We have many options to create artwork with Chastity characters on a wall scroll or portrait.
If you want to create a cool Chastity Asian character tattoo, you can purchase that here:
Asian / Chinese / Japanese Tattoo Image Service
...and we'll give you many tattoo image templates of the ancient Asian symbols that express the idea of chastity.
1. Chastity
3. Ethics / Ethical / Morality
5. Fidelity / Personal Integrity / Honor
7. Modesty
10. Purity
11. Ten Commandments
In Chinese, 貞節 would be defined as “The state of being sexually pure” or “chaste.”
Culturally, this especially applies to young women. 貞節 is not actually far off from our western view on this subject. In Japanese and Korean, this could also be used to express virtue, faithfulness, and fidelity.
See Also: Modesty
Also: Clean / Innocent / Pure
純潔 is associated with “chastity” but with the direct meaning of clean, innocent, and pure.
If you were expressing the idea of a “pure heart” in Chinese, while not literal, this would be the word you would use.
In Japanese, this word is sometimes used to express purity.
In Korean, it describes purity, chastity, virginity, and innocence (basically the same as the Chinese definition).
道德 is a Chinese, Japanese, and old Korean word that can also be defined as “moral principles,” morality, ethics, ethical, morals, or virtue.
The first character is the same that is associated with Daoism / Taoism. This word is also used to express morality, virtue, or simply morals.
There is a slight deviation in the Japanese Kanji form. If you want the modern Japanese version, please click on the special Kanji shown to the right instead of the button above. Note that the traditional Chinese form is still readable and understood by Japanese people.
See Also: Prudence
貞烈 is the Japanese Kanji for “Extreme Faithfulness.”
The first Kanji means “firm adherence to one's principles,” chastity (of a woman), chaste, etc.
The second Kanji means ardent, intense, fierce, stern, upright, to give one's life for a noble cause, exploits, achievements, virtuous, and in some contexts, heroic.
Now you get the idea why this refers to someone who is extremely faithful (to a cause, themselves, their religious beliefs, or their philosophy.
操守 is the Chinese and Japanese Kanji for personal integrity, constancy, fidelity, and honor/honour.
The original meaning of the first character is chastity, fidelity, honor, and/or faith.
The second character means to defend, guard, keep watch, and be observant.
So, this is about being observant of and guarding your integrity and honor.
節操 means honorable, integrity of principle, constancy, honor, and in a certain context, chastity.
Please note that there are a few ways to relay the idea of integrity in Asian languages and more than one way to define honor in English. 節操 is far from the only way to express “honor and integrity.”
Depending on the context, 謙遜 can be translated as modesty, humbleness, or humility.
The first character means modesty, while the second means yielding. Together, it could be stated as “yielding modesty.”
See Also: Prudence | Moderation
德 is the simple way to express the ideas of having virtue, morals, kindness, benevolence, goodness, etc.
德 also happens to be the first character of the Chinese word for Germany.
There is a slight deviation in the Japanese Kanji form. If you want the modern Japanese version, please click on the special Kanji shown to the right instead of the button above. Note that the traditional Chinese form is still readable and understood by Japanese people.
See Also: Ethics | Prudence | Benevolence | Morality
慎重 conveys the idea of being considerate, having prudence, and being thoughtful when taking action.
慎重 can also mean cautious, careful, discreet, deliberate, or taking all things into consideration.
The general meaning is shared across languages. However, in Chinese, this is more about prudence, while in Japanese, this is more about being considerate.
Chinese Catholics use this word to represent “prudence” in the list of the Seven Heavenly Virtues.
Note: Depending on your choice of Chinese or Japanese calligraphers, the first Kanji will vary slightly. It is technically the same character. Japanese tend to leave a space between the upper and lower portions of this particular Kanji. See sample images to the right.
See Also: Moderation | Modesty
Clean and Pure
淨 is the most simple way to express purity or cleanliness in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
As a single character, the concept is broad: This can be a verb (the act of cleaning, purifying, or cleansing) but it can also be the state of being clean, pure, and chaste. In some contexts, it can be a place to clean (like a bathing room for the soul in a Buddhist context). In Japanese, this can be a female given name “Jou” or “jō” (the Japanese equivalent of the English girl's name “Chastity”).
