Person of Character in Chinese / Japanese...

jinkakusha

인격자

人格者 is a Japanese and Korean title that means, "person of character."

人格者 is unisex, so it can also be used to mean, "man of character," or "woman of character."

dào shì

dou shi

도사

道士 is a Japanese Kanji, Korean Hanja, and Chinese title that means Daoist or Taoist. This can refer to a Taoist priest, or a person of high morals. This can also be applied to Buddhists and to Śākyamuni (especially in Japanese). It suggest a person (or soldier) who follows the way or the right path. Thus a person who follows a path of virtue.

nǚ qiáng rén

女強人 is the best way to say "strong woman" or "strong and independent woman" in Chinese.

Grammar in China is a bit different, so these three characters literally read as "female strength person" or "woman strong person." This might sound funny in English but this is a natural-sounding title in Chinese.

xìn yǎng

shin kou

신앙

信仰 means firm belief, faith, persuasion, conviction, and sometimes religion or creed in Chinese, Japanese Kanji and old Korean Hanja.

信仰 clearly fits religious connotation of the English word "devotion."

信仰 is often used to refer to a person of faith or a religious person.

This can be directly translated as "firm belief," "creed," "conviction" or simply as "religious" depending on context.

Some will also use this to mean "trust in God" in Japanese (though the term for God is not actually in this title).

It should be noted that this word is a little strange alone on a wall scroll.

While this can be pronounced in Japanese, it's not a great selection for a wall scroll if your audience is Japanese.

See Also:  Faith | Trust | Devotion | Trust | Trust in God

kun shi hyou hen su

This Japanese proverb suggests that a wise man is willing to change his mind but a fool will stubbornly never change his.

The first word is 君子 (kunshi) man of virtue, person of high rank, wise man.

The second word is 豹変 (hyouhen) sudden change, complete change.

The last part す (su) just modifies the verb to a more humble form.

The "fool" part is merely implied or understood. So if wise and noble people are willing to change their minds, it automatically says that foolish people are the ones unwilling to change.

bǎi zhé bù náo

hyaku setsu su tou

백절불요

This Chinese proverb means "Be undaunted in the face of repeated setbacks." More directly-translated, it reads, "[Overcome] a hundred setbacks, without flinching." 百折不撓 is of Chinese origin but is commonly used in Japanese, and somewhat in Korean (same characters, different pronunciation).

This proverb comes from a long, and occasionally tragic story of a man that lived sometime around 25-220 AD. His name was Qiao Xuan and he never stooped to flattery but remained an upright person at all times. He fought to expose corruption of higher-level government officials at great risk to himself.

Then when he was at a higher level in the Imperial Court, bandits were regularly capturing hostages and demanding ransoms. But when his own son was captured, he was so focused on his duty to the Emperor and common good that he sent a platoon of soldiers to raid the bandits' hideout, and stop them once and for all even at the risk of his own son's life. While all of the bandits were arrested in the raid, they killed Qiao Xuan's son at first sight of the raiding soldiers.

Near the end of his career a new Emperor came to power, and Qiao Xuan reported to him that one of his ministers was bullying the people and extorting money from them. The new Emperor refused to listen to Qiao Xuan and even promoted the corrupt Minister. Qiao Xuan was so disgusted that in protest he resigned his post as minister (something almost never done) and left for his home village.

His tombstone reads "Bai Zhe Bu Nao" which is now a proverb used in Chinese culture to describe a person of strength will who puts up stubborn resistance against great odds.

My Chinese-English dictionary defines these 4 characters as, "keep on fighting in spite of all setbacks," "be undaunted by repeated setbacks" and "be indomitable."

Our translator says it can mean, "never give up" in modern Chinese.

Although the first two characters are translated correctly as "repeated setbacks," the literal meaning is "100 setbacks" or "a rope that breaks 100 times." The last two characters can mean "do not yield" or "do not give up."
Most Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people will not take this absolutely literal meaning but will instead understand it as the title suggests above. If you want a single big word definition, it would be indefatigability, indomitableness, persistence, or unyielding.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Perseverance | Persistence

shén ài shì rén shèn zhì jiāng tā de dú shēng zǐ cì gè tā mén jiào yí qiè xìn tā de bú zhì miè wáng fǎn dé yǒng shēng

神愛世人甚至將他的獨生子賜給他們叫一切信他的不至滅亡反得永生 is the full translation of John 3:16 into Chinese.

