Many custom options...

Tan Paper and Copper Silk Love Wall Scroll
Red Paper and Ivory Silk Love Wall Scroll
Orange Paper Love Scroll
Crazy Blue and Gold Silk Love Scroll


And formats...

Love Vertical Portrait
Love Horizontal Wall Scroll
Love Vertical Portrait

Born in Chinese / Japanese...

Buy a Born calligraphy wall scroll here!

Personalize your custom “Born” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Born” title below...


  1. Birth / Life

  2. First Born Daughter

  3. First Born Son

  4. First Born

  5. We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity?

  6. Life Energy / Spiritual Energy

  7. Life Force

  8. Re-Birth / Renaissance

  9. Resurrection / Re-Birth

10. Birth Old-Age Sickness Death

11. Born To Be Wild


Birth / Life

 shēng
 shou / iku
 
Birth / Life Scroll

生 is a Chinese word that means “to be born” and “to give birth.”

Also, it's often used to refer to life itself, and sometimes “to grow.”

生 is used in a lot of compound words such as “yi sheng,” which means “doctor” (literally “healer of life”), “sheng ri” which means “birthday” (literally “birth-day”), and “xue sheng” which means student (literally “studying life” or “learner [about] life”). Few Chinese people will think of the literal meaning when this uses words like doctor and student - but it is interesting to note.

生 has the same root meaning in Korean Hanja and Japanese. However, in Japanese, there are many possible pronunciations, and this can be used to mean “raw” or “unprocessed” (as in draft beer). Therefore, not be the best if your audience is Japanese.


See Also:  Vitality

First Born Daughter

 zhǎng
 choujo
First Born Daughter Scroll

長女 is a Chinese, old Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji title for eldest daughter or firstborn daughter.

This can also be a given name “Osame” in Japanese.

First Born Son

 zhǎng nán
 chounan
First Born Son Scroll

長男 is a Chinese, old Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji title for eldest son (may be the only son), firstborn son.

This can also be the Japanese personal name “Nobuo.”

 souryou
First Born Scroll

惣領 is a Japanese title for the eldest child, the oldest child, firstborn child, or child who carries on the family name.

In more ancient times, this was used to refer to the head of a warrior clan. It can also be a place name or given name “Souryou” or “Soryo” in Japanese.

We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity?

 rén fēi shēng ér zhī zhī zhě shú néng wú huò
We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity? Scroll

This figuratively means “Without a teacher, how can we learn/mature?”

人非生而知之者熟能無惑 is a philosophic pondering by Han Yu, a Tang Dynasty essayist, and philosopher (618-907 A.D.). This is a Chinese proverb that can be translated as “Knowledge is not innate to man, how can we overcome doubt?” or, “We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity?.”

This infers that we need the guidance of a teacher if we wish to learn, mature, and become better.

Life Energy / Spiritual Energy

Chi Energy: Essence of Life / Energy Flow

 qì
 ki
 
Life Energy / Spiritual Energy Scroll

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: 米
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: 氣氣
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: 氣
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.

気 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

 shēng mìng
 seimei / inochi
Life Force Scroll

This Chinese, Korean and Japanese word means “life force” or simply “life.”

The first character means “life” or “birth.” The second means “life” or “fate.” Together they create the meaning of “life force,” though some will translate this as “existence” and sometimes “vitality.”


See Also:  Vitality | Birth

Re-Birth / Renaissance

 chóng shēng
Re-Birth / Renaissance Scroll

重生 is the Chinese word for rebirth. This can be used literally or metaphorically. As a metaphor, you could use this to say something like, “We are watching the rebirth of New Orleans after the disaster of Katrina.”

重生 is sometimes translated as “renaissance.”

Note: 重生 is not the Buddhist concept of reincarnation or re-birth.


See Also:  Reincarnation

Resurrection / Re-Birth

 fù huó
 hukkatsu
Resurrection / Re-Birth Scroll

復活 is the Chinese, Japanese and Korean word for resurrection or rebirth.

復活 literally means “return to life.”

It is the term used in most Asian Bibles to refer to the resurrection of Christ. In Japanese, it is sometimes used to mean a Christian Revival. In some contexts, it can mean resuscitation.


See Also:  Christianity | Jesus Christ | God of Abraham

Birth Old-Age Sickness Death

Born to Suffer

 shēng lǎo bìng sǐ
 shou rou byou shi
Birth Old-Age Sickness Death Scroll

生老病死 means “to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die” or “birth, aging, sickness, and death.”

This is an old somewhat-morbid Chinese proverb that is also used in Korean and Japanese. It figuratively means the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality) or suggests that we are all born to suffer.

In the Buddhist context, there are the “four inevitables in human life” or “four afflictions that are the lot of every human” known as “四苦” (literally “four afflictions”). Sometimes this proverb is written with that affliction character, 苦, at the end like 生老病死苦.

Born To Be Wild

 tiān shēng kuáng yě
Born To Be Wild Scroll

天生狂野 is “Born To Be Wild” (like the Steppenwolf song) in Chinese (Mandarin).

If you get to the deep meaning, the first two characters can mean “born” but refer as much to the nature, disposition, calling, or innate qualities of something or someone.

The last two mean coarse and/or wild.

So it kind of means that it is your nature to be wild.

Born To Be Wild

 wairudode ikou
Born To Be Wild Scroll

This is the Japanese version of “Born To Be Wild” (title of the Steppenwolf song).

The more literal meaning in Japanese for this phrase is “Let's go wild.”


Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.




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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title CharactersRomaji (Romanized Japanese)Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Birth
Life
shou / iku / sho / ikushēng / sheng1 / sheng
First Born Daughter長女
长女
choujo / chojozhǎng
zhang3 nu:3
zhang nu:
zhangnu:
chang nü
changnü
First Born Son長男
长男
chounan / chonanzhǎng nán
zhang3 nan2
zhang nan
zhangnan
chang nan
changnan
First Born惣領souryou / soryo
We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity?人非生而知之者熟能無惑rén fēi shēng ér zhī zhī zhě shú néng wú huò
ren2 fei1 sheng1 er2 zhi1 zhi1 zhe3 shu2 neng2 wu2 huo4
ren fei sheng er zhi zhi zhe shu neng wu huo
jen fei sheng erh chih chih che shu neng wu huo
Life Energy
Spiritual Energy

气 / 気
kiqì / qi4 / qich`i / chi
Life Force生命seimei / inochishēng mìng
sheng1 ming4
sheng ming
shengming
Re-Birth
Renaissance
重生chóng shēng
chong2 sheng1
chong sheng
chongsheng
ch`ung sheng
chungsheng
chung sheng
Resurrection
Re-Birth
復活
复活
hukkatsu / hukatsufù huó / fu4 huo2 / fu huo / fuhuo
Birth Old-Age Sickness Death生老病死shou rou byou shi
shouroubyoushi
sho ro byo shi
shēng lǎo bìng sǐ
sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3
sheng lao bing si
shenglaobingsi
sheng lao ping ssu
shenglaopingssu
Born To Be Wild天生狂野tiān shēng kuáng yě
tian1 sheng1 kuang2 ye3
tian sheng kuang ye
tianshengkuangye
t`ien sheng k`uang yeh
tienshengkuangyeh
tien sheng kuang yeh
Born To Be Wildワイルドでいこうwairudode ikou
wairudodeikou
wairudode iko
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.


Dictionary

Lookup Born in my Japanese & Chinese Dictionary


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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.


A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

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.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

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.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

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.

A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

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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