The name In the Beginning in Chinese / Japanese...

新的開始 literally means “new beginning” in Chinese characters.

The character means “new.”

The second is a possessive article connecting the ideas of new & beginning.

The last two characters can mean “to begin,” “beginning,” “to start,” “initial,” “commencement,” or “initiation.”

新たな始まり is a Japanese word that means “new beginning” or “new start.”

Here's the character breakdown:
新た (arata) = new; fresh; novel; newly; freshly; or this can be like the prefix “re-” like “re-start” or “reset.”
な (na) is kind of a connecting article. This glues “new” to “beginning.”
始まり (hajimari) = origin; beginning.

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

伊始 is a short version of “new beginning” or simply “beginning” in Chinese characters.

You can also translate this as “from this moment on,” “starting now,” or “henceforth.”

In the day-to-day speech, this word can apply to starting a new job, beginning a new career, entering a new chapter of your life, or taking a new position (in politics, scholarship, etc.).

新しい始め is a verbose Japanese phrase that means “new beginning.”

The first three characters mean new, novel, fresh, recent, latest, up-to-date, or modern.

The last two characters mean beginning, start outset, opening, or origin.

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

事始め is a Japanese word that means taking up a new line of work or the beginning of new things.

In another context, it can refer to starting the preparations for New Year's festivities or resuming work after the New Year's vacation.

This literally means “new life” or “new livelihood” in Japanese Kanji.

新生活 is most appropriate if you are starting a new career or otherwise are starting a new chapter in your life or a new beginning.

Note: This is not the most common word selection for a calligraphy wall scroll. But if you’re a westerner, you can bend the rules a bit.

新生 literally means “new life” or “new birth” in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

Depending on the context, this word can also mean newborn, new student, rebirth, new birth, or nascent.
In Japanese, this can be the given name Wakaki.

Note: This is not the most common word selection for a calligraphy wall scroll. But if you’re a westerner, you can bend the rules a bit.

初心 is often translated in Japanese as “beginner's mind” or “beginner's spirit.”

In Chinese, the dictionary definition is “one's original intention.”

The first character means first, initial, primary, junior, beginning, or basic.

The second character means heart, mind, soul, or essence.

初心 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: The state of shoshin is that of a beginners mind. It is a state of awareness that always remains fully conscious, aware, and prepared to see things for the first time. The attitude of shoshin is essential to continued learning.

初段 is a Japanese Kanji word that literally means “beginning degree.”

初段 is the lowest black belt rank in Japanese martial arts and the game of Go.

The first Kanji means first, new, or beginning in Japanese.

Other ways to translate this title include “lowest grade” or “first grade.”

Usually, when people are looking for 道元 or “Dogen,” they are referring to the Japanese Zen monk by this name.

He lived from 1200-1253. This Dogen name or title literally means “The Way Origin” or “Beginning of the Path.” It is understood to mean “beginning of right doctrine or faith” in the context of his name and work to establish the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

To accomplish that task, this humble monk traveled from Japan and across China to find the more original or pure forms of Buddhism.

雅西亞 is the name Jasiah in Mandarin Chinese if you pronounce your name with a “Ya” instead of a hard “J” sound at the beginning.

イエズス is the name Jesus in Japanese.

This is from the more Latin / Spanish pronunciation (without the hard “J” sound at the beginning).

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

莎瑞薩 is a version of the name Charissa transliterated into Mandarin Chinese.

Use this version if you pronounce Charissa with an “Sh” sound at the beginning.

This is a common Mandarin Chinese transliteration for the male German name Jasmin.

This version has a “y” sound at the beginning, rather than a hard “j” that you find in the English version.

是生滅法 is a Buddhist term for “the law of arising and ceasing,” or, “the law of creation and destruction.”

Everything has a beginning and an end, birth and death, etc. All things follow this law.

簡 is the name Jan transliterated into Mandarin Chinese.

This is Jan with the “J” sound at the beginning (not like the European version of Jan that sounds like it starts with a “Y”).

舞獅 is the Chinese title for “lion dance.”

舞獅 is the traditional Chinese costumed dance seen at festivals (especially Chinese New Year), ceremonies, and often at the beginning of Chinese martial arts events.

開花 literally means opening flowers (a verb).

開花 is also associated with Springtime, the beginning of something, or youth.

If you like flowers and Springtime, this is a great selection for you.

In Korean Hanja, this can be a metaphor for achieving enlightenment or becoming civilized (blooming civilization).

See Also:  Flowers Fall

In simple terms, 從此以后 means “from now on,” but you can also interpret it as “Now is the beginning of the future” or “From this day forward.

The first two characters roughly mean “henceforth.” The last two characters mean later, afterward, following, or “in the future.”

初心流 is often translated in Japanese as “beginner's mind style” or “beginner's spirit method.”

The first character means first, initial, primary, junior, beginning, or basic.

The second character means heart, mind, soul, or essence.

The third character means style, method, or some will translate it as a school.

Please note, there is more than one martial arts school that romanizes as Shoshin-Ryu.

These two characters mean “flower open.”

花開 is also associated with Springtime, the beginning of something, or youth.

