Custom Persistence Chinese & Japanese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

We have many options to create artwork with Persistence characters on a wall scroll or portrait.
If you want to create a cool Persistence Asian character tattoo, you can purchase that on our Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Image Service page and we'll help you select from many forms of ancient Asian symbols that express the idea of persistence.

  1. Persistence

  2. Indomitable / Persistence / Fortitude

  3. Nothing is Impossible with Persistence

  4. Perseverance

  5. Daodejing / Tao Te Ching - Chapter 33

  6. Endurance

  7. Indomitable / Unyielding

  8. Passion for a Cause

  9. Enthusiasm / Passion for a Cause

10. Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks

11. Strong / Healthy


China gù zhí
Japan koshuu
Persistence Vertical Wall Scroll

固執 can also mean "opinionated" or "stubborn," in Chinese and Japanese but in the nicest way possible (still bad).

This just means "stubborn" in Korean (not a good scroll if your audience is Korean, in fact, we don't recommend this word at all). There are better ways to express this idea, such as tenacious or perseverance... ...see links below...

See Also:  Tenacious | Fortitude | Perseverance

Indomitable / Persistence / Fortitude

China bù qū
Japan fukutsu
Indomitable / Persistence / Fortitude Vertical Wall Scroll

不屈 is the short form of a longer Chinese word, and also a word used in Korean and Japanese to express the idea of being indomitable. It literally means, "will not bend," "will not crouch," "will not yield," "will not flinch," or "will not submit."

Note: Some will translate this as "indomitable spirit"; however, technically, there is no character to suggest the idea of "spirit" in this word.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Undaunted

Nothing is Impossible with Persistence

China yí shān
Japan isan
Nothing is Impossible with Persistence Vertical Wall Scroll

移山 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for, "to remove mountains," or "to move a mountain."

Figuratively, this means you can accomplish the impossible by sheer persistence.

移山 is the short form of a proverb about a man who had much persistence, and was able to move a whole mountain (a bucket of soil at a time).


China jiān rèn bù bá
Perseverance Vertical Wall Scroll


The translation of this proverb literally means, "something so persistent or steadfast, that it is not uprootable / movable / surpassable."

See Also:  Tenacious | Devotion | Indomitable

Daodejing / Tao Te Ching - Chapter 33

China zhī rén zhě zhī yě zì zhī zhě míng yě shèng rén zhě yǒu lì yě zì shèng zhě qiáng yě zhī zú zhě fù yě qiáng xíng zhě yǒu zhì yě bù zhī qí suǒ zhě jiǔ yě sǐ ér bù wáng zhě shòu yě
Daodejing / Tao Te Ching - Chapter 33 Vertical Wall Scroll

This is referred to as passage or chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing (often Romanized as "Tao Te Ching").

These are the words of the philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu).

The following is one translation of this passage:
To know others is wisdom;
To know oneself is acuity/intelligence.
To conquer others is power,
To conquer oneself is strength.
To know contentment is to have wealth.
To act resolutely is to have purpose.
To stay one's ground is to be enduring.
To die and yet not be forgotten is to be long-lived.
Another translation:
To understand others is to be knowledgeable;
To understand yourself is to be wise.
To conquer others is to have strength;
To conquer yourself is to be strong.
To know when you have enough is to be rich.
To go forward with strength is to have ambition.
To not lose your place is to be long lasting.
To die but not be forgotten -- that's true long life.
A third translation of the second half:
He who is content is rich;
He who acts with persistence has will;
He who does not lose his roots will endure;
He who dies physically but preserves the Dao
will enjoy a long after-life.


During our research, the Chinese characters shown here are probably the most accurate to the original text of Laozi. These were taken for the most part from the Mawangdui 1973 and Guodan 1993 manuscripts which pre-date other Daodejing texts by about 1000 years.

Grammar was a little different in Laozi's time. So you should consider this to be the ancient Chinese version. Some have modernized this passage by adding, removing, or swapping articles and changing the grammar (we felt the oldest and most original version would be more desirable). You may find other versions printed in books or online - sometimes these modern texts are simply used to explain to Chinese people what the original text really means.

This language issue can be compared in English by thinking how the King James (known as the Authorized version in Great Britain) Bible from 1611 was written, and comparing it to modern English. Now imagine that the Daodejing was probably written around 403 BCE (2000 years before the King James Version of the Bible). To a Chinese person, the original Daodejing reads like text that is 3 times more detached compared to Shakespeare's English is to our modern-day speech.

Extended notes:

While on this Biblical text comparison, it should be noted, that just like the Bible, all the original texts of the Daodejing were lost or destroyed long ago. Just as with the scripture used to create the Bible, various manuscripts exist, many with variations or copyist errors. Just as the earliest New Testament scripture (incomplete) is from 170 years after Christ, the earliest Daodejing manuscript (incomplete) is from 100-200 years after the death of Laozi.

The reason that the originals were lost probably has a lot to do with the first Qin Emperor. Upon taking power and unifying China, he ordered the burning and destruction of all books (scrolls/rolls) except those pertaining to Chinese medicine and a few other subjects. The surviving Daodejing manuscripts were either hidden on purpose or simply forgotten about. Some were not unearthed until as late as 1993.

We compared a lot of research by various archeologists and historians before deciding on this as the most accurate and correct version. But one must allow that it may not be perfect, or the actual and original as from the hand of Laozi himself.


