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一次霜凍不代表整個冬天 is a proverb that means “One frost doesn't make winter.”
The deeper meaning is that a single early sign of cold weather doesn't signify the full onset or severity of winter; it's about the gradual transition of seasons, patience, and not jumping to conclusions.
It's a reminder to stay resilient, wait for the real season to arrive, and not let one small event define the whole experience, similar to how one kind word can warm you for months.
While the origin of this proverb is murky (not originally Chinese, likely a modern adaptation of “One swallow does not a summer make”), this idea aligns with the Chinese solar terms (二十四節氣), which mark subtle shifts, like the transition from "cold dew" (寒露) to "frost falls" (霜降).
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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| One frost doesn't make winter | 一次霜凍不代表整個冬天 一次霜冻不代表整个冬天 | yī cì shuāng dòng bù dài biǎo zhěng gè dōng tiān yi1 ci4 shuang1 dong4 bu4 dai4 biao3 zheng3 ge4 dong1 tian1 yi ci shuang dong bu dai biao zheng ge dong tian | i tz`u shuang tung pu tai piao cheng ko tung t`ien i tzu shuang tung pu tai piao cheng ko tung tien |
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| One swallow doesn’t make a summer | 孤燕不成夏 | gū yàn bù chéng xià gu1 yan4 bu4 cheng2 xia4 gu yan bu cheng xia guyanbuchengxia | ku yen pu ch`eng hsia kuyenpuchenghsia ku yen pu cheng hsia |
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| 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. | ||||
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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.
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.
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