Buy a Float calligraphy wall scroll here!
Many things have opposite properties. The water you drink can also drown you. Pork may nourish you and keep you alive but under-cook it and it could kill you. Potassium nitrate is often used as a fertilizer to grow the food that sustains us but it's also been used as an explosive to topple buildings and destroy us.
This concept is easily associated with “yin yang” where an element has two opposite properties that are as different as night and day.
This proverb's meaning can be summed up this way: “Anything that can lead you to success may also contain great risks.”
This phrase is known in literary circles by Korean people (scholars or literature). It is therefore also a valid proverb in Korean Hanja, though most Koreans would not be able to make sense of it.
Please note that there is an unwritten rule when the same character appears twice in the same phrase, the calligrapher will alter the appearance so that no two characters are exactly alike in the same piece. This calligraphy has two repeating characters that will be written differently than they appear here.
These search terms might be related to Float:
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your float search...
| Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
山 see styles |
shān shan1 shan yamamura やまむら |
More info & calligraphy: Mountain(n,ctr) (1) mountain; hill; (n,ctr) (2) mine; (n,ctr) (3) (mountain) forest; (n,ctr) (4) heap; pile; stack; mountain; (5) protruding or high part of an object; crown (of a hat); thread (of a screw); tread (of a tire); (6) climax; peak; critical point; (7) guess; speculation; gamble; (8) (slang) (kana only) (police and crime reporter jargon; usu. written as ヤマ) (criminal) case; crime; (9) mountain climbing; mountaineering; (10) (See 山鉾) festival float (esp. one mounted with a decorative halberd); (11) {cards} (See 山札・1) deck (from which players draw cards); draw pile; stock; (12) {mahj} wall; wall tile; (prefix noun) (13) (before the name of a plant or animal) wild; (personal name) Yamamura A hill, mountain; a monastery. |
龜 龟 see styles |
qiū qiu1 ch`iu chiu ki |
More info & calligraphy: TurtleTortoise, turtle. The rareness of meeting a Buddha is compared with the difficulty of a blind sea-turtle finding a log to float on, or a one-eyed tortoise finding a log with a spy-hole through it. |
氽 see styles |
tǔn tun3 t`un tun |
to float; to deep-fry |
汎 泛 see styles |
fàn fan4 fan hiroshi ひろし |
variant of 泛[fan4] (prefix) pan-; (male given name) Hiroshi to float in the water |
汧 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
marsh; float |
泛 see styles |
fàn fan4 fan hiroshi ひろし |
(bound form) general; non-specific; extensive; pan-; to flood; (literary) to float about; to be suffused with (a color, emotion, odor etc) (given name) Hiroshi generalization |
流 see styles |
liú liu2 liu ryuu / ryu りゅう |
to flow; to disseminate; to circulate or spread; to move or drift; to degenerate; to banish or send into exile; stream of water or something resembling one; class, rate or grade (hist) (See 五刑・2) exile (second most severe of the five ritsuryō punishments); (surname, given name) Ryū Flow; float; spread; wander. |
浮 see styles |
fú fu2 fu uki うき |
to float; superficial; floating; unstable; movable; provisional; temporary; transient; impetuous; hollow; inflated; to exceed; superfluous; excessive; surplus (surname) Uki Floating, drifting, unsettled. |
颺 飏 see styles |
yáng yang2 yang |
to soar; to fly; to float; variant of 揚|扬[yang2], to scatter; to spread |
飄 飘 see styles |
piāo piao1 p`iao piao |
to float (in the air); to flutter; to waft; complacent; frivolous; weak; shaky; wobbly |
上市 see styles |
shàng shì shang4 shi4 shang shih kamiichi / kamichi かみいち |
to hit the market (of a new product); to float (a company on the stock market) (adj-f,vs) going on the market; placing on the market; (place-name, surname) Kamiichi |
上浮 see styles |
shàng fú shang4 fu2 shang fu |
to float up |
家台 see styles |
yatai やたい |
(irregular kanji usage) (1) cart (esp. a food cart); stall; stand; (2) festival float; portable shrine dedicated to a god and shaped like a house; dancing platform; (3) stage prop fashioned after a large building; (4) (abbreviation) framework (of a house, etc.); (5) (archaism) house (esp. a small and miserable house) |
屋体 see styles |
yatai やたい |
(1) cart (esp. a food cart); stall; stand; (2) festival float; portable shrine dedicated to a god and shaped like a house; dancing platform; (3) stage prop fashioned after a large building; (4) (abbreviation) framework (of a house, etc.); (5) (archaism) house (esp. a small and miserable house) |
