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2. Two
3. 17 Seventeen
4. Eight
5. Nine
6. Five
7. Ten
8. Three
9. Seven
10. Six
12. Roku-Dan / 6th Degree Black Belt
13. Tai Chi Ball
14. Zero
15. Day
16. Moon
17. Where There is a Will, There is a Way
18. Reincarnation / Transmigration of Souls
19. Daodejing / Tao Te Ching - Excerpt
20. Holy Bible
21. Sky / Ether / Void / Emptiness / Unreality
22. Life Energy / Spiritual Energy
23. One
The number two
二 is the number 2 in Chinese, Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji. I have no idea why you would want this as a calligraphy wall scroll but hundreds of visitors search for this number.
In Japanese, this character can be pronounced several different ways depending on context. It can be ni, aru-, futa-, and a few others when combined with other characters.
There's just one way to pronounce this in Chinese. Korean also has just one pronunciation.
The number eight
八 is the number eight in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
八 is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if the number eight is important to you.
Because this character is rather simple (just two strokes), 捌 instead of 八 is an anti-fraud way to write eight on bank documents.
The number nine
九 is the number nine in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
九 is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if the number nine is important to you.
Because this character is rather simple (just two strokes), there is an anti-fraud way to write nine on bank documents. This version is shown to the right.
The number five
五 is the number five in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
This is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if the number five is important to you.
Because this character is rather simple (just four strokes), there is an anti-fraud way to write three on bank documents. These variants are shown to the right. This version can also refer to a squad of five soldiers, or in Korean, refer to rank.
The number ten
十 is the number ten in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
This is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if the number ten is important to you.
Because this character is rather simple (just two strokes), there is an anti-fraud way to write ten on bank documents. This variant is shown to the right.
The number three
三 is the number three in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
This is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if the number three is important to you.
Because this character is rather simple (just three lines), there is an anti-fraud way to write three on bank documents. These variants are shown to the right.
The number seven
七 is the number 7 in Chinese, Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji. I have no idea why you would want this as a calligraphy wall scroll but hundreds of visitors search for this number.
In Japanese, this character can be pronounced several different ways depending on context. It can be shichi / nana-, and a few others when combined with other characters.
There's just one way to pronounce this in Chinese. Korean also has just one pronunciation.
The number six
六 is the number 6 in Chinese, Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji. I have no idea why you would want this as a calligraphy wall scroll, but hundreds of visitors search for this number.
In Japanese, this character can be pronounced differently depending on context. It can be ryu, roku, mu, and a few others when combined with other Kanji.
There's just one way to pronounce this in Chinese. Korean also has just one pronunciation.
Also written 陸 or 陆 as an anti-fraud banker’s numeral.
六段 is the Japanese title for the 6th Degree or 6th Level.
This applies mostly to martial arts and earning the title of a 6th-degree black belt.
The first character is simply the number 6.
The second character is “dan” which is often translated as “degree” in the context of Japanese martial arts. 六段 means grade, rank, level. When a number is in front like this, it refers to a senior rank in martial arts or games of strategy such as go, shogi, chess, etc.
零 is the number zero in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
零 is a strange selection for a wall scroll, so it's here mostly for reference. I guess it's OK if zero is important to you.
Note: In modern Japan and China, they will often just write a circle to represent zero in lieu of this character.
This is how to write “day” in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Hanja.
This can also mean “Sun,” the star in the middle of the Solar system in which we live. In Japanese, it can also mean “sunshine” or even “Sunday.”
When writing the date in modern Chinese and Japanese, putting a number in front of this character indicates the day of the month. Of course, you need to indicate the month too... The month is expressed with a number followed by the character for the moon. So “three moons ten suns” would be “March 10th” or “3/10.”
Note: This is also the first character for the proper name of Japan. Remember that Japan is “The land of the rising sun”? Well, the first character for Japan means “sun” and the second means “origin” so you get the real meaning now. Sometimes, in China, this sun character can be a short name for Japan or a suffix for something of or from Japan.
月 is how to write the title for “moon” in Chinese, Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji.
月 is also used to refer to the month. This is because China traditionally uses a lunar calendar, so saying “next moon” is the same as saying “next month” etc.
In modern Chinese and Japanese and old Korean, the character for a number is put in front of this moon character to represent western months. So “one moon” is January “two moons” is February etc.
If you are wondering, in the east Asian way to write dates, the character for “sun” or “day” is used with a number in front of it to express the day of the month. So “ten moons, one sun” becomes “October 1st” or “10/1” (this date happens to be Chinese National Day - The equivalent of Independence Day in the USA, Canada Day, or the Queen's Birthday).
In Japanese, 月 can be a surname that romanizes as Tsuki, Tsukizaki, or Takagetsu.
精神一到何事か成らざらん is a Japanese expression that means “Where there is a will, there is a way. There are other Japanese phrases with similar meanings but this one is the most commonly used (according to the number of results on Japanese Google).
This can also be romanized as “seshinittonanigotokanarazaran.”
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
輪回 is a universal word in Japanese and Chinese that expresses the Buddhist idea of “reincarnation,” “transmigration of souls,” or “the eternal cycle of birth and death.”
