萬歲 is the traditional Chinese, Korean Hanja, and ancient Japanese way of writing banzai.

In modern times, the first character was simplified in Japan and China. So you might want to select the other entry for universal readability.

While it has become a popular, if not an odd, thing to scream as you jump out of an airplane (preferably with a parachute attached), banzai is actually a very old Asian way to say “hooray.” The Japanese word “banzai” comes from the Chinese word “wan sui,” which means “The age of 10,000 years.” It is actually a wish that the Emperor or the Empire live that long.

Imagine long ago when the Emperor made a rare public appearance. 萬歲 is what all people would yell to their leader in respect.

So if you like it as a hooray, or you want to wish someone that they live for 10,000 years, this is the calligraphy for you.

Other translations include Cheers! (not the drinking kind), hurrah!, long live [name]!, and congratulations!

To other things with banzai in their names, I am still waiting for the promised sequel to Buckaroo Banzai.

Notes: Sometimes people confuse banzai with bonsai. A bonsai is a miniature tree. They have nothing to do with each other.

万歲 is the modern Japanese way to write banzai.

We've made two almost identical entries for this word, with just a variation on the first character. In the last century, 萬 was simplified to 万 in Japan and China. The new generation will expect it to be written as 万 but the old generation can still read the more traditional 萬 form. You must make your determination as to what version is best for you. If your audience is mostly Japanese, I suggest 万歲.

While it has become a popular, if not an odd, thing to scream as you jump out of an airplane (preferably with a parachute attached), banzai is actually a very old Asian way to say “hooray.” The Japanese word “banzai” comes from the Chinese word “wan sui” which means “The age of 10,000 years.” It is actually a wish that the Emperor or the Empire live that long.

Imagine long ago when the Emperor made a rare public appearance. This is what all of the people would yell to their leader in respect.

So if you like it as a hooray, or you want to wish someone that they live for 10,000 years, this is the calligraphy for you.

To other things with banzai in their names, I am still waiting for the promised sequel to Buckaroo Banzai.

Other translations: hurrah, long life, congratulations, cheers, live long.

Notes: Sometimes people confuse banzai with bonsai. A bonsai is a miniature tree. They have nothing to do with each other. Further, Bonzai is not a word at all - although it would make a great name for a calcium supplement for older people.

生 is a Chinese word that means “to be born” and “to give birth.”

Also, it's often used to refer to life itself, and sometimes “to grow.”

生 is used in a lot of compound words such as “yi sheng,” which means “doctor” (literally “healer of life”), “sheng ri” which means “birthday” (literally “birth-day”), and “xue sheng” which means student (literally “studying life” or “learner [about] life”). Few Chinese people will think of the literal meaning when this uses words like doctor and student - but it is interesting to note.

生 has the same root meaning in Korean Hanja and Japanese. However, in Japanese, there are many possible pronunciations, and this can be used to mean “raw” or “unprocessed” (as in draft beer). Therefore, not be the best if your audience is Japanese.

See Also:  Vitality

易經 is the Chinese title for “The Book of Changes,” also known as “I Ching” or “Yi Jing.”

This is the most common Chinese character which sounds like “Lee” or “Li” and is used as a surname / family name in China.

李 actually means “Plum.” So it's really Mr. Plum and Mrs. Plum if you translated the name instead of romanizing.

This is not the only character in Chinese that can be romanized as “Lee” or “Li.” If your family name is “Lee” or “Li” please be sure this is the correct character before you order this scroll (look at your grandparents' Chinese passports or other documents if you are an ABC and are trying to create a heritage wall scroll).

Famous people with this surname include Bruce Lee (Li Xiao-Long), Minister Li Peng, and famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai. In Korea, this is the original character for a surname that romanizes as “Yi.”

Note: This also one version of Lee that is a common Korean surname. However, it’s often romanized as "Yi" and sometimes as "Ri" or "Rhee."

This is one Chinese surname that romanizes as Lei.

