Learn how the name Abraham is written in Chinese and Japanese. Decorate your home with a cool wall scroll that says Abraham.
基督徒 is a very strong and direct word in Chinese for “Christian.”
The literal translation of the first two characters is “Christ.”
The last character means apprentice, follower, or disciple.
Altogether these three characters mean “Christ's Disciple” or “Christ's Apprentice.” 基督徒 is a pretty cool title to hang on your wall if you are a devout Christian.
Also used by Japanese Christians (but may be unfamiliar to non-Christian Japanese people).
See Also: Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
基督教徒 is the most verbose (longest) word for “Christian” in the Chinese and Japanese languages.
The literal translation of the first two characters is Christ.
The third Character means “Religion” or “Teaching.”
The last character means “apprentice” or “disciple.”
Altogether these three characters mean “Christ's Teaching Disciple” or “Christ's Religion Apprentice.”
Note: The last two characters are sometimes translated together as “follower (of a religion),” so you could also say it means “Follower of Christ.”
This four-character title makes it very clear what you are talking about in Chinese.
See Also: Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
福音 is the Chinese, Korean and Japanese word for “Gospel” or “Word of God.”
福音 is a specifically Christian word in Asia (not used for any other religion).
The first character means blessing, good fortune, or good luck. This first character is a special character used throughout China to bring good tidings and fortune - especially during Chinese New Year. The second character means sound, noise, or news.
Together, these characters create a word that means “The Good News” or “The Sound of Good Fortune.”
When read by a Chinese or Japanese person, this word is always perceived as “The Christian Gospel,” “Word of God,” or even “The Voice of God.”
See Also: Christianity | Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
基督教 is the Chinese, Japanese and Korean word for “Christianity.”
Just as in English, this word is often used to mean “Protestant” but includes Catholics in the true definition.
It is the word used to refer to the whole “Christian religion” or “Christian Faith,” and therefore, it can be translated as “Christianity.” However, used as an adjective in regard to a person, it would translate as “Christian.” But more like saying, “His religion is Christianity,” rather than a noun form.
If you break it apart, the characters mean Base/Foundation Leading/Supervising Religion/Teaching. It makes more sense in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The first two characters together are translated as “Christ.” So you can also say this means “Christ's Religion” or “Christ's Teachings” when directly translated, or in reverse, “The Religion of Christ” or “The Teaching of Christ.”
Notes: The last character has a slight difference in one stroke - however, in calligraphic form, this will not be apparent. This entry can easily be read by any Korean person who knows Hanja characters (Chinese characters used in Korean).
See Also: Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
上帝 is how Chinese Christians and Jews refer to God, AKA The Judeo-Christian God.
There are Chinese Jews whose ancestry dates back to Jewish traders on the silk road. They are known as the Kaifeng Jews. Most have left China for Israel now.
There are also plenty of Christians in China of the Protestant and Catholic varieties. However, the churches are basically run by the government, and the Chinese Catholic church does not recognize the Pope.
Oddly, in my experience, I found the Chinese Protestant church to be much less political compared to Baptist and other Protestant churches that I have visited in America.
上帝 is also the typically-used title for God in Japanese.
While you may find this term in old Korean dictionaries, it is an obscure and rarely-used title for God in modern Korean.
See Also: Christianity | Jesus Christ
真主 is how Chinese Muslims refer to God (it literally means “True Master”).
Oddly, in China, two different names for God have emerged. Even though Muslims, Christians, and Jews all worship the same God of Abraham.
In Arabic, the word Allah is just the Arabic way to say, God. Arab Christians pray to Allah, just like Arab Muslims. Somehow in China, the title of God diverged.
If you are curious, there are millions of Muslims throughout China but especially in the northwest portion of China known as Xinjiang. Here you will find descendants of Turkmen, Persian, Arab, and other ethnicities. Some are mixed with Han-Chinese blood; others appear to be pure Turkmen. Many have fair complexions, green eyes, and light hair but all are citizens of China. A visit to Xinjiang will shift your paradigm and blow away all of your stereotypes about what it means to be Chinese.
祈禱 is a second way to write “prayer.”
It is a little more formal than “dao gao” but the general meaning is the same.
This Chinese/Japanese/Korean word can be translated as “to pray,” “to say one's prayers,” or simply “prayer.” Like the other common term for prayer, this term generally applies only to western religions that pray to the God of Abraham (Christians, Jews, and Muslims).
復活 is the Chinese, Japanese and Korean word for resurrection or rebirth.
復活 literally means “return to life.”
It is the term used in most Asian Bibles to refer to the resurrection of Christ. In Japanese, it is sometimes used to mean a Christian Revival. In some contexts, it can mean resuscitation.
See Also: Christianity | Jesus Christ | God of Abraham
相信上帝 means exactly what the title suggests. The first two characters mean “trust” or “believe,” and the second two mean “God” (as in the God of Abraham and the God of Zion).
Thisis also how the American phrase “In God We Trust” as seen on U.S. Currency would be translated into Chinese. It would also be correct to say that this means “Believe in God,” though, in this arrangement/context, one would be more likely to interpret it as “trust.”
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Abraham | 亞伯拉罕 亚伯拉罕 | yà bó lā hǎn ya4 bo2 la1 han3 ya bo la han yabolahan | ya po la han yapolahan |
|
Abraham | アブラハム | aburahamu | ||
Christian Disciple of Christ | 基督徒 | kirisuto | jī dū tú ji1 du1 tu2 ji du tu jidutu | chi tu t`u chitutu chi tu tu |
Disciple of Christianity | 基督教徒 | kirisutokyouto kirisutokyoto | jī dū jiào tú ji1 du1 jiao4 tu2 ji du jiao tu jidujiaotu | chi tu chiao t`u chituchiaotu chi tu chiao tu |
Word of God The Gospel | 福音 | fukuin | fú yīn / fu2 yin1 / fu yin / fuyin | |
Christianity Christian | 基督教 | kirisutokyou kirisutokyo | jī dū jiào ji1 du1 jiao4 ji du jiao jidujiao | chi tu chiao chituchiao |
God of Zion God of Abraham | 上帝 | joutei / jotei | shàng dì / shang4 di4 / shang di / shangdi | shang ti / shangti |
Allah God of Islam | 真主 | zhēn zhǔ / zhen1 zhu3 / zhen zhu / zhenzhu | chen chu / chenchu | |
Prayer | 禱告 祷告 | dǎo gào / dao3 gao4 / dao gao / daogao | tao kao / taokao | |
Prayer Praying | 祈禱 祈祷 | kitou / kito | qǐ dǎo / qi3 dao3 / qi dao / qidao | ch`i tao / chitao / chi tao |
Resurrection Re-Birth | 復活 复活 | hukkatsu / hukatsu | fù huó / fu4 huo2 / fu huo / fuhuo | |
Trust in God In God We Trust | 相信上帝 | xiāng xìn shàng dì xiang1 xin4 shang4 di4 xiang xin shang di xiangxinshangdi | hsiang hsin shang ti hsianghsinshangti |
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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.