{"id":665,"date":"2020-12-10T16:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duchinese.net\/blog\/?p=665"},"modified":"2020-12-10T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T16:36:00","slug":"chinese-tattoo-meanings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/2020\/12\/10\/chinese-tattoo-meanings\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Tattoo Meanings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Considering getting a Chinese tattoo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u5c0f\u5fc3 – xi\u01ceo x\u012bn – Be careful<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Written Chinese can be quite beautiful. In fact, Chinese calligraphy is one of the four great arts that were required anciently of accomplished Chinese scholar-gentlemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually spoken of together they are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u7434\u68cb\u66f8\u756b – q\u00edn q\u00ed sh\u016b hu\u00e0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Chinese<\/strong><\/td>Pinyin<\/strong><\/td>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\u7434<\/td>q\u00edn<\/td>q\u00edn is a stringed musical instrument. Anciently it referred to the guqin\u53e4\u7434<\/td><\/tr>
\u68cb<\/td>q\u00ed<\/td>q\u00ed is a board game, sometimes referred to as Chinese chess.<\/td><\/tr>
\u66f8<\/td>sh\u016b<\/td>sh\u016b refers to Chinese calligraphy.<\/td><\/tr>
\u756b<\/td>hu\u00e0<\/td>hu\u00e0 refers to Chinese painting<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anciently, and still to this day, these four great arts were and are highly regarded. Personally, my dream is to one day learn to play the gu qin, but for now I just play the ukulele. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Cai Lun, the inventor of paper.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 105 AD paper was invented by Cai Lun. Chinese writing however dates back to around 1200 BC.  With paper not yet available ancient Chinese wrote on bone, turtle shells, and metals. One place they didn\u2019t put writing on was their bodies. To this day tattoos (\u6587\u8eab – w\u00e9n sh\u0113n) are still not very popular in China, and can be somewhat frowned upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese consider Chinese calligraphy to be one of China\u2019s primary contributions to civilization. Many westerners also admire the beauty of Chinese writing, some so much so that they have taken to getting Chinese tattoos.  Before you do it I would just say again: \u5c0f\u5fc3 – xi\u01ceo x\u012bn – Be careful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famous sports figures and celebrities are getting Chinese character tattoos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

David Beckham\u2019s tattoo is really calligraphic and has a positive message, it reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese<\/strong><\/td>Pinyin<\/strong><\/td>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\u751f\u6b7b\u6709\u547d\uff0c\u5bcc\u8d35\u5728\u5929<\/td>sh\u0113ng s\u01d0 y\u01d2u m\u00ecng, f\u00f9 gu\u00ec z\u00e0i ti\u0101n<\/td>Life and death are predestined, wealth and honor are decreed by heaven.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Allen Iverson \u5fe0 (Zh\u014dng) which means loyal or faithful<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Pretty cool. However, unless you have a trusted Chinese friend with you when you go, or have a very good understanding of the language, you may end up with tattoo remorse. Britney Spears for example wanted a tattoo that meant mysterious. \u795e\u79d8 sh\u00e9n m\u00ec. What she got was \u5947 q\u00ed meaning strange or weird. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Yikes!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mike Tyson played it safe and got a Chinese tattoo of a different sort..A picture of Mao with pinyin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are plenty of images of tattoo fails on the internet. In one instance a young lady wanted to get the character for free; \u81ea\u7531 z\u00ec y\u00f3u (able to do as she wishes) what she got was free \u514d\u8cbb mi\u01cen f\u00e8i (no cost).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case of Cody Williams is well known. He is known on facebook (\u8138\u4e66 – li\u01cen sh\u016b) as GuyWithTheFunnyTattoo.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Chinese<\/strong><\/td>Pinyin<\/strong><\/td>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\u6211\u4e0d\u77e5\u9053, \u6211\u4e0d\u4f1a\u8bf4\u4e2d\u56fd\u8bdd<\/td>W\u01d2 b\u00f9 zh\u012b d\u00e0o, W\u01d2 b\u00f9 hu\u00ec shu\u014d zh\u014dng gu\u00f3 hu\u00e0<\/td>I don’t know, I don’t speak Chinese<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In China when spoken to he could point to his arm and they would know he couldn\u2019t speak Chinese. Back home when people ask him what it says he tells them and they think he doesn\u2019t know what it says. Pretty funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My advice: Never get a tattoo that you are not sure of. Instead, I suggest that you try one out. A safe bet is to go online and get a temporary tattoo. Below is shown one example: <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Chinese characters are cool. But if you\u2019ve spent any time at all studying languages you realize that some ideas and concepts are hard to translate. Get a tattoo if you want to, just \u5c0f\u5fc3. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considering getting a Chinese tattoo? \u5c0f\u5fc3 – xi\u01ceo x\u012bn – Be careful Written Chinese can be quite beautiful. In fact, Chinese calligraphy is one of the four great arts that were required anciently of accomplished Chinese scholar-gentlemen. Usually spoken of together they are: \u7434\u68cb\u66f8\u756b – q\u00edn q\u00ed sh\u016b hu\u00e0 Chinese Pinyin Meaning \u7434 q\u00edn q\u00edn…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/chinese-tattoos-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duchinese.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}