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1. Year-In Year-Out Have Abundance
3. Guan Yu
4. We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity?
年年有餘 is a common proverb or wish of prosperity you'll hear around the time of Chinese New Year.
Directly translated character by character, it means “Year Year Have Surplus.” A more natural English translation including the deeper meaning would be “Every Year may you Have Abundance in your life.”
On a side note, this phrase often goes with a gift of something related to fish. This is because the last character, “yu” which means surplus or abundance, has exactly the same pronunciation in Mandarin as the word for “fish.”
This is also one of the most common titles for traditional paintings that feature koi fish.
In China, this phrase might make an odd wall scroll - a customer asked especially for this common phrase which is why it appears here. See my other abundance-related words if you want a wall scroll that will seem more comfortable in Chinese culture.
Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly used term.
See Also: Prosperity | Good Fortune
關公 is a Chinese title, Guan Gong, that means Lord Guan (The warrior saint of ancient China).
While his real name was Guan Yu / 關羽, he is commonly known by the title of Guan Gong (關公).
Some Chinese soldiers still pray to Guan Gong for protection. They would especially do this before going into battle. Statues of Guan Gong are seen throughout China.
關羽 is the name Guan Yu, Army General for the Kingdom of Shu.
He is also known as Guan Gong (like saying Duke Guan or Sir Guan)
He was immortalized in the novel, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
He was a fearsome fighter, also famous for his virtue and loyalty. He is worshiped by some modern-day soldiers and has the title “Warrior Saint” in China. Some believe he offers safety and protection for military servicemen.
Guan Yu lived until 219 A.D.
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.
谦逊正直温柔忍耐克己不屈 are the virtues used by Choi Kwang Do Martial Arts.
English | Hanja | Hangul | Pronunciation |
1. Humility (Humble / Modesty) | 謙遜 | 겸손 | gyeom son |
2. Honesty (Integrity) | 正直 | 정직 | jeong jig |
3. Gentleness | 溫柔 | 온유 | on yu |
4. Perseverance (To Endure) | 忍耐 | 인내 | in nae |
5. Self-Control (Self-Restraint) | 克己 | 극기 | geug gi |
6. Unbreakable Spirit (Unyielding / Unbending) | 不屈 | 불굴 | bur gur |
The characters shown here are in the ancient Korean Hanja form of writing. If you wish for a Korean Hangul form of these tenets, we can arrange that with our Master Calligrapher Xing An-Ping (click on the Hangul next to the South Korean flag above to order this in Hangul).
A determined effort can move a mountain
愚公移山 is the Chinese proverb (also somewhat known in Japan and Korea) for “the silly old man moves a mountain.”
Figuratively, this means “where there's a will, there's a way.”
Based on a fable of Lord Yu (愚公). He moved the soil of the mountain in front of his house. After years of effort, he finally moved the entire mountain (some versions of the story have God seeing how determined the man was, and sending two angels to whisk the mountains away).
The moral of the story: Anything can be accomplished if one works at it ceaselessly.
The Japanese version of this is 愚公山を移す (gu kou yama wo utsu su). But better to get the Chinese version, since this is originally a Chinese proverb.
See Also: Nothing is Impossible
To weigh one's words
During the Tang Dynasty, a man named Jia Dao (born in the year 779), a well-studied scholar and poet, went to the capital to take the imperial examination.
One day as he rides a donkey through the city streets, a poem begins to form in his mind. A portion of the poem comes into his head like this:
“The bird sits on the tree branch near a pond,
A monk approaches and knocks at the gate...”
At the same time, he wondered if the word “push” would be better than “knock” in his poem.
As he rides down the street, he imagines the monk pushing or knocking. Soon he finds himself making motions of pushing and shaking a fist in a knocking motion as he debates which word to use. He is quite a sight as he makes his way down the street on his donkey with hands and fists flying about as the internal debate continues.
As he amuses people along the street, he becomes completely lost in his thoughts and does not see the mayor's procession coming in the opposite direction. Jia Bao is blocking the way for the procession to continue down the road, and the mayor's guards immediately decide to remove Jia Bao by force. Jia Bao, not realizing that he was in the way, apologizes, explains his poetic dilemma and awaits his punishment for blocking the mayor's way.
The mayor, Han Yu, a scholar and author of prose himself, finds himself intrigued by Jia Dao's poem and problem. Han Yu gets off his horse and addresses Jia Bao, stating, “I think knock is better.” The relieved Jia Bao raises his head and is invited by the mayor to join the procession, and are seen riding off together down the street, exchanging their ideas and love of poetry.
In modern Chinese, this 反復推敲 idiom is used when someone is trying to decide which word to use in their writing or when struggling to decide between two things when neither seems to have a downside.
This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...
Gallery Price: $108.00
Your Price: $59.88
Gallery Price: $108.00
Your Price: $59.88
Gallery Price: $108.00
Your Price: $59.88
Gallery Price: $126.00
Your Price: $69.88
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Year-In Year-Out Have Abundance | 年年有餘 年年有馀 | nián nián yǒu yú nian2 nian2 you3 yu2 nian nian you yu niannianyouyu | nien nien yu yü niennienyuyü |
|
Guan Gong Warrior Saint | 關公 关公 | guān gōng guan1 gong1 guan gong guangong | kuan kung kuankung |
|
Guan Yu | 關羽 关羽 | guān yǔ / guan1 yu3 / guan yu / guanyu | kuan yü / kuanyü | |
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 | |
Korean CKD Virtues | 謙遜正直溫柔忍耐克己不屈 谦逊正直温柔忍耐克己不屈 | qiān xùn zhèng zhí wēn róu rěn nài kè jǐ bù qū qian1 xun4 zheng4 zhi2 wen1 rou2 ren3 nai4 ke4 ji3 bu4 qu1 qian xun zheng zhi wen rou ren nai ke ji bu qu | ch`ien hsün cheng chih wen jou jen nai k`o chi pu ch`ü chien hsün cheng chih wen jou jen nai ko chi pu chü |
|
Where There is a Will, There is a Way | 愚公移山 | yū gōng yí shān yu1 gong1 yi2 shan1 yu gong yi shan yugongyishan | yü kung i shan yükungishan |
|
Push or Knock | 反復推敲 反复推敲 | fǎn fù tuī qiāo fan3 fu4 tui1 qiao1 fan fu tui qiao fanfutuiqiao | fan fu t`ui ch`iao fanfutuichiao fan fu tui chiao |
|
Warrior Saint Saint of War | 武聖 武圣 | wǔ shèng / wu3 sheng4 / wu sheng / wusheng | ||
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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