Adventures in Asian Art
We have many options to create artwork with the Chinese characters / Asian symbols / Japanese Kanji for destiny on a wall scroll or portrait...
Quick links to words on this page...
![]() This character is often translated as "destiny". Sometimes this character is simply translated as "life", but more in terms of one's lot in life. In certain context, this can mean command or decree (generally from a king or emperor). Of course, such a decree are part of fate and lead you to fulfill your destiny. See Also... Good Fortune ![]() ![]() These two characters contain the ideas of "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck". You can also say that it means "what life throws at you" or "your lot in life" because the first character contains the idea of "life" or "living". See Also... Good Fortune ![]() ![]() These two characters contain the ideas of "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck". This is often defined as "a person's fate" in various dictionaries. See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck ![]() This word is hard to define. One dictionary defines this as, "acceptance of fate and happy about it". There is one rare English word equivalent which is sanguinity. ![]() ![]() This is the transliteration to Mandarin Chinese for the name Destiny ![]() These two characters contain the ideas of fate. But this is specifically the fate or destiny that brings two people together. See Also... Soulmates | Good Fortune This is a way to express destiny in a slightly religious way. Literally this means "Heaven's Wish" or "Heaven's Desire" with the idea of fate and destiny being derived as well. It suggests that your destiny comes from God / Heaven and that your path has already been chosen by a higher power. ![]() This is the Buddhist concept of a chance meeting or an opportunity that presents itself by fate. See Also... Buddhism | Opportunity ![]() Seeing the potential benefits or troubles that may lie ahead in the future. See Also... Fate This concept has existed for thousands of years that humans have the ability to understand right and wrong, then make a decision one way or the other (thus affecting their own fate). See Also... Freedom | Strong Willed | Fate ![]() These two characters mean, "Destiny that brings lovers together". It can also be translated technically as, "Predestined matrimonial affinity" (wow, talk about taking the romance out of this word - that was from the Oxford C-E dictionary). ![]() ![]() These two characters can be reversed (written in either order) and yield roughly the same meaning. Either way it's about your "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck". See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck |
The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "medium size"
4-character wall scroll.
As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.
(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)
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.
The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese
| Title | Characters Simplified Traditional |
Japanese Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Destiny / Fate | 命 命 | inochi / mei inochi/mei | mìng yùn ming | ming4 ming |
| Destiny / Fate | 命运 命運 | mei un meiun | mìng yùn ming yun ming yün | ming4 yun4 mingyun |
| Destiny / Fate | 运命 運命 | un mei unmei | mìng yùn yun ming yün ming | yun4 ming4 yunming |
| Acceptance of Fate / Happy With Your Fate | 乐天 樂天 | n/a | lè tiān le tian le t`ien | le4 tian1 letian letien le tien |
| Destiny | 黛丝蒂妮 黛絲蒂妮 | n/a | dài sī dì nī dai si di ni tai ssu ti ni | dai4 si1 di4 ni1 daisidini |
| Fate / Chance Meeting | 缘份 / 缘分 緣份 / 緣分 | n/a | yuán fèn yuan fen yüan fen | yuan2 fen4 yuanfen |
| Destiny Determined by Heaven | 天意 天意 | teni | tiān yì tian yi t`ien i | tian1 yi4 tianyi tieni tien i |
| Fate / Opportunity / Chance | 因缘 / 因縁 因緣 | in nen innen | yīn yuán yin yuan yin yüan | yin1 yuan2 yinyuan |
| Foresight | 先见 先見 | senken | xiān jiàn xian jian hsien chien | xian1 jian4 xianjian |
| Free Will | 自由意志 自由意志 | jiyuu ishi jiyuuishi jiyu ishi | zì yóu yì zhì zi you yi zhi tzu yu i chih | zi4 you2 yi4 zhi4 ziyouyizhi |
| The Karma/Fate/Destiny / that Brings Lovers Together | 姻缘 姻緣 | n/a | yīn yuán yin yuan yin yüan | yin1 yuan2 yinyuan |
| Personal Fate or Destiny | 运命 運命 | un mei unmei | yùn mìng yun ming yün ming | yun4 ming4 yunming |
If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why I spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "destiny,fate" listings above.
If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich.
Copyright Oriental Outpost 2002-2012 - All Rights Reserved
Image Use Policy Privacy Policy