花開 is often followed by 花落 or “flower falls” (closes and loses its petals) which means “Things come and go” or “Youth comes and goes.”

If you like flowers and Springtime, this is a great selection for you. However, if you want the companion “flower falls” (flower withers), we offer that as a companion wall scroll or all together as a four-character phrase.

See Also:  Flowers Fall

忍耐 is patience, the quiet hope, and trust that things will turn out right.

You wait without complaining. You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes. You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals.

忍耐 can also mean “to endure,” “restrain oneself,” or “forbearance,” and in some contexts, it can mean “perseverance” or “endurance.”

忍耐 is also used as a tenet of Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, and other Korean martial arts where it's titled “Endurance” and romanized as “In Neh.”

Note that when writing this as Kanji, Japanese will tend to write the first character in the form shown to the right. If you select our Japanese master calligrapher, please expect this Kanji form (yes, it’s just one stroke that is slightly different in location, crossing another stroke in the Japanese Kanji form).

See Also:  Peace | Harmony | Perseverance

從事/従事 is often used to describe the devotion someone has to their profession - However, it can just mean career, depending on context.

We don't highly recommend this selection for a wall scroll.

In more simple terms, this word also means undertake / to deal with / to handle / to do. It does not have to refer to a career issue, as it could be used to encourage someone that is beginning their university studies etc.

This kind of makes sense in Japanese, however, there is a slight deviation in the way they write the first Kanji in Japanese.

Please note that Japanese use an alternate version of the first character. Click on the character to the right if you want the Japanese version of this two-character Devotion-to-your-Profession calligraphy.

福 is pronounced “fu” in Chinese.

The character “fu” is posted by virtually all Chinese people on the doors of their homes during the Spring Festival (closely associated with the Chinese New Year).

One tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (beginning in 256 B.C.) holds that putting a fu symbol on your front door will keep the goddess of poverty away.

福 literally means good fortune, prosperity, blessed, blessedness, happiness, and fulfillment.

You'll also see this character in Vietnam (where Chinese characters were the written form until a romanization reform) where it is pronounced Phúc - a word commonly used in Vietnamese names because of its good meaning.

See Also:  Lucky

士可殺不可辱 almost directly matches the military idea of “Death Before Dishonor,” while also being an ancient Chinese proverb.

The direct meaning is, “[A] soldier/warrior can die/kill [but he/she] cannot [allow] dishonor/disgrace [upon himself/herself].” Chinese grammar, and especially ancient grammar, is a little different than English. Not nearly as many articles are needed, and a lot is implied.

There are a lot of ways to express ideas similar to “Death Before Dishonor” in Chinese, and I would rate this one in the top two.

This is the original form of this proverb with the character for “soldier/warrior” at the beginning. Most of the time, this character is dropped, becoming a five-character proverb (the soldier/warrior part is implied, even without the character being present in the proverb). We also offer a shorter version.

道 is the character “dao” which is sometimes written as “tao” but pronounced like “dow” in Mandarin.

道 is the base of what is known as “Taoism.” If you translate this literally, it can mean “the way” or “the path.”

Dao is believed to be that which flows through all things and keeps them in balance. It incorporates the ideas of yin and yang (e.g. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)

The beginning of Taoism can be traced to a mystical man named
Lao Zi (604-531 BC), who followed, and added to the teachings of Confucius.

More about Taoism / Daoism here.

Note that this is pronounced “dou” and sometimes “michi” when written alone in Japanese but pronounced “do” in word compounds such as Karate-do and Bushido. It's also “do” in Korean.

Alternate translations and meanings: road, way, path; truth, principle province.

Important Japanese note: In Japanese, this will generally be read with the road, way, or path meaning. Taoism is not as popular or well-known in Japan so Daoist/Taoist philosophy is not the first thing a Japanese person will think of when they read this character.

See our Taoism Page

工合 is one of those Asian words that is used more in English than in the original Chinese.

Gung Ho was originally used to speak of Carlson's Raiders, a group of “Gung Ho” U.S. Marines who went on an island-hopping campaign of death during WWII.

A movie called Gung Ho came out in the mid-1940s and was later re-released in the 1950s depicting the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, and brought this word to the mainstream.

It is still sometimes used today within the U.S. Marine Corps brotherhood to refer to a unit or group that works well together or is otherwise efficient and motivated (has good morals).

In 1986, there was a movie called Gung Ho about a Japanese company taking over an American automotive factory. They completely ignored the fact that this was a Chinese title.

It should be noted that this title actually means a condition, state, manner, or the health of something in Japanese.

Language and pronunciation notes:
Like many Asian words absorbed into common use in English, this one is drastically mispronounced. The official Romanization is “gong he” but that doesn't tell you enough. The vowel sound on the first character is like the English word “own,” now just add the g-sounds to the beginning and end. The second character is misleading, as you might think it is like the English word “he.” In reality, the vowel sound is more like the “u” in “up.”

It should also be noted that the current generation in China no longer uses or recognizes this as a common word or slogan.

Note: This can be pronounced and is a word in Japanese, though seldom used. Japanese will use a variation of "具合" instead. But still, not common.