Not what you want?
Try other similar-meaning words, fewer words, or just one word.
Buy a What Are You Talking About calligraphy wall scroll here!
Personalize your custom “What Are You Talking About” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “What Are You Talking About” title below...
1. Shaolin Chuan / Shao Lin Quan
3. Appreciation and Love for Your Parents
4. Unselfish: Perfectly Impartial
少林拳 is the title of the martial art (style of Kung Fu) that is taught to the monks and students in the Shaolin Buddhist Monastery.
The addition of Chuan or Quan, which means fist is what signifies that you are talking about this school or form of martial arts.
基督教徒 is the most verbose (longest) word for “Christian” in the Chinese and Japanese languages.
The literal translation of the first two characters is Christ.
The third Character means “Religion” or “Teaching.”
The last character means “apprentice” or “disciple.”
Altogether these three characters mean “Christ's Teaching Disciple” or “Christ's Religion Apprentice.”
Note: The last two characters are sometimes translated together as “follower (of a religion),” so you could also say it means “Follower of Christ.”
This four-character title makes it very clear what you are talking about in Chinese.
See Also: Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
誰言寸草心報得三春暉 is the last line of a famous poem. It is perceived as a tribute or ode to your parents or mother from a child or children that have left home.
The poem was written by Meng Jiao during the Tang Dynasty (about 1200 years ago). The Chinese title is “You Zi Yin” which means “The Traveler's Recite.”
The last line as shown here speaks of the generous and warm spring sunlight which gives the grass far beyond what the little grass can could ever give back (except perhaps by showing its lovely green leaves and flourishing). The metaphor is that the sun is your mother or parents, and you are the grass. Your parents raise you and give you all the love and care you need to prepare you for the world. A debt that you can never repay, nor is repayment expected.
The first part of the poem (not written in the characters to the left) suggests that the thread in a loving mother's hands is the shirt of her traveling offspring. Vigorously sewing while wishing them to come back sooner than they left.
...This part is really hard to translate into English that makes any sense but maybe you get the idea. We are talking about a poem that is so old that many Chinese people would have trouble reading it (as if it was the King James Version of Chinese).
大公無私 is a Chinese proverb that comes from an old story from some time before 476 BC. About a man named Qi Huangyang, who was commissioned by the king to select the best person for a certain job in the Imperial Court.
Qi Huangyang selected his enemy for the job. The king was very confused by the selection, but Qi Huangyang explained that he was asked to find the best person for the job, not necessarily someone that he liked or had a friendship with.
Later, Confucius commented on how unselfish and impartial Qi Huangyang was by saying, “Da Gong Wu Si” which, if you look it up in a Chinese dictionary, is generally translated as “Unselfish” or “Just and Fair.”
If you translate each character, you'd have something like
“Big/Deep Justice Without Self.”
Direct translations like this leave out a lot of what the Chinese characters really say. Use your imagination, and suddenly you realize that “without self” means “without thinking about yourself in the decision” - together, these two words mean “unselfish.” The first two characters serve to drive the point home that we are talking about a concept that is similar to “blind justice.”
One of my Chinese-English dictionaries translates this simply as “just and fair.” So that is the short and simple version.
Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly used term.
See Also: Selflessness | Work Unselfishly for the Common Good | Altruism
麒麟 is the title of a mythical beast of Asia.
The animal is thought to be related to the giraffe, and in some ways, it is a giraffe. However, it is often depicted with the horns of a dragon or deer and sometimes with the body like a horse, but many variations exist.
In Japanese, it is pronounced “Kirin” as in “Kirin Ichiban” beer.
Notes:
1. This is sometimes spelled as “kylin.”
2. In Japanese, this is the only Kanji word for giraffe. Therefore in Japan, this word needs context to know whether you are talking about the mythical creature or the long-necked giraffe of Africa.
3. Apparently, this was the first word used for regular giraffes in China (some were brought from Africa to China during the Ming Dynasty - probably around the year 1400). Though the mythical creature may have existed before, the name “qilin” was given to the “new giraffe.” This is because, more than 600 years ago, giraffes somewhat matched the mythical creature's description when Chinese people saw them for the first time. Later, to avoid such an ambiguous title, a three-character word was devised to mean a “giraffe of Africa.” The characters for “qilin” shown here are only for the mythological version in modern Chinese.
