Custom Wisdom Chinese & Japanese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

These are the core of Confucius philosophy. Simply stated they are:
benevolence / charity
justice / rectitude
politeness / tact
wisdom / knowledge
fidelity / trust

Many of these concepts can be found in various religious teachings. Though it should be clearly understood that Confucianism is not a religion, but should instead be considered a moral code for a proper and civilized society.

See Also...  Confucius Teachings | Ethics

This Chinese philosophy tells of how we continue to learn throughout our lives. It can be translated in a few ways such as "Study Has No End" or "Knowledge is Infinite".

The deeper meaning: Even when we finish school we are still students of the world gaining more knowledge from our surroundings with each passing day.

See Also...  An Open Book Benefits Your Mind | Learn From Wisdom

Tell somebody how to do something and they might get it.
Show them how to do it and they will master it in no time.

This could also be translated as "Behavior teaches more than words".

It's been said that wisdom comes from good judgment, and good judgment comes from experience, while experience comes from a series of times when you used bad judgment.

This Chinese proverb makes the simplest connection between experience and wisdom.

See Also...  Failure Is The Mother Of Success | Learn From Wisdom

This means exactly what you think.

Every failure that you experience is a chance to learn from it and find success.

Knowing what does not work is just as important as finding out what does work.

See Also...  Experience Is The Mother Of Wisdom

These two characters mean intelligence or intelligent.

The first character means wisdom, intellect or knowledge.

The second means ability, talent, skill, capacity, capable, able, and can even mean competent.

Together, the compound word can mean "capacity for wisdom", "useful knowledge", or even "mental power". Obviously this translates more clearly into English as "intelligence".

Note: This is not the same word used to mean "military intelligence". See our other entry for that.

The first character represents "to know" or "to realize". The second character alone refers to the ability to "recognize", or "realize" and can also be used to mean "knowing". Combined, these two characters have the very strong meaning of "knowledge" and in some context, "learning".

See Also...   Learn From Wisdom

When you meet a wise person, you should learn from them and be inspired to become as wise as they are.

This is a pretty long phrase in English, but in Chinese it's only four characters.
However, in Chinese the deeper meaning often surpass the dictionary definition of each character.

In this case, you should seek wise people to learn from throughout your life...
Always try to learn enough to become equal to them. It also suggests that the process of learning and seeking wisdom is a non-ending cycle.

See Also...  Knowledge

This means the power of understanding and insight in Chinese. It is often associated with Neo-Confucianism. In that regard, it means to realize man's true nature or to find your soul, the soul of others, or the soul of the world.

In Japanese, this is often translated as wisdom and understanding.

This single character can be translated as wisdom, but it has more of an "intelligent" flavor. This can also mean cleverness or wit.

Japanese note: This is understood in Japanese, but seldom seen as a lone Kanji.

See Also...  Knowledge | Learning | Read

You can translate this a couple of ways. One is: You can't gain knowledge without practice. The second, and perhaps more popular way is: Wisdom comes from experience.

It literally means if you are inattentive to your affairs or situations you encounter, you will not gain or grow any wisdom or intellect.

This is the simplest way to write wisdom in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Being a single character, the meaning is open to interpretation, and can also mean intellect or reason.

This character is also one of the five tenets of Confucius.

This character is sometimes included in the Bushido code, but usually not considered part of the seven key concepts of the code.

See Also...   Learn From Wisdom

The first character means, "wise" or "smart" and the second character means "intelligence".

I have also seen these two characters translated together as sagacity, sense, and intelligence.

Note: This word is used commonly in Chinese and is a less-common word in Japanese and Korean. If your audience is Japanese, I suggest our other Japanese wisdom option.

This means intellect or wisdom in Japanese too, but is a more unusual way to write this word (though both versions are pronounced the same in Japanese).

See Also...  Learn From Wisdom

The first Kanji represents "to know" or "to realize". Combined, these two Kanji mean "learn, know, and understand completely". Another way to translate this is "to know all things in their entirety".

Note: While vaguely understood in Chinese, this is only a real word in Japanese.

Ancient Japanese/Korean version: This is also a word in old Korean Hanja, with a slight difference in the last character - if you want that version (which is also the ancient Japanese version) please click on the character to the right, instead of the button above.

This Chinese proverb means:

"Fall into a moat and you will gain wisdom from the experience"

It really suggests that the failures, troubles, and setbacks that you encounter in your life are actually helping you to find wisdom. Some would also translate this proverb as:

"Learn from your mistakes" or "Learn from your experience".

If you are studying Chinese, you will recognize the first character as "eat", but in this case, it means to "experience" (as used in this proverb, it is suggesting that you have fallen into a moat and/or had a hard time crossing it). Literally translated character by character, this whole proverb is:

"Experience one moat, gain one wisdom/knowledge".

Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly-used phrase.