In some contexts, this can also mean “karma,” and others will say it represents “samsara.”
The first character means wheel, ring, turn, circle, loop, or rotate.
The second character can be thought of as a suffix meaning “-times.” This second character can also refer to something that revolves, returns, goes back, or is a counter of the number of occurrences of some event.
Together the sum supersedes the parts, and it means reincarnation. But knowing the essence of each character may help you understand some of the meaning behind the word.
Shown to the right is the more common way to write the second character in Japanese.
it’s
an alternate form of this character in Chinese (so neither way is technically wrong in either language). If you select a Japanese calligrapher, expect that is will look like the Kanji to the right.
Excerpt from Chapter 67
一曰慈二曰儉三曰不敢為天下先 is an excerpt from the 67th Chapter of Lao Tzu's (Lao Zi's) Te-Tao Ching (Dao De Jing).
This is the part where the three treasures are discussed. In English, we'd say these three treasures are compassion, frugality, and humility. Some may translate these as love, moderation, and lack of arrogance. I have also seen them translated as benevolence, modesty, and “Not presuming to be at the forefront in the world.” You can mix them up the way you want, as translation is not really a science but rather an art.
I should also explain that the first two treasures are single-character ideas, yet the third treasure was written out in six characters (there are also some auxiliary characters to number the treasures).
If Lao Tzu's words are important to you, then a wall scroll with this passage might make a great addition to your home.
聖經 is how to write Bible in Chinese.
The first character means Holy, sacred, saint, or sage.
The second character means sacred book or scripture.
Each Sunday morning, if you are near a Catholic or Protestant Church, you will see plenty of Chinese people carrying their Bibles. Virtually every large or medium city in China has at least one Christian church. Beijing has about 14 Christian churches of Catholic and various Protestant denominations. That number doubles if you count all the church services that are for foreigners only and doubles again if you count all of the underground Christian Churches. Many Embassies (Canadian, Italian, French, etc.) offer Protestant and Catholic services. However, the U.S. Embassy is the most unfriendly in all of China, offering no such religious services, regularly denying entry, and kicking out Americans and others, whether or not they have official business.
(Used in Japanese version of five elements)
空 is a single character that means empty, void, hollow, vacant, vacuum, blank, nonexistent, vacuity, voidness, emptiness, non-existence, immateriality, unreality, the false or illusory nature of all existence, and being unreal.
In the Buddhist context, this relates to the doctrine that all phenomena and the ego have no reality but are composed of a certain number of skandhas or elements, which disintegrate. The void, the sky, space. The universal, the absolute, complete abstraction without relativity. The doctrine further explains that all things are compounds, or unstable organisms, possessing no self-essence, i.e. are dependent, or caused, come into existence only to perish. The underlying reality, the principle of eternal relativity, or non-infinity, i.e. śūnya, permeates all phenomena making possible their evolution.
From Sanskrit and/or Pali, this is the translation to Chinese and Japanese of the title śūnya or śūnyatā.
In Japanese, when pronounced as “ron” (sounds like “roan”) this can be a given name. It should be noted that this Kanji has about 5 different possible pronunciations in Japanese: kuu, kara, sora, ron, and uro. 空 is also an element in the Japanese version of the five elements.
Chi Energy: Essence of Life / Energy Flow
This 氣 energy flow is a fundamental concept of traditional Asian culture.
氣 is romanized as “Qi” or “Chi” in Chinese, “Gi” in Korean, and “Ki” in Japanese.
Chi is believed to be part of everything that exists, as in “life force” or “spiritual energy.” It is most often translated as “energy flow” or literally as “air” or “breath.” Some people will simply translate this as “spirit,” but you must consider the kind of spirit we're talking about. I think this is weighted more toward energy than spirit.
The character itself is a representation of steam (or breath) rising from rice. To clarify, the character for rice looks like this:
Steam was apparently seen as visual evidence of the release of “life energy” when this concept was first developed. The Qi / Chi / Ki character is still used in compound words to mean steam or vapor.
The etymology of this character is a bit complicated. It's suggested that the first form of this character from bronze script (about 2500 years ago) looked like these samples:
However, it was easy to confuse this with the character for the number three. So the rice radical was added by 221 B.C. (the exact time of this change is debated). This first version with the rice radical looks like this:
The idea of Qi / Chi / Ki is really a philosophical concept. It's often used to refer to the “flow” of metaphysical energy that sustains living beings. Yet there is much debate that has continued for thousands of years as to whether Qi / Chi / Ki is pure energy or consists partially or fully of matter.
You can also see the character for Qi / Chi / Ki in common compound words such as Tai Chi / Tai Qi, Aikido, Reiki, and Qi Gong / Chi Kung.
In the modern Japanese Kanji, the rice radical has been changed into two strokes that form an X.
The original and traditional Chinese form is still understood in Japanese, but we can also offer that modern Kanji form in our custom calligraphy. If you want this Japanese Kanji, please click on the character to the right instead of the “Select and Customize” button above.
