Custom Persistence Chinese & Japanese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

固執 can also mean “opinionated” or “stubborn” in Chinese and Japanese, but in the nicest way possible (still bad).

This just means “stubborn” in Korean (not a good scroll if your audience is Korean, in fact, we don't recommend this word at all). There are better ways to express this idea, such as tenacity/tenacious or perseverance... ...see the links below...

See Also:  Tenacious | Fortitude | Perseverance

不屈 is the short form of a longer Chinese word and also a word used in Korean and Japanese to express the idea of being indomitable. It literally means “will not bend,” “will not crouch,” “will not yield,” “will not flinch,” or “will not submit.”

Note: Some will translate this as “indomitable spirit”; however, technically, there is no character to suggest the idea of “spirit” in this word.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Undaunted

移山 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for “to remove mountains” or “to move a mountain.”

Figuratively, this means you can accomplish the impossible by sheer persistence.

移山 is the short form of a proverb about a man who had much persistence and could move a whole mountain (a bucket of soil at a time).

堅韌不拔 is about perseverance, being steadfast and persistent.

堅韌不拔 is a great phrase for you if you commit to your goals and overcome obstacles, no matter how long it takes.

The translation of this proverb literally means “something so persistent or steadfast, that it is not uprootable, movable, or surpassable.”

Other translations include being firm and indomitable or tenacious and unyielding.

See Also:  Tenacious | Devotion | Indomitable

This is referred to as passage or chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing (often Romanized as “Tao Te Ching”).

These are the words of the philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu).

Notes:

During our research, the Chinese characters shown here are probably the most accurate to the original text of Laozi. These were taken for the most part from the Mawangdui 1973 and Guodan 1993 manuscripts which pre-date other Daodejing texts by about 1000 years.

Grammar was a little different in Laozi’s time. So you should consider this to be the ancient Chinese version. Some have modernized this passage by adding, removing, or swapping articles and changing the grammar (we felt the oldest and most original version would be more desirable). You may find other versions printed in books or online - sometimes these modern texts are simply used to explain to Chinese people what the original text really means.

This language issue can be compared in English by thinking how the King James (known as the Authorized version in Great Britain) Bible from 1611 was written, and comparing it to modern English. Now imagine that the Daodejing was probably written around 403 BCE (2000 years before the King James Version of the Bible). To a Chinese person, the original Daodejing reads like text that is 3 times more detached compared to Shakespeare’s English is to our modern-day speech.

Extended notes:

While on this Biblical text comparison, it should be noted, that just like the Bible, all the original texts of the Daodejing were lost or destroyed long ago. Just as with the scripture used to create the Bible, various manuscripts exist, many with variations or copyist errors. Just as the earliest New Testament scripture (incomplete) is from 170 years after Christ, the earliest Daodejing manuscript (incomplete) is from 100-200 years after the death of Laozi.

The reason that the originals were lost probably has a lot to do with the first Qin Emperor. Upon taking power and unifying China, he ordered the burning and destruction of all books (scrolls/rolls) except those pertaining to Chinese medicine and a few other subjects. The surviving Daodejing manuscripts were either hidden on purpose or simply forgotten about. Some were not unearthed until as late as 1993.

We compared a lot of research by various archeologists and historians before deciding on this as the most accurate and correct version. But one must allow that it may not be perfect, or the actual and original as from the hand of Laozi himself.

持久 means to endure or lasting.

In some contexts, it can mean “persistent” or “persistence” (especially in Japanese and Korean).

不屈不撓 means “Indomitable” or “Unyielding.”

不屈不撓 is a long word by Chinese standards. At least, it is often translated as a single word into English. It's actually a proverb in Chinese.

If you want to break it down, you can see that the first and third characters are the same. Both mean “not” (they work as a suffix to make a negative or opposite meaning to whatever character follows).

The second character means “bendable.”

The last means “scratched” or “bothered.”

So this really means “Won't be bent, can't be bothered.” I have also seen it written as “Will not crouch, will not submit.” This comes from the fact that the second character can mean “to crouch” and the last can mean “to submit” (as in “to give in” such as “submitting to the rule of someone else”). This may explain better why these four characters mean “indomitable.”

