Buy a Way of Water calligraphy wall scroll here!
Personalize your custom “Way of Water” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Way of Water” title below...
1. Water Dragon / Coiled Dragon
3. Red Dragon / Vermillion Dragon
4. Not Only Can Water Float A Boat, It Can Sink It Also
5. Warriors Adapt and Overcome
6. Aquarius
In Japanese, 無心 means innocent or without knowledge of good and evil. It literally means “without mind.”
無心 is one of the five spirits of the warrior (budo) and is often used as a Japanese martial arts tenet. Under that context, places such as the Budo Dojo define it this way: “No mind, a mind without ego. A mind like a mirror which reflects and dos not judge.” The original term was “mushin no shin,” meaning “mind of no mind.” It is a state of mind without fear, anger, or anxiety. Mushin is often described by the phrase “Mizu no Kokoro,” which means “mind like water.” The phrase is a metaphor describing the pond that clearly reflects its surroundings when calm but whose images are obscured once a pebble is dropped into its waters.
This has a good meaning in conjunction with Chan / Zen Buddhism in Japan. However, out of that context, it means mindlessness or absent-mindedness. To non-Buddhists in China, this is associated with doing something without thinking.
In Korean, this usually means indifference.
Use caution and know your audience before ordering this selection.
More info: Wikipedia: Mushin
朱龍 is a sophisticated or scholarly way to say “Red Dragon.” 朱龍 is the title you'd expect in ancient Chinese literature.
The first character means red, cinnabar, or vermillion.
The second character means dragon.
It is said that the Vermillion Dragon represents kings that bestow blessings on lakes or bodies of water. This makes more sense in an ancient Chinese context.
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.
Soldiers need a fluid plan
This literally translates as: Troops/soldiers/warriors have no fixed [battlefield] strategy [just as] water has no constant shape [but adapts itself to whatever container it is in].
Figuratively, this means: One should seek to find whatever strategy or method is best suited to resolving each individual problem.
This proverb is about as close as you can get to the military idea of “adapt improvise overcome.” 兵無常勢水無常形 is the best way to express that idea in both an ancient way, and a very natural way in Chinese.
水瓶座 is the Chinese and Japanese way to write Aquarius (water bearer) of western astrology.
See Also: Chinese Zodiac
沈魚落雁 is an old proverb that literally means “fish sink, goose alights.”
...But this takes some explaining. This is a proverb from Zhuangzi (莊子), who lived in the late 4th century BC.
This figuratively refers to female beauty that is so captivating that even the birds and beasts take notice.
Perhaps a better and more accurate way to describe this is to say that it speaks of the charms of a uniquely beautiful woman who is so beautiful that fish stay on the bottom of the water and flying wild geese fall from the sky in shame.
This proverb is so famous that it is also known and used in Japan (same characters, different pronunciation).
Note: This can also be written 沉魚落雁 instead of 沈魚落雁 (just the first character varies slightly).
癸卯 is the designation for the 40th year of the 60-year or sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1903, 1963, or 2023.
This is the year of the Water Rabbit. The characters here designate the year in a special way, but do not literally mean water and rabbit.
The 60 year cycle has 5 elements and 12 animals. As each cycles every year, the math works out to 5 x 12 = 60.
This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...
Gallery Price: $106.00
Your Price: $58.88
Gallery Price: $200.00
Your Price: $98.88
Gallery Price: $144.00
Your Price: $79.88
Gallery Price: $240.00
Your Price: $98.88
Gallery Price: $400.00
Your Price: $138.88
Gallery Price: $400.00
Your Price: $138.88
Gallery Price: $121.00
Your Price: $66.88
Gallery Price: $72.00
Your Price: $39.88
Gallery Price: $63.00
Your Price: $34.88
Gallery Price: $200.00
Your Price: $118.88
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Water Dragon Coiled Dragon | 蟠龍 蟠龙 | han ryuu / hanryuu / han ryu | pān lóng / pan1 long2 / pan long / panlong | p`an lung / panlung / pan lung |
No Mind Mushin | 無心 无心 | mu shin / mushin | wú xīn / wu2 xin1 / wu xin / wuxin | wu hsin / wuhsin |
Red Dragon Vermillion Dragon | 朱龍 朱龙 | zhū lóng / zhu1 long2 / zhu long / zhulong | chu lung / chulung | |
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 | |
Warriors Adapt and Overcome | 兵無常勢水無常形 兵无常势水无常形 | bīng wú cháng shì shuǐ wú cháng xíng bing1 wu2 chang2 shi4 shui3 wu2 chang2 xing2 bing wu chang shi shui wu chang xing | ping wu ch`ang shih shui wu ch`ang hsing ping wu chang shih shui wu chang hsing |
|
Aquarius Zodiac Symbol Sign | 水瓶座 | mizugame-za | shuǐ píng zuò shui3 ping2 zuo4 shui ping zuo shuipingzuo | shui p`ing tso shuipingtso shui ping tso |
Beautiful Woman Proverb | 沈魚落雁 沈鱼落雁 | chin gyo raku gan chingyorakugan | chén yú luò yàn chen2 yu2 luo4 yan4 chen yu luo yan chenyuluoyan | ch`en yü lo yen chenyüloyen chen yü lo yen |
Year Of The Water Rabbit | 癸卯 | mizunotou / kibou mizunoto / kibo | guǐ mǎo / gui3 mao3 / gui mao / guimao | kuei mao / kueimao |
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 Way of Water Kanji, Way of Water Characters, Way of Water in Mandarin Chinese, Way of Water Characters, Way of Water in Chinese Writing, Way of Water in Japanese Writing, Way of Water in Asian Writing, Way of Water Ideograms, Chinese Way of Water symbols, Way of Water Hieroglyphics, Way of Water Glyphs, Way of Water in Chinese Letters, Way of Water Hanzi, Way of Water in Japanese Kanji, Way of Water Pictograms, Way of Water in the Chinese Written-Language, or Way of Water in the Japanese Written-Language.
35 people have searched for Way of Water in Chinese or Japanese in the past year.
Way of Water was last searched for by someone else on May 13th, 2024