There are other characters that romanize as Lei, and are surnames. Make sure you get the right one.

I believe this is also a surname in Korean, where it's written as 루 and pronounced like “Ru” or “Lu” in modern Korean.

迷蹤藝 is the Chinese martial arts known as Mizong-Yi or Mizongyi, based on deception and mobility.

If you directly translate 迷蹤藝, you get something like “Lost Track Skill,” “Lost in the Art,” or “Mysterious Footwork Technique.”

入木三分 is a four-character Chinese proverb that translates in English to a strong form of “profound” or “written with a forceful hand.”

But there is much more to the story...

The deep meaning behind this proverb comes from a man named Wan Xizhi, who lived in the third century.

He was a great writer and calligrapher whose writing style influenced generations of other writers and calligraphers.

He once wrote words on a piece of wood to be taken to an engraver.
When the engraver began to carve the characters into the wood, he found that Wang Xizhi's writing had penetrated the wood about 3/8 of an inch.

Thus people believed that his words were so powerful and profound that they caused the ink from his brush to penetrate the wood deeply.

The proverb literally means “penetrated wood three fen” (A fen is an ancient Chinese measurement of a little over 1/8 of an inch or almost 4mm).

This is a term for “teacher” that is primarily used in Wing Chun martial arts schools.

In very old Buddhist context this can be “thaumaturge” meaning a worker of wonders and/or performer of miracles.

緩急 is often used as a Korean martial arts term, “speed control.” It's also one of the 8 key concepts of Tang Soo Do.

In other contexts, this can mean priority, pace, tempo, or slow and fast.

跆拳道精神禮義廉耻忍耐克己百折不屈 is General Choi's writing that is often called “The Tenets of Taekwon-do.”

The actual title would be translated as “Taekwondo Spirit” or “The Spirit of Taekwondo.” It was originally written in Korean Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korea for about 1600 years).

大公無私 is a Chinese proverb that comes from an old story from some time before 476 BC. About a man named Qi Huangyang, who was commissioned by the king to select the best person for a certain job in the Imperial Court.

Qi Huangyang selected his enemy for the job. The king was very confused by the selection, but Qi Huangyang explained that he was asked to find the best person for the job, not necessarily someone that he liked or had a friendship with.

Later, Confucius commented on how unselfish and impartial Qi Huangyang was by saying, “Da Gong Wu Si” which, if you look it up in a Chinese dictionary, is generally translated as “Unselfish” or “Just and Fair.”

If you translate each character, you'd have something like

“Big/Deep Justice Without Self.”

Direct translations like this leave out a lot of what the Chinese characters really say. Use your imagination, and suddenly you realize that “without self” means “without thinking about yourself in the decision” - together, these two words mean “unselfish.” The first two characters serve to drive the point home that we are talking about a concept that is similar to “blind justice.”

One of my Chinese-English dictionaries translates this simply as “just and fair.” So that is the short and simple version.

Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly used term.

See Also:  Selflessness | Work Unselfishly for the Common Good | Altruism

翼 is the shortest way to say “wing” or “wings” in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

This can be the wings of a bird or aircraft (including the rotors of a helicopter or rotor wing).

Single characters like this are often ambiguous and have many additional meanings. This character, depending on the context, can mean the following:
Area surrounding the bullseye of a target; to assist; The Chinese surname Yi; “Wings” constellation (one of the 28 mansions of Chinese astronomy).

翼 is also a Japanese name that romanizes as Tsubasa and can refer to the Japanese manga series Tsubasa.

形意拳 is the title for the Xingyiquan style/form of Chinese martial arts involving explosive linear movements.

Some translate this as “shape-of-the-mind fist.”

While pronunciation has never changed in Chinese, the old romanization was “Hsing I Chuan.” This romanization for 形意拳 is still used in Taiwan.

This term is used in some Japanese martial arts circles where it's romanized from Japanese as keīken, keiiken, or keiken.