The name To Die in Chinese / Japanese...

寧為玉碎 is the short version of a longer Chinese proverb which means “rather be shattered piece of jade than an unbroken piece of pottery.”

寧為玉碎 says the “rather be a broken piece of jade” part (the second half is implied - everyone in China knows this idiom).

A little more explanation:
Death is implied with the “broken” meaning. Jade is one of the most precious materials in Chinese history, and in this case, is compared with one's honor and self-worth. Pottery is just something you eat off of; it has no deep value, just as a person who has lost their honor or had none to begin with.
Thus, this means “better to die with honor than to live in shame” or words to that effect.

This is often translated in English as “Death Before Dishonor,” the famous military slogan.

I would also compare this to the English proverb, “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

寧為玉碎不為瓦全 is the long version of a Chinese proverb that means “rather be shattered piece of jade than an unbroken piece of pottery.”

A little more explanation:
Death is implied with the “broken” meaning. Jade is one of the most precious materials in Chinese history, and in this case, is compared with one's honor and self-worth. Pottery is just something you eat off of, it has no deep value, just as a person who has lost their honor, or had none to begin with.
Thus, this means “better to die with honor than to live in shame” or words to that effect.

寧為玉碎不為瓦全 is often translated in English as “Death Before Dishonor,” the famous military slogan.

I would also compare this to the English proverb, “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

This is an idiom. It therefore doesn’t directly say exactly what it means. If you think about the English idiom, "The grass is always greener," it does not directly say "jealousy" or "envy" but everyone knows that it is implied.

This phrase means “Old and ailing with little time left” or “Not long for this world.”
There is a real suggestion here that someone will die soon.

This was added by a special request of a customer and is perhaps, not the most positive phrase that you could put on a wall scroll.

This would be the most offensive possible gift to give to an older person - please do not do that!

寧死不屈 is often translated as “Death Before Dishonor.”

The literal translation is more like, “Better die than compromise.” The last two characters mean “not to bend” or “not to bow down.” Some might even say that it means “not to surrender.” Thus, you could say this proverb means “Better to die than live on my knees” or simply “no surrender” (with the real idea being that you would rather die than surrender).

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

The direct meaning is, “[you] can die/kill [but you] cannot [allow] dishonor/disgrace [upon yourself].” 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 many ways to express ideas similar to “Death Before Dishonor” in Chinese, and I would rate this one in the top two.

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.

不名誉より死 is the Japanese version of “Death Before Dishonor.”

Japanese grammar is a bit different than English, so this really means something like “Rather die than to be dishonored.” However, “dishonor” is the first three Kanji, and death is the last Kanji. There are two Hiragana (より) which indicate the preference is death when comparing dishonor to death.

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

尊厳死 is not a good choice for a wall scroll unless you have a very specific and personal reason.

This was added at the request of a customer.

尊厳死 means “death with dignity” or “natural death” (as opposed to extending one's life unnaturally with life support).

寧死不降 is an ancient Chinese proverb that can be translated as “Rather die than surrender,” “Prefer death over surrender,” “To prefer death to surrender,” or simply “No surrender.”

This is probably the closest proverb to the English proverb “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

This ancient Japanese proverb can be translated as “The principle of honorable death and no surrender,” or simply “No surrender.”

If you directly translate this, you get something that means “Doctrine of suicide,” or “Ideology of honorable death.”

玉砕主義 is a specifically-Japanese proverb that embraces the long history of honorable suicide or self-sacrifice for honor in Japanese culture.

死而無悔 is how to say “die with no regrets” in Mandarin Chinese.

This proverb comes from the Analects of Confucius.

See Also:  No Regrets

食べ飲み楽しめ明日は皆死ぬ means “eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” in Japanese.

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

死神 is the title of the mythological figure (often called the Grim Reaper in western culture) in charge of taking the souls of those who die.

This title can be translated directly as “god of death” or “spirit of death.” The first character literally means “death,” and the second means “spirit” or “god.”

死神 is a very strange title for a calligraphy wall scroll. I'm not even sure if my calligraphers will write it, as it has some bad superstitious feelings attached to it.

This came from a customer's request, but it's not too bad.

These three simple characters suggest that you are born, you learn to love, and then exit the world.

活也讓別人死 means “live and let die” in Chinese.

This is the Chinese translation of the song lyric by Guns 'n Roses for the James Bond 007 movie of the same name.

死ぬのは奴らだ means “live and let die,” in Japanese.

死ぬのは奴らだ is the Japanese title of the James Bond 007 movie of the same name.

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

不自由毋寧死 means “Give me liberty or give me death” in Chinese.

This is also the best way to say, “Live free or die.”

The characters break down this way:
不 = Not; none; without.
自由 = Freedom; liberty; freewill; self-determination.
毋寧 = Rather; would rather; rather be.
死 = Dead; death.

This will go nicely next to your “Don't tread on me” flag. This phrase is known well enough in China that it's listed in a few dictionaries. Though I doubt you will find too many Chinese citizens willing to yell this on the steps of the capital in Beijing.

See Also:  Death Before Dishonor

絕處逢生 is a Chinese proverb/idiom that talks of coming back from death's door or an unexpected rescue from danger.

Figuratively, this can be to recover from a seemingly impossible situation or to find a way out of a predicament.

If you have survived a near-death experience or severe illness, this might be an appropriate wall scroll for you.

殺人剣 is a Japanese title for “Death Sword,” “Life Taking Sword,” or “satsujinken.”

This is the opposite of katsujinken or the “life-saving sword.” This title is not as commonly used in Japanese but pairs well when hung with katsujinken.

The first two Kanji are a word that translates as homicide, murder or kill (a person). 殺人剣 is specifically to kill a person (as the second character means person or human) as opposed to an animal, etc.

The last Kanji is the Japanese variant of the originally-Chinese character for a sword.

See Also:  Katsujinken

生老病死 means “to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die” or “birth, aging, sickness, and death.”

This is an old somewhat-morbid Chinese proverb that is also used in Korean and Japanese. It figuratively means the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality) or suggests that we are all born to suffer.

In the Buddhist context, there are the “four inevitables in human life” or “four afflictions that are the lot of every human” known as “四苦” (literally “four afflictions”). Sometimes this proverb is written with that affliction character, 苦, at the end like 生老病死苦.

人為財死鳥為食亡 is a Chinese proverb that literally states that human beings will die for riches, just as birds will for food.

Figuratively it means that man will do anything in his means to become rich. Personally, I think dying for food is a more noble cause.

Often translated as “Men die in pursuit of wealth, birds die in pursuit of food. The 人 in this proverb just means human, so “men” is a placeholder for human with that translation - an English language problem that we have no easy gender-neutral nouns.

This proverb is meant to serve as a warning about the follies of greed.

凡动刀的，必死在刀下 is the second part of Matthew 26:52 from the Chinese Union Bible where Jesus suggests that one who uses a sword will also die by it.