生死有命富貴在天 shisei mei ari, fūki ten ni ari Death and Life Have Their Determined Appointments; Riches and Honors Depend upon Heaven

生死有命富貴在天, read in Japanese shisei mei ari, fūki ten ni ari: life and death have their allotted span; wealth and rank rest with Heaven.

Life and death have their allotted span, wealth and rank rest with Heaven: how long you live and how high you rise are not yours to decide, so stop grieving over what you lack. It is in the Analects and it is not Confucius's: a disciple quotes it as a saying he has already heard, to console a friend who grieves that he alone has no brothers, and adds that a gentleman who is reverent and courteous has brothers within the four seas. 命 is the lot one is given, the decree of Heaven, and so one's span of life, an allotment and not a plan; the English title is James Legge's sentence, with the Calvinist word appointment for it. In Japan the line became a way of facing death rather than a proverb about money, a soldier's reason to attack now since no one knows who dies first, and the words a book printed in 1829 gives Bashō on his deathbed. The order these designs write, 生死, is the compound Japanese prefers, and a Tang commentator already wrote the line that way when he quoted it. Which clause you take, the span or the rank, is yours.

The line is not Confucius's own words: in the Analects, Zixia offers it as a saying he says he has heard, to console a disciple who grieves that he alone has no brothers.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 生死有命富貴在天.

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Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase brushes your scroll by hand when you order it. Each scroll bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.

The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with real silk borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by Sankō (株式会社三幸) in Gifu prefecture, which has been making high quality scrolls since 1947, and we have worked with Sankō for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase