Learn how the name Richard is written in Chinese and Japanese. Decorate your home with a cool wall scroll that says Richard.
将軍 or Shogun, in the simplest definition, is a General, but you could also use words such as commander, lord, overlord, highest ranking, or commanding officer.
The title “Shogun” has held some slightly ambiguous meanings at times in Japanese history.
In the west, when someone mentions “Shogun,” we may be filled with thoughts of gallant warriors. Some might even think of the TV mini-series with Richard Chamberlain. Often westerners use the words, Samurai and Shogun interchangeably, but that's really not technically correct. In the case of the Samurai, the Shogun was a designated (by the emperor) leader of a gild of Samurai. In this context, the Shogun was a Samurai lord. Or effectively, a commanding officer of a company of Samurai - to put it in modern military terms.
Sometimes a Shogun was a general; other times, he was the leader of a military government in Japan - but not a front-line warrior like a Samurai.
Variants of the same characters are used in China for the rank and title of a General of the People's Liberation Army (and the same term and characters have been used for the last 2200 years since the Qin Dynasty).
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Lion Heart | 獅心 狮心 | shī xīn / shi1 xin1 / shi xin / shixin | shih hsin / shihhsin | |
Lion Heart | 獅子心王 狮子心王 | shi shi shin ou shishishinou shi shi shin o | ||
Richard | 理查 | lǐ chá / li3 cha2 / li cha / licha | li ch`a / licha / li cha | |
Richard | リチャード | richaado / richado | ||
Shogun Japanese General | 將軍 将军 | shougun / shogun | jiāng jūn jiang1 jun1 jiang jun jiangjun | chiang chün chiangchün |
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.