More language notes: This is pronounced like “chee” in Mandarin Chinese, and like “key” in Japanese.
This is also the same way to write this in Korean Hanja where it is Romanized as “gi” and pronounced like “gee” but with a real G-sound, not a J-sound.
Though Vietnamese no longer use Chinese characters in their daily language, this character is still widely known in Vietnam.
See Also: Energy | Life Force | Vitality | Life | Birth | Soul
The number one
一 is “one” or “1” in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
People keep searching for “one” but I'm not sure what you want. This would be a strange selection for a wall scroll, so please don't order it. Post a request on our forum if you want a phrase with “one” in it that you can't find on our site.
The “one” character is really simple, it's just one stroke. Two is two strokes and three is three strokes, from four and above, the characters get more complicated.
In some ways, the “one” character is too simple, it could be a stray mark, or added to a banking document. Therefore, the following banking anti-fraud character for “one” has developed over the last 1500 years in China and Japan:
Age is just a number
老當益壯 is a Chinese proverb that means “old but vigorous” or “hale and hearty despite the years.”
Said of someone who is more spirited when he/she grows older.
The story behind this Chinese proverb:
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a man named Ma Yuan. He had been planning to herd animals on the frontier since he was young. When he grew up, Ma became a minor official of a county.
Once, he was sending some prisoners to another location. He felt pity for them, so he set them free, and then he fled to another county in the north. He herded animals there, and thus his dream came true. He always said: “If you want to be a great man, the poorer you are, the firmer in spirit you have to be; the older you are, the more spirited you should be.”
Later, when he was even older, Ma Yuan became a famous general of the Eastern Han Dynasty and contributed to many battles.
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Best Number One | 一番 | ichi ban / ichiban | ||
Two | 二 | ni / aru- / futa- | èr / er4 / er / er | erh |
17 Seventeen | 十七 | juunana / juushichi junana / jushichi | shí qī / shi2 qi1 / shi qi / shiqi | shih ch`i / shihchi / shih chi |
Eight | 八 | hachi | bā / ba1 / ba | pa |
Nine | 九 / 玖 | kyuu / kyu | jiǔ / jiu3 / jiu | chiu |
Five | 五 / 伍 五 | go | wǔ / wu3 / wu | |
Ten | 十 / 拾 十 | juu / ju | shí / shi2 / shi | shih |
Three | 三 / 參 三 / 参 | san | sān / san1 / san | |
Seven | 七 | shichi / nana- | qī / qi1 / qi | ch`i / chi |
Six | 六 / 陸 六 / 陆 | ryuu / roku / muu ryu / roku / mu | liù / liu4 / liu | |
A Vast Sky Full of Stars | 繁星 | fán xīng / fan2 xing1 / fan xing / fanxing | fan hsing / fanhsing | |
Roku-Dan 6th Degree Black Belt | 六段 | roku dan / rokudan | ||
Tai Chi Ball | 太極球 太极球 | tai kyoku kyuu taikyokukyuu tai kyoku kyu | tài jí qiú tai4 ji2 qiu2 tai ji qiu taijiqiu | t`ai chi ch`iu taichichiu tai chi chiu |
Zero | 零 零 / 〇 | rei / zero | líng / ling2 / ling | |
Day | 日 | hi / nichi | rì / ri4 / ri | jih |
Moon | 月 | tsuki | yuè / yue4 / yue | yüeh |
Where There is a Will, There is a Way | 精神一到何事か成らざらん | seishin ittou nanigoto ka nara zaran seishin itto nanigoto ka nara zaran | ||
Reincarnation Transmigration of Souls | 輪回 / 輪廻 轮回 | rin ne / rinne | lún huí / lun2 hui2 / lun hui / lunhui | |
Daodejing Tao Te Ching - Excerpt | 一曰慈二曰儉三曰不敢為天下先 一曰慈二曰俭三曰不敢为天下先 | yī yuē cí èr yuē jiǎn sān yuē bù gǎn wéi tiān xià xiān yi1 yue1 ci2 er4 yue1 jian3 san1 yue1 bu4 gan3 wei2 tian1 xia4 xian1 yi yue ci er yue jian san yue bu gan wei tian xia xian | i yüeh tz`u erh yüeh chien san yüeh pu kan wei t`ien hsia hsien i yüeh tzu erh yüeh chien san yüeh pu kan wei tien hsia hsien |
|
Holy Bible | 聖經 圣经 | shèng jīng sheng4 jing1 sheng jing shengjing | sheng ching shengching |
|
Sky Ether Void Emptiness Unreality | 空 | kuu / kara / sora / ron ku / kara / sora / ron | kōng / kong1 / kong | k`ung / kung |
Life Energy Spiritual Energy | 氣 气 / 気 | ki | qì / qi4 / qi | ch`i / chi |
One | 一 | ichi | yī / yi1 / yi | i |
Old, But More Vigorous in Spirit | 老當益壯 老当益壮 | lǎo dāng yì zhuàng lao3 dang1 yi4 zhuang4 lao dang yi zhuang laodangyizhuang | lao tang i chuang laotangichuang |
|
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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