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Personalize your custom “Opening” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Opening” title below...
2. Accept the Situation and Move On
3. Open Door
4. Open the Minds of the Next Generation To Stimulate Thinking
5. Flourish and Blossom Everywhere
8. Optimistic
9. Achieve Inner Peace; Find Deep Understanding
10. Peace / Harmony
11. Gate
開花 literally means opening flowers (a verb).
開花 is also associated with Springtime, the beginning of something, or youth.
If you like flowers and Springtime, this is a great selection for you.
In Korean Hanja, this can be a metaphor for achieving enlightenment or becoming civilized (blooming civilization).
See Also: Flowers Fall
想開 is a Chinese title that translates as “move on.”
It can mean getting over a shock or bereavement. More often, it means avoiding dwelling on unpleasant things or accepting the situation and moving on. It's a suggestion to get over it and get on with life.
The literal meaning of the characters is something like “thoughts opening.” But it's understood more as getting over the same old thoughts and opening yourself up to new thoughts or ways of thinking.
開門 means “to open a door,” “opening gate” or figuratively, “to open for business.”
This word is often used to describe the idea of opening the minds of the young or the new generation.
See Also: Wisdom | Learning is Eternal | Learn From Wisdom
新しい始め is a verbose Japanese phrase that means “new beginning.”
The first three characters mean new, novel, fresh, recent, latest, up-to-date, or modern.
The last two characters mean beginning, start outset, opening, or origin.
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
啟蒙 is the Chinese word for enlightenment.
The first character means to open, to start, to begin, to commence, or to explain. The second character means deception or ignorance. It suggests that enlightenment is the opening or cutting through what deceives you in the world or the ignorance of the world. This title can also mean to educate.
The Japanese and Korean version of the first character of this title varies slightly from the Chinese. Please click on the Kanji to the right, instead of the button above, if you want the Japanese/Korean version.
Beyond optimistic, 豁達 can also be defined as sanguine; magnanimous; open-minded; openhearted; broad-minded.
豁達 is appropriate if you are, or want to be, the kind of person who is not bothered by the little things or minor troubles of life. This signifies a person who always feels things will get better. This is great for the person who figuratively sees a window of opportunity opening even as a door closes.
While a valid word in Japanese, this is kind of antiquated, and not in common use in modern Japan.
寧靜而致遠 is five characters from a longer ten-character proverb composed by Zhuge Liang about 1800 years ago.
诸葛亮 Zhuge Liang
The proverb means “Your inner peace/tranquility/serenity will help you see or reach far (into the world).”
The last word means “far” but the deeper meaning is that you will surpass what you can currently see or understand. Perhaps even opening up vast knowledge and understanding of complex ideas.
和 is the simplest form of peace and harmony.
和 can also be translated as the peaceful ideas of gentle, mild, kind, and calm. With a more harmonious context, it can be translated as union, together with, on good terms with, or on friendly terms.
Most people would just translate this character as peace and/or harmony. 和 is a very popular character in Asian cultures - you can even call it the “peace symbol” of Asia. In fact, this peace and harmony character was seen repeatedly during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (a major theme of the games).
In old Chinese poems and literature, you might see this used as a kind of "and." As in two things summed together. As much as you could say, "the sun and moon," you could say "the sun in harmony with the moon."
See Also: Inner Peace | Patience | Simplicity
門 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for gate, door, gateway, doorway, opening, entrance, valve, or switch.
Most commonly, this is simply a gate or door.
門 is also a Chinese surname that romanizes as Men.
In Japanese, this can be surnames romanizing as Yuki, Mon, To, or Kado.
In the Buddhist context, beyond meaning a door or gate, this can be a counter for a Buddhist sect, teaching, or school (we might say “slice” of bread, this would be a “gate” of teaching). In this way, it kind of refers to one of several doors that lead to salvation or nirvana.
淡泊以明志寧靜而致遠 is a kind of complex ten-character proverb composed by Zhuge Liang about 1800 years ago.
This is a Chinese proverb that means “Leading a simple life will yield a clear mind, and having inner peace will help you see far (into the world).”
What I have translated as “simple life” means NOT being materialistic and NOT competing in the rat race.
The last word means “far” but the deeper meaning is that you will surpass what you can currently see or understand. Perhaps even the idea of opening up vast knowledge and understanding of complex ideas.