屋台 see styles |
yatai やたい |
(1) cart (esp. a food cart); stall; stand; (2) festival float; portable shrine dedicated to a god and shaped like a house; dancing platform; (3) stage prop fashioned after a large building; (4) (abbreviation) framework (of a house, etc.); (5) (archaism) house (esp. a small and miserable house) |
山鉾 see styles |
yamahoko やまほこ |
festival float mounted with a decorative halberd; (place-name) Yamahoko |
彩車 彩车 see styles |
cǎi chē cai3 che1 ts`ai ch`e tsai che |
float (in a parade) |
懸浮 悬浮 see styles |
xuán fú xuan2 fu2 hsüan fu |
to float (in the air etc); suspension |
曳山 see styles |
hikiyama ひきやま |
festival float; (personal name) Hikiyama |
楽車 see styles |
danjiri だんぢり |
(kana only) (ksb:) decorative portable shrine; float used in festivals |
檀尻 see styles |
danjiri だんぢり |
(kana only) (ksb:) decorative portable shrine; float used in festivals |
泛ぶ see styles |
ukabu うかぶ |
(out-dated kanji) (Godan verb with "bu" ending) (1) to float; to be suspended; (2) to rise to surface; (3) to come to mind; to have inspiration |
流す see styles |
nagasu ながす |
(transitive verb) (1) to drain; to pour; to run; to let flow; to flush; to shed (blood, tears); to spill; (transitive verb) (2) to float (e.g. logs down a river); to set adrift; (transitive verb) (3) to wash away; to carry away; to sweep away; (transitive verb) (4) to broadcast; to play (e.g. music over a loudspeaker); to send (electricity through a wire); (transitive verb) (5) to circulate (a rumour, information, etc.); to spread; to distribute; (v5s,vi) (6) to cruise (of a taxi); to stroll around (in search of customers, an audience, etc.); to go from place to place; (transitive verb) (7) to cancel (a plan, meeting, etc.); to call off; to reject (e.g. a bill); (transitive verb) (8) to forfeit (a pawn); (v5s,vi) (9) to do leisurely (e.g. running, swimming); to do with ease; to do effortlessly; (transitive verb) (10) to exile; to banish; (transitive verb) (11) {baseb} to hit (the ball) to the opposite field; (suf,v5s) (12) (after the -masu stem of a verb) to do inattentively; to do without concentrating; to put little effort into doing; (transitive verb) (13) to cause a miscarriage; to abort |
流放 see styles |
liú fàng liu2 fang4 liu fang |
to exile; to banish; to deport; to float (logs) downstream |
流蕩 流荡 see styles |
liú dàng liu2 dang4 liu tang |
to float; to tramp; to rove |
浮き see styles |
uki うき |
float (fishing); buoy |
浮く see styles |
uku うく |
(v5k,vi) (1) to float; (v5k,vi) (2) (See 浮かぬ顔) to become merry; to be cheerful; (v5k,vi) (3) to become loose; to become unsteady; (v5k,vi) (4) (colloquialism) to feel out of it; to be cut off (e.g. from those around you); to feel out of place; (v5k,vi) (5) to be frivolous; to be uncertain; (v5k,vi) (6) to have (time, money, etc.) left over; to be saved (e.g. money); (v5k,vi) (7) to have no basis; to be unreliable |
浮ぶ see styles |
ukabu うかぶ |
(Godan verb with "bu" ending) (1) to float; to be suspended; (2) to rise to surface; (3) to come to mind; to have inspiration |
浮上 see styles |
fú shàng fu2 shang4 fu shang fujou / fujo ふじょう |
to float up; to rise to the surface; fig. to rise in the world (n,vs,vi) (1) surfacing; rising to the surface; (n,vs,vi) (2) emerging; leaping into prominence; (n,vs,vi) (3) rising (of rank) |
浮動 浮动 see styles |
fú dòng fu2 dong4 fu tung fudou / fudo ふどう |
to drift about; to move unsteadily; (fig.) to fluctuate; to rise and fall; to be changeable; (economics) (of a currency or rate etc) to float (n,vs,vi,adj-no) floating |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Not Only Can Water Float A Boat, It Can Sink It Also | 水能載舟亦能覆舟 水能载舟亦能覆舟 | shuǐ néng zài zhōu yì néng fù zhōu shui3 neng2 zai4 zhou1 yi4 neng2 fu4 zhou1 shui neng zai zhou yi neng fu zhou | shui neng tsai chou i neng fu chou | |
| 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. | ||||
Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...
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.
Some people may refer to this entry as Float Kanji, Float Characters, Float in Mandarin Chinese, Float Characters, Float in Chinese Writing, Float in Japanese Writing, Float in Asian Writing, Float Ideograms, Chinese Float symbols, Float Hieroglyphics, Float Glyphs, Float in Chinese Letters, Float Hanzi, Float in Japanese Kanji, Float Pictograms, Float in the Chinese Written-Language, or Float in the Japanese Written-Language.
244 people have searched for Float in Chinese or Japanese in the past year.
Float was last searched for by someone else on Apr 20th, 2026