I am shipping orders on Thursday this week. News and More Info
Click the "Customize" button next to your name below to start your personalized Word calligraphy artwork...
一言九鼎 is an ancient Chinese proverb used in modern times to talk of profound or powerful words.
The literal meaning is “one word [worth] nine [sacred] tripods.” The tripod is a highly-prized three-legged (sometimes four-legged) metal pot or kettle of ancient China. They are often made of bronze, and the Emperor would have large ones gilded in gold. See the image to the right for an example.
武士の一言金鉄の如し is an old Japanese proverb about the value of the word of a warrior.
Here are a couple of versions of how this can be translated:
A warrior's single word is as unchanging and reliable as gold and steel.
A warrior's promise is as dependable as gold, and his [scabbard contains] untarnished steel (a sword).
Note: Sometimes this phrase is written as 男子の一言、金鉄の如し (danshi no ichigon kintetsu no gotoshi)
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
福音 is the Chinese, Korean and Japanese word for “Gospel” or “Word of God.”
福音 is a specifically Christian word in Asia (not used for any other religion).
The first character means blessing, good fortune, or good luck. This first character is a special character used throughout China to bring good tidings and fortune - especially during Chinese New Year. The second character means sound, noise, or news.
Together, these characters create a word that means “The Good News” or “The Sound of Good Fortune.”
When read by a Chinese or Japanese person, this word is always perceived as “The Christian Gospel,” “Word of God,” or even “The Voice of God.”
See Also: Christianity | Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
信 is another character that expresses the idea of honesty.
It can also mean truth, faith, belief in, fidelity, sincerity, trust, and/or confidence.
Some have included this in the list for the Bushido, although “makoto” is probably more common/popular.
Note: In some contexts, this character can mean a letter (mail), news, or envoy. However, alone, it will generally be read with the honesty-meaning.
See our page with just Code of the Samurai / Bushido here
See Also: Loyalty Trustworthiness Trustworthy
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Word | 沃德 | wò dé / wo4 de2 / wo de / wode | wo te / wote | |
| Word | ワード | waado / wado | ||
| Words Have Enormous Weight: One Word Worth Nine Caldrons | 一言九鼎 | yī yán jiǔ dǐng yi1 yan2 jiu3 ding3 yi yan jiu ding yiyanjiuding | i yen chiu ting iyenchiuting |
|
| The Warrior’s Word, Dependable as Gold and Steel | 武士の一言、金鉄の如し | bushi no ichigon kintetsu no gotoshi | ||
| Word of God The Gospel | 福音 | fukuin | fú yīn / fu2 yin1 / fu yin / fuyin | |
| Honesty Fidelity | 信 | shin | xìn / xin4 / xin | hsin |
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.
Some people may refer to this entry as Word Kanji, Word Characters, Word in Mandarin Chinese, Word Characters, Word in Chinese Writing, Word in Japanese Writing, Word in Asian Writing, Word Ideograms, Chinese Word symbols, Word Hieroglyphics, Word Glyphs, Word in Chinese Letters, Word Hanzi, Word in Japanese Kanji, Word Pictograms, Word in the Chinese Written-Language, or Word in the Japanese Written-Language.