Buy a Late calligraphy wall scroll here!
Personalize your custom “Late” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Late” title below...
1. Do not shed a tear until you see the coffin
2. Marco Polo
4. Do not take action until the time is right
5. Tea Fate
11. Hua Tuo
不見棺材不落淚 is a cautionary tale that suggests you are unknowingly (though it should be obvious)on a bad course.
It further suggests that you will not realize your folly until the worst has happened.
This can also be a warning of inaction until it's too late to take action. Again, not realizing your error until it's too late.
In an alternate interpretation, some will suggest this means doing something bad and not looking back - Then the worst happens.
It should be noted that this is one of the oddest selections for a wall scroll in our whole Asian calligraphy database. All of our translators are convinced that no Chinese person would ever hang this on their wall.
It's Never Too Late Too Mend
Long ago in what is now China, there were many kingdoms throughout the land. This time period is known as “The Warring States Period” by historians because these kingdoms often did not get along with each other.
Sometime around 279 B.C. the Kingdom of Chu was a large but not particularly powerful kingdom. Part of the reason it lacked power was the fact that the King was surrounded by “yes men” who told him only what he wanted to hear. Many of the King's court officials were corrupt and incompetent which did not help the situation.
The King was not blameless himself, as he started spending much of his time being entertained by his many concubines.
One of the King's ministers, Zhuang Xin, saw problems on the horizon for the Kingdom, and warned the King, “Your Majesty, you are surrounded by people who tell you what you want to hear. They tell you things to make you happy and cause you to ignore important state affairs. If this is allowed to continue, the Kingdom of Chu will surely perish, and fall into ruins.”
This enraged the King who scolded Zhuang Xin for insulting the country and accused him of trying to create resentment among the people. Zhuang Xin explained, “I dare not curse the Kingdom of Chu but I feel that we face great danger in the future because of the current situation.” The King was simply not impressed with Zhuang Xin's words.
Seeing the King's displeasure with him and the King's fondness for his court of corrupt officials, Zhuang Xin asked permission from the King that he may take leave of the Kingdom of Chu, and travel to the State of Zhao to live. The King agreed, and Zhuang Xin left the Kingdom of Chu, perhaps forever.
Five months later, troops from the neighboring Kingdom of Qin invaded Chu, taking a huge tract of land. The King of Chu went into exile, and it appeared that soon, the Kingdom of Chu would no longer exist.
The King of Chu remembered the words of Zhuang Xin and sent some of his men to find him. Immediately, Zhuang Xin returned to meet the King. The first question asked by the King was “What can I do now?”
Zhuang Xin told the King this story:
A shepherd woke one morning to find a sheep missing. Looking at the pen saw a hole in the fence where a wolf had come through to steal one of his sheep. His friends told him that he had best fix the hole at once. But the Shepherd thought since the sheep is already gone, there is no use fixing the hole.
The next morning, another sheep was missing. And the Shepherd realized that he must mend the fence at once. Zhuang Xin then went on to make suggestions about what could be done to reclaim the land lost to the Kingdom of Qin, and reclaim the former glory and integrity of the Kingdom of Chu.
The Chinese idiom shown above came from this reply from Zhuang Xin to the King of Chu almost 2,300 years ago.
It translates roughly into English as...
“Even if you have lost some sheep, it's never too late to mend the fence.”
This proverb, 亡羊补牢犹未为晚, is often used in modern China when suggesting in a hopeful way that someone change their ways, or fix something in their life. It might be used to suggest fixing a marriage, quitting smoking, or getting back on track after taking an unfortunate path in life among other things one might fix in their life.
I suppose in the same way that we might say, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” in our western cultures to suggest that you can always start anew.
Note: This does have Korean pronunciation but is not a well-known proverb in Korean (only Koreans familiar with ancient Chinese history would know it). Best if your audience is Chinese.
茶緣 is a special title for the tea lover. This kind of means “tea fate,” but it's more spiritual and hard to define. Perhaps the tea brought you in to drink it. Perhaps the tea will bring you and another tea-lover together. Perhaps you were already there, and the tea came to you. Perhaps it's the ah-ha moment you will have when drinking the tea.
I've been told not to explain this further, as it will either dilute or confuse the purposefully-ambiguous idea embedded in this enigma.
I happen to be the owner of a piece of calligraphy written by either the son or nephew of the last emperor of China, which is the title he wrote. It was given to me at a Beijing tea house in 2001. 茶緣 is where I learned to love tea after literally spending weeks tasting and studying everything I could about Chinese tea. I did not understand the significance of the authorship or the meaning of the title at all. Some 10 years later, I realized the gift was so profound and had such providence. Only now do I realize the value of a gift that it is too late to give proper thanks for. It was also years later that I ended up in this business and could have the artwork properly mounted as a wall scroll. It has been borrowed for many exhibitions and shows and always amazes native Chinese and Taiwanese who read the signature. This piece of calligraphy I once thought was just a bit of ink on a thin and wrinkled piece of paper, is now one of my most valued possessions. And fate has taught me to be more thankful for seemingly simple gifts.