The whole phrase has a theme that suggests if you are NOT an aggressive cut-throat person who fights his way to the top no matter how many people he crushes on the way, and instead seek inner peace, you will have a happier existence and be more likely to understand the meaning of life.
See Also: Serenity
There are several ways to translate this ancient proverb. Translated literally and directly, it says, “Open roll has/yields benefit.”
To understand that, you must know a few things...
First, Chinese characters and language have deeper meanings that often are not spoken but are understood - especially with ancient texts like this. Example: It's understood that the “benefit” referred to in this proverb is to the reader's mind. Just the last character expresses that whole idea.
Second, Chinese proverbs are supposed to make you think and leave a bit of mystery to figure out.
Third, for this proverb, it should be noted that roll = book. When this proverb came about (about two thousand years ago), books were rolls of bamboo slips strung together. The first bound books like the ones we use today did not come about until about a thousand years after this proverb when they invented paper in China.
開卷有益 is a great gift for a bookworm who loves to read and increase their knowledge. Or for any friend that is or wants to be well-read.
Some other translations of this phrase:
Opening a book is profitable
The benefits of education.
These search terms might be related to Opening:
Crisis Equals Danger Plus Opportunity?
Fate / Chance Meeting
Fate / Opportunity / Chance
Highest Quality / Top Notch
Opportunity
Opportunity / Good Luck
Opportunity Knocks Only Once
Serendipity / Chance Discovery
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Opening Blooming Flowers | 開花 开花 | kai ka / kaika | kāi huā / kai1 hua1 / kai hua / kaihua | k`ai hua / kaihua / kai hua |
Accept the Situation and Move On | 想開 想开 | xiǎng kāi xiang3 kai1 xiang kai xiangkai | hsiang k`ai hsiangkai hsiang kai |
|
Open Door | 開門 开门 | kai mon / kaimon | kāi mén / kai1 men2 / kai men / kaimen | k`ai men / kaimen / kai men |
Open the Minds of the Next Generation To Stimulate Thinking | 啟迪 启迪 | qǐ dí / qi3 di2 / qi di / qidi | ch`i ti / chiti / chi ti | |
Flourish and Blossom Everywhere | 遍地開花 遍地开花 | biàn dì kāi huā bian4 di4 kai1 hua1 bian di kai hua biandikaihua | pien ti k`ai hua pientikaihua pien ti kai hua |
|
New Beginning | 新しい始め | atarashii hajime atarashiihajime atarashi hajime | ||
Enlightenment | 啟蒙 启蒙 | keimou / keimo | qǐ méng / qi3 meng2 / qi meng / qimeng | ch`i meng / chimeng / chi meng |
Optimistic | 豁達 豁达 | katsudatsu | huò dá / huo4 da2 / huo da / huoda | huo ta / huota |
Achieve Inner Peace; Find Deep Understanding | 寧靜而致遠 宁静而致远 | níng jìng ér zhì yuǎn ning2 jing4 er2 zhi4 yuan3 ning jing er zhi yuan ningjingerzhiyuan | ning ching erh chih yüan ningchingerhchihyüan |
|
Peace Harmony | 和 | wa | hé / he2 / he | ho |
Gate | 門 门 | mon | mén / men2 / men | |
A Life of Serenity Yields Understanding | 淡泊以明志寧靜而致遠 淡泊以明志宁静而致远 | dàn bó yǐ míng zhì, níng jìng ér zhì yuǎn dan4 bo2 yi3 ming2 zhi4, ning2 jing4 er2 zhi4 yuan3 dan bo yi ming zhi, ning jing er zhi yuan | tan po i ming chih, ning ching erh chih yüan | |
An Open Book Benefits Your Mind | 開卷有益 开卷有益 | kāi juàn yǒu yì kai1 juan4 you3 yi4 kai juan you yi kaijuanyouyi | k`ai chüan yu i kaichüanyui kai chüan yu i |
|
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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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
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.
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 Opening Kanji, Opening Characters, Opening in Mandarin Chinese, Opening Characters, Opening in Chinese Writing, Opening in Japanese Writing, Opening in Asian Writing, Opening Ideograms, Chinese Opening symbols, Opening Hieroglyphics, Opening Glyphs, Opening in Chinese Letters, Opening Hanzi, Opening in Japanese Kanji, Opening Pictograms, Opening in the Chinese Written-Language, or Opening in the Japanese Written-Language.