財富 means wealth or riches in Chinese.

Hanging this on your wall will label you as a “lover of money” or a “greedy person.” Order this only if you don't mind being seen in this light.

金錢/金銭 means money, cash, currency, or wealth in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

Literally, it means “gold coins” but has come to be used to mean money in general, as well as the idea of wealth.

The second character of this word is written in a variant form in Japan. The more common version in Japan is shown to the right. Click on the Kanji to the right instead of the button above if you want this Japanese variant in your calligraphy.

The title says it all; this word is clearly understood in Chinese and Japanese as well as Korean Hanja.

人為財死鳥為食亡 is a Chinese proverb that literally states that human beings will die for riches, just as birds will for food.

Figuratively it means that man will do anything in his means to become rich. Personally, I think dying for food is a more noble cause.

Often translated as “Men die in pursuit of wealth, birds die in pursuit of food. The 人 in this proverb just means human, so “men” is a placeholder for human with that translation - an English language problem that we have no easy gender-neutral nouns.

This proverb is meant to serve as a warning about the follies of greed.

財寶 is the Japanese word meaning “treasure” or “money and valuables.”

The first character means “property,” “money,” “wealth,” or “assets.” The second character means “treasure,” “wealth,” or “valuables” in Japanese. Together these two characters reinforce each other into a word that clearly means treasure in Japanese.

財寶 is also a word meaning “money and valuables” in Chinese but more of a daily use word - not as appropriate for a wall scroll if your audience is Chinese.

The second character shown to the left is the ancient/traditional Japanese version. In modern Japan, this character has been simplified. This simplified version is shown to the right. If you want this modern Japanese/simplified version, just click the Kanji on the right, instead of the button above.

室利 is a Buddhist term or title that comes from the Sanskrit śrī.

The meaning is fortunate, lucky, prosperous, wealth, or beauty. This can be a sort of suffix for certain deities or respected people in Buddhism.

This is the title of “The Five Fortunes” in Chinese.

The implied five fortunes are as follows:
Longevity (壽)
Wealth (富)
Health & Composure (康寧)
Love of Virtue (攸好德)
A Peaceful Death (考終命)

五福臨門 means “five good fortunes arrive [at the] door.”

It is understood to mean “may the five blessings descend upon this home.”

These blessings are known in ancient China to be: longevity, wealth, health, virtue, and natural death (living to old age). This is one of several auspicious sayings you might hear during the Chinese New Year.

弁財天 is a Buddhist term that can be translated or transliterated as Benzaiten or Saraswati.

弁財天 is the Buddhist goddess of music, eloquence, wealth, and water.

This goddess of eloquence came into Buddhism from the Hindu goddess Saraswati. Benzaiten and Saraswati are considered by most to be one and the same. However, in Japanese culture, Benzaiten has been conflated with several other deities.

黑闇女 is a Buddhist title that means “dark sister,” “dark one,” or “dark woman.”

There are two sisters:
One is the deva, 功德女 (“merit” or “achieving”), who causes people to acquire wealth.
The other is the “dark one,” 黑闇女, which causes people to spend and waste.

These sisters always accompany each other.

紅五蝠 is a play on words in Chinese because of some homophones.

The first thing you need to know is that the word for bat, 蝠, sounds exactly like the word for good fortune, 福. Thus, bats are often associated with good luck and good fortune in Chinese culture.

Five bats (五福 / 五蝠) means “five fortunes,” referring to luck, prosperity, wealth, happiness, and longevity.

The word red, 红, has the same sound as 宏 meaning vast, great, or magnificent. Therefore, a red bat means “vast fortune.”

Altogether, five red bats represent vast reaches of the five fortunes.

This text is the ninth chapter of the Daodejing / Tao Te Ching.

The text reads:
持而盈之、不如其已。揣而梲之、不可長保。 金玉滿堂、莫之能守。 富貴而驕、自遺其咎。 功遂身退、天之道。

This classical Chinese passage comes from the Mawangdui (馬王堆帛書) text.

This is referred to as passage or chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing (often Romanized as “Tao Te Ching”).

These are the words of the philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu).

Notes:

During our research, the Chinese characters shown here are probably the most accurate to the original text of Laozi. These were taken for the most part from the Mawangdui 1973 and Guodan 1993 manuscripts which pre-date other Daodejing texts by about 1000 years.

Grammar was a little different in Laozi’s time. So you should consider this to be the ancient Chinese version. Some have modernized this passage by adding, removing, or swapping articles and changing the grammar (we felt the oldest and most original version would be more desirable). You may find other versions printed in books or online - sometimes these modern texts are simply used to explain to Chinese people what the original text really means.

This language issue can be compared in English by thinking how the King James (known as the Authorized version in Great Britain) Bible from 1611 was written, and comparing it to modern English. Now imagine that the Daodejing was probably written around 403 BCE (2000 years before the King James Version of the Bible). To a Chinese person, the original Daodejing reads like text that is 3 times more detached compared to Shakespeare’s English is to our modern-day speech.

Extended notes:

While on this Biblical text comparison, it should be noted, that just like the Bible, all the original texts of the Daodejing were lost or destroyed long ago. Just as with the scripture used to create the Bible, various manuscripts exist, many with variations or copyist errors. Just as the earliest New Testament scripture (incomplete) is from 170 years after Christ, the earliest Daodejing manuscript (incomplete) is from 100-200 years after the death of Laozi.

The reason that the originals were lost probably has a lot to do with the first Qin Emperor. Upon taking power and unifying China, he ordered the burning and destruction of all books (scrolls/rolls) except those pertaining to Chinese medicine and a few other subjects. The surviving Daodejing manuscripts were either hidden on purpose or simply forgotten about. Some were not unearthed until as late as 1993.

We compared a lot of research by various archeologists and historians before deciding on this as the most accurate and correct version. But one must allow that it may not be perfect, or the actual and original as from the hand of Laozi himself.