Pick from many options to create artwork with No Worries characters on a wall scroll or portrait...
My Australian friends always say, “No worries, mate.” It's caught on with me, though I drop the “mate” part since it confuses my fellow Americans.
If you would like to express the idea of “no worries,” 放心 is the best and most natural way to say it in Chinese.
The characters you see to the left can be translated as “put your mind at rest” or “to be at ease.” You could literally translate “no worries,” but it doesn't “flow” like this simple Chinese version.
For your info, the first character means to release, to free, to let go, to relax, or to rest. The second character means your heart or your mind.
Note that in Japanese and Korean, this holds the similar meaning of “peace of mind” but can also mean absentmindedness or carelessness, depending on context.
有備無患 means “When you are well-prepared, you have nothing to fear.”
Noting that the third character means “no” or “without” and modifies the last... The last character can mean misfortune, troubles, worries, or fears. It could even be stretched to mean sickness. Therefore you can translate this proverb in a few ways. I've also seen it translated as “Preparedness forestalls calamities.”
有備無患 is comparable to the English idiom, “Better safe than sorry,” but does not directly/literally mean this.
白天不做亏心事夜半敲门不吃惊 literally translates as: [If one does] not do bad things in the daytime, one need not be alarmed at knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
The meaning is something like, “A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.” Basically, the message is, “don't commit crimes and you won't be jumpy every time the doorbell rings (so don't do anything wrong and your life will have fewer worries and you can sleep at night).”
(2 characters)
無畏 literally means “No Fear.” But perhaps not the most natural Chinese phrase (see our other “No Fear” phrase for a complete thought). However, this two-character version of “No Fear” seems to be a very popular way to translate this into Chinese when we checked Chinese Google.
Note: This also means “No Fear” in Japanese and Korean, but this character pair is not often used in Japan or Korea.
This term appears in various Chinese dictionaries with definitions like “without fear,” intrepidity, fearless, dauntless, and bold.
In the Buddhist context, this is a word derived from the word Abhaya, meaning: Fearless, dauntless, secure, nothing, and nobody to fear. Also, from vīra meaning: courageous, bold.
See Also: Never Give Up | No Worries | Undaunted | Bravery | Courage | Fear No Man
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
No Worries | 放心 | houshin / hoshin | fàng xīn / fang4 xin1 / fang xin / fangxin | fang hsin / fanghsin |
Preparation Yields No Fear or Worries | 有備無患 有备无患 | yǒu bèi wú huàn you3 bei4 wu2 huan4 you bei wu huan youbeiwuhuan | yu pei wu huan yupeiwuhuan |
|
One Who Does Not Do Bad Things, Worries Not of Knocks at His Door | 白天不做虧心事夜半敲門不吃驚 白天不做亏心事夜半敲门不吃惊 | bái tiān bú zuò kuī xīn shì yè bàn qiāo mén bù chī jīng bai2 tian1 bu2 zuo4 kui1 xin1 shi4 ye4 ban4 qiao1 men2 bu4 chi1 jing1 bai tian bu zuo kui xin shi ye ban qiao men bu chi jing | pai t`ien pu tso k`uei hsin shih yeh pan ch`iao men pu ch`ih ching pai tien pu tso kuei hsin shih yeh pan chiao men pu chih ching |
|
No Fear | 無畏 无畏 | mui | wú wèi / wu2 wei4 / wu wei / wuwei | |
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. |
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.