese, this will generally be read with the road, way, or path meaning. Taoism is not as popular or well-known in Japan so Daoist/Taoist philosophy is not the first thing a Japanese person will think of when they read this character.

See our Taoism Page

This poem was written almost 1200 years ago during the Tang dynasty.

It depicts traveling up a place known as Cold Mountain, where some hearty people have built their homes. The traveler is overwhelmed by the beauty of the turning leaves of the maple forest that surrounds him just as night overtakes the day, and darkness prevails. His heart implores him to stop, and take in all of the beauty around him.

First, before you get to the full translation, I must tell you that Chinese poetry is a lot different than what we have in the west. Chinese words simply don't rhyme in the same way that English or other western languages do. Chinese poetry depends on rhythm and a certain beat of repeated numbers of characters.

I have done my best to translate this poem keeping a certain feel of the original poet. But some of the original beauty of the poem in its original Chinese will be lost in translation.

Far away on Cold Mountain, a stone path leads upwards.
Among white clouds, people's homes reside.
Stopping my carriage I must, as to admire the maple forest at nights fall.
In awe of autumn leaves showing more red than even flowers of early spring.

Hopefully, this poem will remind you to stop, and “take it all in” as you travel through life.
The poet's name is “Du Mu” in Chinese that is: .
The title of the poem, “Mountain Travels” is:
You can have the title, poet's name, and even “Tang Dynasty” written as an inscription on your custom wall scroll if you like.

More about the poet:

Dumu lived from 803-852 AD and was a leading Chinese poet during the later part of the Tang dynasty.
He was born in Chang'an, a city in central China and the former capital of the ancient Chinese empire in 221-206 BC. In present-day China, his birthplace is currently known as Xi'an, the home of the Terracotta Soldiers.

He was awarded his Jinshi degree (an exam administered by the emperor's court which leads to becoming an official of the court) at the age of 25 and went on to hold many official positions over the years. However, he never achieved a high rank, apparently because of some disputes between various factions, and his family's criticism of the government. His last post in the court was his appointment to the office of Secretariat Drafter.

During his life, he wrote scores of narrative poems, as well as a commentary on the Art of War and many letters of advice to high officials.

His poems were often very realistic and often depicted everyday life. He wrote poems about everything, from drinking beer in a tavern to weepy poems about lost love.

The thing that strikes you most is the fact even after 1200 years, not much has changed about the beauty of nature, toils, and troubles of love and beer drinking.

破鏡重圓 is about a husband and wife who were separated and reunited.

About 1500 years ago in China, there lived a beautiful princess named Le Chang. She and her husband Xu De Yan loved each other very much. But when the army of the Sui Dynasty was about to attack their kingdom, disposed of all of their worldly possessions and prepared to flee into exile.

They knew that in the chaos, they might lose track of each other, so the one possession they kept was a bronze mirror which is a symbol of unity for a husband and wife. They broke the mirror into two pieces, and each of them kept half of the mirror. They decided that if separated, they would try to meet at the fair during the 15th day of the first lunar month (which is the lantern festival). Unfortunately, the occupation was brutal, and the princess was forced to become the mistress of the new commissioner of the territory, Yang Su.

At the Lantern Festival the next year, the husband came to the fair to search for his wife. He carried with him his half of the mirror. As he walked through the fair, he saw the other half of the mirror for sale at a junk market by a servant of the commissioner. The husband recognized his wife's half of the mirror immediately, and tears rolled down his face as he was told by the servant about the bitter and loveless life that the princess had endured.

As his tears dripped onto the mirror, the husband scratched a poem into his wife's half of the mirror:

You left me with the severed mirror,
The mirror has returned, but absent are you,
As I gaze in the mirror, I seek your face,
I see the moon, but as for you, I see not a trace.

The servant brought the inscribed half of the mirror back to the princess. For many days, the princess could not stop crying when she found that her husband was alive and still loved her.

Commissioner Yang Su, becoming aware of this saga, realized that he could never obtain the princess's love. He sent for the husband and allowed them to reunite.

This proverb, 破鏡重圓, is now used to describe a couple who has been torn apart for some reason (usually divorce) but have come back together (or remarried).
It seems to be more common these days in America for divorced couples to reconcile and get married to each other again. This will be a great gift if you know someone who is about to remarry their ex.