4. More information about the qilin / kirin from Wikipedia.
5. This creature is sometimes translated as the “Chinese Unicorn,” although it is generally portrayed with two horns. I think this is done more for the fantasy aspect of the unicorn and because most westerners don't know what a qilin or kirin is (this avoids a long explanation by the translator).
6. In Korean, this can mean kirin or simply giraffe (usually, the mythological creature is what they would think of when seeing these characters alone on a wall scroll).
身土不二 (Shindofuni) is originally a Buddhist concept or proverb referring to the inseparability of body-mind and geographical circumstances.
This reads, “Body [and] earth [are] not two.”
Other translations or matching ideas include:
Body and land are one.
Body and earth can not be separated.
Body earth sensory curation.
You are what you eat.
Indivisibility of the body and the land (because the body is made from food and food is made from the land).
Going further, this speaks of our human bodies and the land from which we get our food being closely connected. This phrase is often used when talking about natural and organic vegetables coming directly from the farm to provide the healthiest foods in Japan.
Character notes: 身(shin) in this context does not just mean your physical body but a concept including both body and mind.
土 (do) refers to the soil, earth, clay, land, or in some cases, locality. It's not the proper name of Earth, the planet. However, it can refer to the land or realm we live in.
Japanese note: This has been used in Japan, on and off, since 1907 as a slogan for a governmental healthy eating campaign (usually pronounced as shindofuji instead of the original shindofuni in this context). It may have been hijacked from Buddhism for this propaganda purpose, but at least this is “healthy propaganda.”
Korean note: The phrase 身土不二 was in use by 1610 A.D. in Korea, where it can be found in an early medical journal.
In modern South Korea, it's written in Hangul as 신토불이. Korea used Chinese characters (same source as Japanese Kanji) as their only written standard form of the language until about a hundred years ago. Therefore, many Koreans will recognize this as a native phrase and concept.
See Also: Strength and Love in Unity
This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $108.00
Your Price: $59.88
Gallery Price: $304.00
Your Price: $168.88
Gallery Price: $60.00
Your Price: $36.88
Gallery Price: $60.00
Your Price: $36.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
Gallery Price: $700.00
Your Price: $388.88
Gallery Price: $61.00
Your Price: $33.88
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Shaolin Chuan Shao Lin Quan | 少林拳 | shǎo lín quán shao3 lin2 quan2 shao lin quan shaolinquan | shao lin ch`üan shaolinchüan shao lin chüan |
|
Disciple of Christianity | 基督教徒 | kirisutokyouto kirisutokyoto | jī dū jiào tú ji1 du1 jiao4 tu2 ji du jiao tu jidujiaotu | chi tu chiao t`u chituchiaotu chi tu chiao tu |
Appreciation and Love for Your Parents | 誰言寸草心報得三春暉 谁言寸草心报得三春晖 | shuí yán cùn cǎo xīn bào dé sān chūn huī shui2 yan2 cun4 cao3 xin1 bao4 de2 san1 chun1 hui1 shui yan cun cao xin bao de san chun hui | shui yen ts`un ts`ao hsin pao te san ch`un hui shui yen tsun tsao hsin pao te san chun hui |
|
Unselfish: Perfectly Impartial | 大公無私 大公无私 | dà gōng wú sī da4 gong1 wu2 si1 da gong wu si dagongwusi | ta kung wu ssu takungwussu |
|
Kirin Giraffe Mythical Creature | 麒麟 | kirin | qí lǐn / qi2 lin3 / qi lin / qilin | ch`i lin / chilin / chi lin |
Body and Earth in Unity | 身土不二 | shindofuni / shindofuji | ||
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. |
Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...
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 What Are You Talking About Kanji, What Are You Talking About Characters, What Are You Talking About in Mandarin Chinese, What Are You Talking About Characters, What Are You Talking About in Chinese Writing, What Are You Talking About in Japanese Writing, What Are You Talking About in Asian Writing, What Are You Talking About Ideograms, Chinese What Are You Talking About symbols, What Are You Talking About Hieroglyphics, What Are You Talking About Glyphs, What Are You Talking About in Chinese Letters, What Are You Talking About Hanzi, What Are You Talking About in Japanese Kanji, What Are You Talking About Pictograms, What Are You Talking About in the Chinese Written-Language, or What Are You Talking About in the Japanese Written-Language.