Many custom options...

Tan Paper and Copper Silk Love Wall Scroll
Red Paper and Ivory Silk Love Wall Scroll
Orange Paper Love Scroll
Crazy Blue and Gold Silk Love Scroll


And formats...

Love Vertical Portrait
Love Horizontal Wall Scroll
Love Vertical Portrait

Opening in Chinese / Japanese...

Buy an Opening calligraphy wall scroll here!

Personalize your custom “Opening” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Opening” title below...


  1. Opening / Blooming Flowers

  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

  6. New Beginning

  7. Enlightenment

  8. Optimistic

  9. Achieve Inner Peace; Find Deep Understanding

10. Peace / Harmony

11. Gate

12. A Life of Serenity Yields Understanding

13. An Open Book Benefits Your Mind


Opening / Blooming Flowers

 kāi huā
 kai ka
Opening / Blooming Flowers Scroll

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

Accept the Situation and Move On

 xiǎng kāi
Accept the Situation and Move On Scroll

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.

 kāi mén
 kai mon
Open Door Scroll

開門 means “to open a door,” “opening gate” or figuratively, “to open for business.”

Open the Minds of the Next Generation To Stimulate Thinking

 qǐ dí
Open the Minds of the Next Generation To Stimulate Thinking Scroll

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

Flourish and Blossom Everywhere

 biàn dì kāi huā
Flourish and Blossom Everywhere Scroll

遍地開花 is a Chinese proverb that means “to blossom everywhere,” “to spring up all over the place,” or “to flourish on a large scale.”

遍地 = everywhere
開花 = opening flowers

New Beginning

 atarashii hajime
New Beginning Scroll

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.

Enlightenment

 qǐ méng
 keimou
Enlightenment Scroll

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.


啓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.

 huò dá
 katsudatsu
Optimistic Scroll

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.

Achieve Inner Peace; Find Deep Understanding

 níng jìng ér zhì yuǎn
Achieve Inner Peace; Find Deep Understanding Scroll

寧靜而致遠 is five characters from a longer ten-character proverb composed by Zhuge Liang about 1800 years ago.

Zhuge Liang

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.

Peace / Harmony

 hé
 wa
 
Peace / Harmony Scroll

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

 mén
 mon
 
Gate Scroll

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.

A Life of Serenity Yields Understanding

 dàn bó yǐ míng zhì, níng jìng ér zhì yuǎn
A Life of Serenity Yields Understanding Scroll

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

An Open Book Benefits Your Mind

 kāi juàn yǒu yì
An Open Book Benefits Your Mind Scroll

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 CharactersRomaji (Romanized Japanese)Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Opening
Blooming Flowers
開花
开花
kai ka / kaikakāi huā / kai1 hua1 / kai hua / kaihuak`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 / kaimonkāi mén / kai1 men2 / kai men / kaimenk`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 / qidich`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 / keimoqǐ méng / qi3 meng2 / qi meng / qimengch`i meng / chimeng / chi meng
Optimistic豁達
豁达
katsudatsuhuò dá / huo4 da2 / huo da / huodahuo 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
wahé / he2 / heho
Gate
monmén / 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.


Dictionary

Lookup Opening in my Japanese & Chinese Dictionary


Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...

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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.


A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

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.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

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.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

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.

A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

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.