十戒 means Ten Commandments or Ten Precepts.
In the Buddhist context, these are prohibitions consisting of five commandments for the layman:
1. Not to destroy life 不殺生 Pāṇātipātāveramaṇi.
2. Not to steal 不倫盜 Adinnādānāver.
3. Not to commit adultery 不婬慾 Abrahmacaryaver.
4. Not to lie 不妄語 Musāvādāver.
5. Not to take intoxicating liquor 不飮酒 Suramereyya-Majjapamādaṭṭhānāver.
The ten commandments for the monk are the preceding five plus:
6. Not to eat food outside of regulated hours 不非時食 Vikāla-Bhojanāver.
7. Not to use garlands or perfumes 不著華鬘好香塗身 Mālā- Gandha-Vilepana-Dhāraṇa-Maṇḍana-Vibhūṣanaṭṭhānā.
8. Not to sleep on high or broad beds (chastity) 不坐高廣大牀 Uccāsayanā-Mahāsayanā.
9. Not to take part in singing, dancing, musical or theatrical performances 不歌舞倡伎不往觀聽 Nacca-Gīta-Vādita-Visūkadassanāver.
10. To refrain from acquiring uncoined or coined gold, or silver, or jewels 不得捉錢金銀寶物 Jātarūpa-Rajata-Paṭīggahaṇāver.
These original Buddhist commandments date back to about 2500 years ago. The English definitions above are followed by Chinese characters and original Pali pronunciation.
Under the Māhayāna Buddhism, these ten commands for the monk were changed, to accord with the new environment of the monk, to the following: not to kill, not to steal, to avoid all unchastity, not to lie, not to slander, not to insult, not to chatter, not to covet, not to give way to anger, to harbor no skepticism.
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Chastity | 貞節 贞节 | teisetsu | zhēn jié / zhen1 jie2 / zhen jie / zhenjie | chen chieh / chenchieh |
Chastity | 沙史提迪 | shā shǐ tí dí sha1 shi3 ti2 di2 sha shi ti di shashitidi | sha shih t`i ti shashihtiti sha shih ti ti |
|
Chastity | チャスチチー | chasutitii / chasutiti | ||
Chastity | 貞潔 贞洁 | teiketsu / teketsu | zhēn jié / zhen1 jie2 / zhen jie / zhenjie | chen chieh / chenchieh |
Chastity Pure Heart | 純潔 纯洁 | jun ketsu / junketsu | chún jié / chun2 jie2 / chun jie / chunjie | ch`un chieh / chunchieh / chun chieh |
Ethics Ethical Morality | 道德 道德 / 道徳 | dou toku / doutoku / do toku | dào dé / dao4 de2 / dao de / daode | tao te / taote |
Extreme Faithfulness | 貞烈 | tei retsu / teiretsu | ||
Fidelity Personal Integrity Honor | 操守 | soushu / soshu | cāo shǒu / cao1 shou3 / cao shou / caoshou | ts`ao shou / tsaoshou / tsao shou |
Honor and Integrity | 節操 节操 | sessou / seso | jié cāo / jie2 cao1 / jie cao / jiecao | chieh ts`ao / chiehtsao / chieh tsao |
Modesty | 謙遜 谦逊 | kenson | qiān xùn / qian1 xun4 / qian xun / qianxun | ch`ien hsün / chienhsün / chien hsün |
Moral and Virtuous | 德 徳 | toku | dé / de2 / de | te |
Prudence Considerate | 慎重 | shin chou / shinchou / shin cho | shèn zhòng shen4 zhong4 shen zhong shenzhong | shen chung shenchung |
Purity | 淨 | jou / jo | jìng / jing4 / jing | ching |
Ten Commandments | 十戒 | jukkai / jukai | shí jiè / shi2 jie4 / shi jie / shijie | shih chieh / shihchieh |
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.