平家星 is the old Japanese title for the Betelgeuse star in the constellation Orion.
While also known as Alpha Orionis or Betelgeuse in the West, this was the “Heike star” in Japan.
The powerful Taira clan, known colloquially as the 平家 (Heike clan), adopted this star's red color as its symbol sometime in the late 800s AD. They called the star 平家星 (Heike-boshi).
沈魚落雁 is an old proverb that literally means “fish sink, goose alights.”
...But this takes some explaining. This is a proverb from Zhuangzi (莊子), who lived in the late 4th century BC.
This figuratively refers to female beauty that is so captivating that even the birds and beasts take notice.
Perhaps a better and more accurate way to describe this is to say that it speaks of the charms of a uniquely beautiful woman who is so beautiful that fish stay on the bottom of the water and flying wild geese fall from the sky in shame.
This proverb is so famous that it is also known and used in Japan (same characters, different pronunciation).
Note: This can also be written 沉魚落雁 instead of 沈魚落雁 (just the first character varies slightly).
華佗 or Hua Tuo was a Chinese physician who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty.
The historical texts Records of the Three Kingdoms and Book of the Later Han record Hua Tuo as the first person in China to use anesthesia during surgery.
Hua Tuo used a general anesthetic combining wine with a herbal concoction called 麻沸散, literally, “cannabis boil powder.” This was in the second century AD, almost 1700 years before western medicine had any form of anesthesia (1846).
These search terms might be related to Late:
Better Late Than Never
Good Night
Maintain an Army for 1000 Days, Use It for an Hour
Never Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Do Today
Night
Night / Evening
Only the Sleepless Know the Length of Night
The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn
Tranquil Night
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Do not shed a tear until you see the coffin | 不見棺材不落淚 不见棺材不落泪 | bú jiàn guān cái bú luò lèi bu2 jian4 guan1 cai2 bu2 luo4 lei4 bu jian guan cai bu luo lei bujianguancaibuluolei | pu chien kuan ts`ai pu lo lei puchienkuantsaipulolei pu chien kuan tsai pu lo lei |
|
Marco Polo | 馬可波羅 马可波罗 | mǎ kě bō luó ma3 ke3 bo1 luo2 ma ke bo luo makeboluo | ma k`o po lo makopolo ma ko po lo |
|
Better Late Than Never | 亡羊補牢猶未為晚 亡羊补牢犹未为晚 | wáng yáng bǔ láo yóu wèi wéi wǎn wang2 yang2 bu3 lao2 you2 wei4 wei2 wan3 wang yang bu lao you wei wei wan | wang yang pu lao yu wei wei wan wangyangpulaoyuweiweiwan |
|
Do not take action until the time is right | 不到火候不揭鍋 不到火候不揭锅 | bù dào huǒ hou bù jiē guō bu4 dao4 huo3 hou bu4 jie1 guo1 bu dao huo hou bu jie guo budaohuohoubujieguo | pu tao huo hou pu chieh kuo putaohuohoupuchiehkuo |
|
Tea Fate | 茶緣 茶缘 | chá yuán / cha2 yuan2 / cha yuan / chayuan | ch`a yüan / chayüan / cha yüan | |
Tranquil Midnight | 夜深人靜 夜深人静 | yè shēn rén jìng ye4 shen1 ren2 jing4 ye shen ren jing yeshenrenjing | yeh shen jen ching yehshenjenching |
|
Tranquil Night | 静夜 | seiya | ||
Heike Star Betelgeuse | 平家星 | hei ke boshi heikeboshi | ||
Beautiful Woman Proverb | 沈魚落雁 沈鱼落雁 | chin gyo raku gan chingyorakugan | chén yú luò yàn chen2 yu2 luo4 yan4 chen yu luo yan chenyuluoyan | ch`en yü lo yen chenyüloyen chen yü lo yen |
Asayama Ichiden-Ryu | 淺山一伝流 浅山一伝流 | asa yama ichi den ryuu asayamaichidenryuu asa yama ichi den ryu | ||
Hua Tuo | 華佗 华佗 | huá tuó / hua2 tuo2 / hua tuo / huatuo | hua t`o / huato / hua to | |
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. |
Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...
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.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Late Kanji, Late Characters, Late in Mandarin Chinese, Late Characters, Late in Chinese Writing, Late in Japanese Writing, Late in Asian Writing, Late Ideograms, Chinese Late symbols, Late Hieroglyphics, Late Glyphs, Late in Chinese Letters, Late Hanzi, Late in Japanese Kanji, Late Pictograms, Late in the Chinese Written-Language, or Late in the Japanese Written-Language.
25 people have searched for Late in Chinese or Japanese in the past year.
Late was last searched for by someone else on Feb 28th, 2024