This is from the Chinese Union Bible which comes from a revised version of the King James. This Chinese Bible was originally translated and printed in 1919 (several revisions since then).

Because of the origin being the KJV, I'll say that in English, this would be, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

As with any translation, there are interesting cultural and linguistic issues. For instance, the word used for "world" in Chinese can also mean "common people." So you could say that it means "For God so loved the common people..."
This does not take away from the text, as it will be understood with the same meaning and connotation.

There is no direct Greek to Chinese translation in print (that I know of), so this is the best available. Of course, you can ask any Greek person of faith, and they will claim that a bit is lost from the original Greek of the New Testament to any of the English versions of the Bible in print.

huáng

ou

황

凰 is another simple way to write "Phoenix" in Chinese. 凰 is the specifically female element of phoenix, so this is how you write "female phoenix." This character is sometimes used to represent the female empress (many times in history, China was ruled by a woman, in much the same way queens came to power in Europe).

Note that the emperor is always represented as a dragon (not the male version of phoenix).

If you see yourself as a strong woman, this might be scroll for you to express "woman power" or "powerful woman" in a cool way.

hitogara

This Japanese word speaks of the quality of your personality, character, personal appearance, or gentility.

gāng yì

gouki

This Japanese and Chinese word means, "resolute and firm," "fortitude," "firmness of character," "hardihood," "manliness" or "macho."

See Also:  Perseverance | Strength | Tenacity

nǚ jiá

joketsu

女傑 can mean brave woman, heroine, lady of character, distinguished woman, outstanding woman, and sometimes prominent woman.

In modern usage, some people might use this to give a title to women like Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, or Sarah Palin. I would rather use it for a woman like Araceli Segarra (the first woman from Spain to climb Mt. Everest).

jiàn měi

takemi

건미

We don't really have a word like this in English but these two characters create a word that means "strong and beautiful." It could also be translated as "healthy and beautiful."

Note: 健美 is a word in Chinese and Korean but it's also the family name Takemi in Japanese. The characters hold the same meaning in Japanese but It's kind of like having the English name Stillwell, when few people would perceive the meanings of still and well.

dà zhàng fu

dai jou bu

대장부

大丈夫 is a Chinese, Korean, and Japanese title that means, a manly man, a man of character, a great man, or fine figure of a man.

In Japanese, this can also be used to mean safe, all right, alright, OK, sure, or "no problem." Basically, used in Japanese for something of that is undoubted or very acceptable.

jīn guó yīng xióng

巾幗英雄 is a cool and somewhat ancient way to say woman hero in Chinese. 巾幗英雄 is used in modern times to refer to an outstanding woman or a woman with great accomplishments.

In the old days, it was a title for a woman warrior (oh, did I mention that there were great female generals who led huge armies into battle in ancient China?)

kè jǐ fèng gōng

극기봉공

This can also mean: "Place Strict Standards on Oneself in Public Service."
This Chinese proverb is often used to express how one should act as a government official. Most of us wish our public officials would hold themselves to higher standards. I wish I could send this scroll, along with the meaning to every member of Congress, and the President (or if I was from the UK, all the members of Parliament, and the PM)

The story behind this ancient Chinese idiom:
A man named Cai Zun was born in China a little over 2000 years ago. In 24 AD, he joined an uprising led by Liu Xiu who later became the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Later, the new emperor put Cai Zun in charge of the military court. Cai Zun exercised his power in strict accordance with military law, regardless of the offender's rank or background. He even ordered the execution of one of the emperor's close servants after the servant committed a serious crime.

Cai Zun led a simple life but put great demands on himself to do all things in an honorable way. The emperor rewarded him for his honest character and honorable nature by promoting him to the rank of General and granting him the title of Marquis.

Whenever Cai Zun would receive an award, he would give credit to his men and share the reward with them.
Cai Zun was always praised by historians who found many examples of his selfless acts that served the public interest.
Sometime, long ago in history, people began to refer to Cai Zun as "ke ji feng gong."

See Also:  Unselfish | Selflessness | Altruism