Spring in Chinese / Japanese...

春 is the word/character used to describe the Spring season in Chinese and Japanese.

This Japanese name means gentle spring rain or gift from above.

It has the same meaning (and can be a given name) in Chinese.

This literally translates as: Without having experienced the cold of winter, one cannot appreciate the warmth of spring.

Figuratively, this means: One cannot truly appreciate happiness without having gone through hardship.

There are many contrasts in life. One simply cannot fully know what joy is without having experienced misery, difficulty, and pain. How could you explain "light" if you did not have "darkness" to compare it to?

Embrace hardship, as it makes the good times seem even better.

秋 is the word/character used to describe the Autumn or Fall season in Chinese and Japanese.

See Also:  Winter | Summer | Four Seasons

常春藤 is a common way to write "ivy" in Chinese.
There are varieties of ivy, and other ways to say ivy in Chinese but this version is probably the nicest. It's the one you would use if writing a poem about ivy etc.

If you want the actual meaning, this is, "Always Young Vine", or "Ever Living Vine". The literal meaning of the characters is more like, "Always Spring[time] Vine". But Spring can have other representations in Chinese such as new life, youth, freshness, joyfulness, etc.

This Japanese proverb means, "A moment of time in a spring evening (is worth a thousand pieces of gold)".

春夏秋冬 is one way to express "The Four Seasons " or "All Year Round ".

The characters here represent Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall) and Winter.

The first two characters literally mean "Singing Spring" (as in springtime).

The last two are "Kung Fu".

母 is a way to say mother in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

This can also be an honorary title for an elderly female relative.

Sometimes this can refer to the origin or source of something. Examples: A spring might be the mother of a river, or experience could be the mother of success.

復活祭 is how the holiday of Easter is written in Japanese.

While not well-understood holiday in Japan (Christians being about 1% of the population), you will find stuffed Easter bunnies at the shops in the Spring.

復活祭 is a less-used way to write Easter in old Korean.

詠春拳 is the title for the "Wing Chun" school of martial arts but with the addition of the character for "fist" on the end. So this is "Wing Chun Fist" or literally "Singing Spring Fist".

There are lots of alternate Cantonese romanizations for this such as "Wing Chun Kuen", "Wing Tsun Cheun", "Eng Chun Pai", and "Wing Ceon Kyun". The characters are the same, just the lack of a standard Cantonese romanization means that people make up their own based on what they think it sounds like.

福 is pronounced "fu" in Chinese.

The character "fu" is posted by virtually all Chinese people on the doors of their homes during the Spring Festival (closely associated with the Chinese New Years).

One tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (beginning in 256 B.C.) holds that putting a fu symbol on your front door will keep the goddess of poverty away.

福 literally means good fortune, prosperity, blessed, happiness, and fulfillment.

See Also:  Lucky

青龍 is a scholarly title for "Blue Dragon" or "Azure Dragon".

You'll find this title used in ancient Chinese literature and astronomy. This dragon has dominion over the eastern sky or eastern heavens. The Azure Dragon is also noted for representing the spring season. Also seen as an auspicious omen.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty canonized the five colored dragons as "kings". The Azure Dragon representing the most compassionate of kings.

In Japanese, this title is known with the same meaning but can also be a given name, Seiryuu.

Note, the first character can be written as OR . Same character, just two ways to write it.

陳 is the most common character for a Chinese surname that romanizes as "Chen".

陳 is also a surname You or Yo in Japanese, though it can also be pronounced as Chin in Japanese.

In Korean, it is a surname romanized as Jin.

As a word, this character means: to lay out; to exhibit; to display; to narrate; to state; to explain; to tell.

The Chen clan or family was a small kingdom from 1046 BC to 479 BC. It was one of 12 small-but-powerful vassal states during the Spring and Autumn Period 770-475 BC. This name reappeared as the Chen Dynasty (陳朝) of the Southern dynasties from 557 AD to 589 AD.

This martial arts technique has an oral history (versus a written one) so very little can be said for sure about its origins.
Wing Chun (or Wing Cheun) is a Chinese martial art that emphasizes short combat strokes.

The characters literally mean "Singing Spring" (as in springtime).

If you are wondering, the spelling and pronunciation of this martial arts style in English comes from the Cantonese pronunciation of these characters. The second character sounds similar in both Mandarin and Cantonese but the first is quite different.

Note: This title can be pronounced in Japanese but only a Japanese practitioner of Wing Chun would recognize or understand this title. It is not considered to be a Japanese word or martial art at all.

This is the last line of a famous poem. It is perceived as a tribute or ode to your parent's or mother from a child or children that have left home.

The poem was written by Meng Jiao during the Tang Dynasty (about 1200 years ago). The Chinese title is "You Zi Yin" which means "The Traveler's Recite".

The last line as shown here speaks of the generous and warm spring sun light which gives the grass far beyond what the little grass can could ever give back (except perhaps by showing its lovely green leaves and flourishing). The metaphor is that the sun is your mother or parents, and you are the grass. Your parents raise you and give you all the love and care you need to prepare you for the world. A debt which you can never repay, nor is repayment expected.

The first part of the poem (not written in the characters to the left) suggests that the thread in a loving mother's hands is the shirt of her traveling offspring. Vigorously sewing while wishing them to come back sooner than they left.
...This part is really hard to translate into English that makes any sense but maybe you get the idea. We are talking about a poem that is so old that many Chinese people would have trouble reading it (as if it was the King James Version of Chinese).

This poem was written almost 1200 years ago during the Tang dynasty.

It depicts traveling up a place known as Cold Mountain, where some hearty people have built their homes. The traveler is overwhelmed by the beauty of the turning leaves of the maple forest that surrounds him just as night overtakes the day, and darkness prevails. His heart implores him to stop, and take in all of the beauty around him.

First before you get to the full translation, I must tell you that Chinese poetry is a lot different than what we have in the west. Chinese words simply don't rhyme in the same way that English, or other western languages do. Chinese poetry depends on rhythm and a certain beat of repeated numbers of characters.

I have done my best to translate this poem keeping a certain feel of the original poet. But some of the original beauty of the poem in it's original Chinese will be lost in translation.

Far away on Cold Mountain, a stone path leads upwards.
Among white clouds, people's homes reside.
Stopping my carriage I must, as to admire the maple forest at nights fall.
In awe of autumn leaves showing more red than even flowers of early spring.

Hopefully, this poem will remind you to stop, and "take it all in" as you travel through life.
The poet's name is "Du Mu" in Chinese that is: .
The title of the poem, "Mountain Travels" is:
You can have the title, poet's name, and even Tang Dynasty written as an inscription on your custom wall scroll if you like.

More about the poet:

Dumu lived from 803-852 AD and was a leading Chinese poet during the later part of the Tang dynasty.
He was born in Chang'an, a city of central China and former capital of the ancient Chinese empire in 221-206 BC. In present-day China, his birthplace is currently known as Xi'an, the home of the Terracotta Soldiers.

He was awarded his Jinshi degree (an exam administered by the emperor's court which leads to becoming an official of the court) at the age of 25, and went on to hold many official positions over the years. However, he never achieved a high rank, apparently because of some disputes between various factions, and his family's criticism of the government. His last post in the court was his appointment to the office of Secretariat Drafter.

During his life, he wrote scores of narrative poems, as well as a commentary on the Art of War and many letters of advice to high officials.

His poems were often very realistic, and often depicted every day life. He wrote poems about everything, from drinking beer in a tavern to weepy poems about lost love.

The thing that strikes you most is the fact even after 1200 years, not much has changed about the beauty of nature, toils and troubles of love and beer drinking.