BETTER HAPPY THAN RICH Ancient Chinese Proverb Wall Scroll

It's Better to be Happy than Rich

"An Pin Le Dao"

"Even if you are poor, you should still feel satisfied in your life...

... Satisfaction, happiness, and the meaning of your life comes from within yourself and not from money or riches of the world".

In Chinese, there are a lot of four-character idiomatic phrases which express some very old philosophies.

Though there are only four characters on this scroll, in Chinese the meanings often surpass the dictionary definition of each character.

In this case, you should not set your expectations too high for the amount to money or riches you wish to have. One who sets their expectations too high will almost always be disappointed. Instead, you should cherish what you have, and seek to improve yourself from within, and not measure your personal worth by the size of your bank account.

If you would like to customize and purchase a wall scroll with this calligraphy phrase, please see our Better to be Happy than Rich - Custom Chinese Calligraphy page.

This hanging scroll is really nice since it doesn't require framing. Just hang it on your wall as Chinese people have done for centuries.

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About the calligrapher:

I met Cao Bin years ago, and long before his fame. At that time, his wife was running a small house cleaning business. One day she was tidying up my mother-in-law's home in Beijing and overheard that I am in the business of selling Chinese calligraphy and artwork. She asked if I'd like to meet her husband who was a pretty good calligrapher as she described him with modesty.

The next evening, I visited his modest studio and saw some really nice calligraphy and great black ink bamboo paintings that he'd just finished. After a lot of tea drinking and chatting, I asked if I could commission a few pieces.

Through the years, I would occasionally buy a few more pieces, not realizing how famous he had become. I might pop by his studio, only to hear from his wife that he was down in Anhui receiving an award for his calligraphy (calligraphy competitions are comparable to the fervor that sports championships have in the rest of the world). It finally dawned on me that this man I had known for about 7 years was a premier calligrapher for whom books had been published featuring his work, and the recipient of numerous awards.

The best part is that I have guanxi (a word that kind of means "special relationship" in Chinese), he gives me better prices than anyone else. This really fits well with my philosophy to offer high quality Asian artwork that everyone can afford.

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More about the artwork:

This is painted on xuan paper (often incorrectly called "rice paper"). The raw artwork was then taken to my workshop in east Beijing where the master mounter built it into a handmade wall scroll.