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2. Predestined Love / Love by Fate
4. The Mysterious Bond Between People
5. Fate / Opportunity / Chance
6. The Karma/Fate/Destiny that Brings Lovers Together
7. Yuan Fen
緣份 specifically represents the fate or destiny that brings two people together.
This is like the chance meeting of two people that leads sometime later to marriage.
This could also be the chance meeting of two business people who become partners and build a huge and successful company.
This idea is often associated with a fateful meeting leading to good fortune.
Some will define this word as “Destiny brings you two together” or “Meant to be.”
Note: The second character can also be written without the left radical, as shown to the right. If you have a preference, please let use know in the special instructions for your project. There is no difference in meaning or pronunciation, just two (alternate) ways to write the same character.
See Also: Soulmates | Good Fortune
The invisible force that brings people together forever
緣 represents the fate that brings and bonds people together.
緣 is a complicated single character. It can mean a lot of different things depending on how you read it.
In Japanese, it can mean fate, destiny, a mysterious force that binds two people together, a relationship between two people, bond, link, connection, family ties, affinity, opportunity, or chance (to meet someone and start a relationship). It can also mean “someone to rely on,” relative, reminder, memento, or the female given name, Yori.
It's the same in Chinese, where it's defined as cause, reason, karma, fate, or predestined affinity.
In the Buddhist context, it's Pratyaya. This is the concept of indirect conditions, as opposed to direct causes. It's when something happens (meeting someone) by circumstance or a contributing environment. Instead of a direct cause or act, it is a conditioning cause without direct input or action by the involved people.
Occasionally, this character is used in a facetious way to say hem, seam, or edge of clothing. In this case, it's the seam that brings or holds the clothing together.
Note: Japanese will tend to use the variant of this Kanji shown to the right. If you want this version (and are ordering this from the Japanese master calligrapher), click on the Kanji at the right instead of the button above.
The Buddhist idea of Fate
因緣 is the Buddhist concept of a chance meeting or an opportunity that presents itself by fate.
Sometimes this is used to describe a cosmic chain of events or cause and effect.
It also is used to describe predestined relationships between people - and sometimes married couples (although if you want one about marriage, try this: Fate / Destiny of Lovers.
因緣 can also be translated as origin, karma, destiny, affinity, connection, and relation. This all depends on context - seen alone on a wall scroll, this will be read with a “fate/chance” meaning by a Chinese person or a Korean person who can read Hanja.
The more complex definition of this word would be, “Direct causes and indirect conditions, which underlie the actions of all things.”
This concept is known as nidana in the original Sanskrit. Also sometimes presented as hetupratyaya (or “hetu and prataya”), which I believe is Pali.
Note: Japanese will tend to use this version of the second Kanji:
If you order this from the Japanese master calligrapher, expect that you’ll get this version. However, this word often carries a negative connotation in Japanese (bad things happen), as it is used that way in a certain Japanese idiom. Therefore, this may not be the best choice if Japanese is your target language.
See Also: Buddhism | Opportunity
姻緣 means “Destiny that brings lovers together.” It can also be translated technically as “Predestined matrimonial affinity” (wow, talk about taking the romance out of this word - that was from the Oxford C-E dictionary).
This speaks to the fate (or karma) that brings a husband and wife together. I would translate this as “Together by fate” or “Joined by destiny” but in the context of marriage. You could use this for non-married lovers, but the first character has a suggestion that this refers to those that are married.
緣分 or Yuan Fen is the fate or chance that brings people together.
This can also mean a predestined affinity or relationship. Basically this is about destiny.
These search terms might be related to Affinity:
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Fate Chance Meeting | 緣份 / 緣分 缘份 / 缘分 | yuán fèn / yuan2 fen4 / yuan fen / yuanfen | yüan fen / yüanfen | |
Predestined Love Love by Fate | 情緣 情缘 | qíng yuán qing2 yuan2 qing yuan qingyuan | ch`ing yüan chingyüan ching yüan |
|
Family Bond Family Ties | 親緣 亲缘 | qīn yuán / qin1 yuan2 / qin yuan / qinyuan | ch`in yüan / chinyüan / chin yüan | |
Family Bond Family Ties | 類縁 | ruien | ||
The Mysterious Bond Between People | 緣 / 縁 缘 | en | yuán / yuan2 / yuan | yüan |
Fate Opportunity Chance | 因緣 因缘 / 因縁 | in nen / innen | yīn yuán / yin1 yuan2 / yin yuan / yinyuan | yin yüan / yinyüan |
The Karma/Fate/Destiny that Brings Lovers Together | 姻緣 姻缘 | yīn yuán / yin1 yuan2 / yin yuan / yinyuan | yin yüan / yinyüan | |
Yuan Fen | 緣分 缘分 | yuán fèn / yuan2 fen4 / yuan fen / yuanfen | yüan fen / yüanfen | |
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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