Notes:
Some will translate this as “indomitable spirit”; however, technically, there is no character to suggest the idea of “spirit” in this word.
Other translations include indefatigability, indomitableness, or unremitting tenacity.

The first two characters can be stand-alone words in Chinese.
In Japanese, this is considered two words (with very similar meanings). It's more common to see the word order flipped to 不撓不屈 in Japanese.
The same characters are used in old Korean Hanja. Just like in Japanese, the words are swapped to 不撓不屈 creating a word pronounced “불요불굴” in Korean.

See 不撓不屈

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Undaunted

Depending on the context, 熱情 can mean “cordial,” “enthusiastic,” “passionate,” or “passionately.”

This version is sometimes used in Japanese, but the character order is more common in Chinese and Korean Hanja. The meaning in Japanese for this Kanji order is ardor/ardour or zeal but rarely used in modern Japan. I suggest you choose a different version of “passion” if your audience is Japanese.

See Also:  Devotion | Tenacity | Commitment | Motivation

情熱 is the Japanese word that means enthusiasm or “passion for a cause.”

In some contexts, this could mean being extremely fond of something or having a fondness for a cause or person.

Can also be translated as passion, zeal, ardor/ardour, or fervor.

Note: This word (or character order) is not natural in Chinese. However, a typical Chinese person can guess this is a Japanese or Korean word and understand the intended meaning. This selection is best if your audience is Japanese or old-school Korean.

See Also:  Devotion | Tenacity | Commitment | Motivation

百折不撓 is a Chinese proverb that means “Be undaunted in the face of repeated setbacks.”

More directly translated, it reads, “[Overcome] a hundred setbacks, without flinching.” 百折不撓 is of Chinese origin but is commonly used in Japanese and somewhat in Korean (same characters, different pronunciation).

This proverb comes from a long, and occasionally tragic story of a man that lived sometime around 25-220 AD. His name was Qiao Xuan, and he never stooped to flattery but remained an upright person at all times. He fought to expose the corruption of higher-level government officials at great risk to himself.

Then when he was at a higher level in the Imperial Court, bandits were regularly capturing hostages and demanding ransoms. But when his own son was captured, he was so focused on his duty to the Emperor and the common good that he sent a platoon of soldiers to raid the bandits' hideout, and stop them once and for all even at the risk of his own son's life. While all of the bandits were arrested in the raid, they killed Qiao Xuan's son at first sight of the raiding soldiers.

Near the end of his career, a new Emperor came to power, and Qiao Xuan reported to him that one of his ministers was bullying the people and extorting money from them. The new Emperor refused to listen to Qiao Xuan and even promoted the corrupt Minister. Qiao Xuan was so disgusted that in protest, he resigned from his post as minister (something almost never done) and left for his home village.

His tombstone reads “Bai Zhe Bu Nao” which is now a proverb used in Chinese culture to describe a person of strong will who puts up stubborn resistance against great odds.

My Chinese-English dictionary defines these 4 characters as “keep on fighting despite all setbacks,” “be undaunted by repeated setbacks,” and “be indomitable.”

Our translator says it can mean “never give up” in modern Chinese.

Although the first two characters are translated correctly as “repeated setbacks,” the literal meaning is “100 setbacks” or “a rope that breaks 100 times.” The last two characters can mean “do not yield” or “do not give up.”
Most Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people will not take this absolutely literal meaning but will instead understand it as the title suggests above. If you want a single big word definition, it would be indefatigability, indomitableness, persistence, or unyielding.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Perseverance

This “strong” character is the more “healthy” version of strong. 健 is the “strong” that is appropriate for an athlete.

Beyond “healthy,” it can also mean strength, persistence, vigorous, or invigorated/invigoration.

健やか is a verbose way to say strong and healthy in Japanese. 健やか is the “strong” that is appropriate for an athlete.

Beyond “healthy,” it can also mean strength, persistence, vigorous, or invigoration.

Japanese also use the first Kanji to mean the same thing. This version adds two hiragana which serve to emphasize or amplify the word and clarify the meaning.

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.