China chí jiǔ
Japan ji kyuu
Endurance Vertical Wall Scroll

持久 means "to endure" or "lasting."

In some context, it can mean "persistent" or "persistence" (especially in Japanese and Korean).

Indomitable / Unyielding

China bù qū bù náo
Japan fukutsu futou
Indomitable / Unyielding Vertical Wall Scroll

不屈不撓 means "Indomitable" or "Unyielding."

不屈不撓 is a long word by Chinese standards. At least, it is often translated as a single word into English. It's actually a proverb in Chinese.

If you want to break it down, you can see that the first and third characters are the same. Both meaning "not" (they work as a suffix to make a negative or opposite meaning to whatever character follows).

The second character means "bendable."

The last means "scratched" or "bothered."

So this really means "Won't be bent, can't be bothered." I have also seen it written as "Will not crouch, will not submit." This comes from the fact that the second character can mean, "to crouch" and the last can mean "to submit" (as in "to give in" such as "submitting to the rule of someone else"). This may explain better why these four characters mean "indomitable."

The first two characters can be a stand-alone word in Chinese.
In Japanese, this is considered to be two words (with very similar meanings).
The same characters are used in Korean, but the 2nd and 4th characters are swapped to create a word pronounced "불요불굴" in Korean.
Just let me know if you want the Korean version, which will also make sense in Japanese, and though not as natural, will also make sense in Chinese as well.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Undaunted

Passion for a Cause

China rè qíng
Japan netsujou
Passion for a Cause Vertical Wall Scroll



See Also:  Devotion | Tenacity | Commitment | Motivation

Enthusiasm / Passion for a Cause

China qíng rè
Japan jou netsu
Enthusiasm / Passion for a Cause Vertical Wall Scroll





See Also:  Devotion | Tenacity | Commitment | Motivation

Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks

Persistence to overcome all challenges
China bǎi zhé bù náo
Japan hyaku setsu su tou
Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks Vertical Wall Scroll

This Chinese proverb means "Be undaunted in the face of repeated setbacks." More directly-translated, it reads, "[Overcome] a hundred setbacks, without flinching." 百折不撓 is of Chinese origin but is commonly used in Japanese, and somewhat in Korean (same characters, different pronunciation).

This proverb comes from a long, and occasionally tragic story of a man that lived sometime around 25-220 AD. His name was Qiao Xuan and he never stooped to flattery but remained an upright person at all times. He fought to expose corruption of higher-level government officials at great risk to himself.

Then when he was at a higher level in the Imperial Court, bandits were regularly capturing hostages and demanding ransoms. But when his own son was captured, he was so focused on his duty to the Emperor and common good that he sent a platoon of soldiers to raid the bandits' hideout, and stop them once and for all even at the risk of his own son's life. While all of the bandits were arrested in the raid, they killed Qiao Xuan's son at first sight of the raiding soldiers.

Near the end of his career a new Emperor came to power, and Qiao Xuan reported to him that one of his ministers was bullying the people and extorting money from them. The new Emperor refused to listen to Qiao Xuan and even promoted the corrupt Minister. Qiao Xuan was so disgusted that in protest he resigned his post as minister (something almost never done) and left for his home village.

His tombstone reads "Bai Zhe Bu Nao" which is now a proverb used in Chinese culture to describe a person of strength will who puts up stubborn resistance against great odds.

My Chinese-English dictionary defines these 4 characters as, "keep on fighting in spite of all setbacks," "be undaunted by repeated setbacks" and "be indomitable."

Our translator says it can mean, "never give up" in modern Chinese.

Although the first two characters are translated correctly as "repeated setbacks," the literal meaning is "100 setbacks" or "a rope that breaks 100 times." The last two characters can mean "do not yield" or "do not give up."
Most Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people will not take this absolutely literal meaning but will instead understand it as the title suggests above. If you want a single big word definition, it would be indefatigability, indomitableness, persistence, or unyielding.

See Also:  Tenacity | Fortitude | Strength | Perseverance

Strong / Healthy

China jiàn
Japan ken
Strong / Healthy Vertical Wall Scroll


Beyond "healthy," it can also mean strength, persistence, vigorous or invigorated.

Strong / Healthy

Japan sukoyaka
Strong / Healthy Vertical Wall Scroll






Title CharactersRomaji(Romanized Japanese)Various forms of Romanized Chinese
koshuu / koshugù zhí / gu4 zhi2 / gu zhi / guzhiku chih / kuchih
不屈fukutsubù qū / bu4 qu1 / bu qu / buqupu ch`ü / puchü / pu chü
Nothing is Impossible with Persistence移山isanyí shān / yi2 shan1 / yi shan / yishani shan / ishan
jiān rèn bù bá
jian1 ren4 bu4 ba2
jian ren bu ba
chien jen pu pa
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 33
zhi1 ren2 zhe3 zhi1 ye3 zi4 zhi1 zhe3 ming2 ye3 sheng4 ren2 zhe3 you3 li4 ye3 zi4 sheng4 zhe3 qiang2 ye3 zhi1 zu2 zhe3 fu4 ye3 qiang2 xing2 zhe3 you3 zhi4 ye3 bu4 zhi1 qi2 suo3 zhe3 jiu3 ye3 si3 er2 bu4 wang2 zhe3 shou4 ye3
zhi ren zhe zhi ye zi zhi zhe ming ye sheng ren zhe you li ye zi sheng zhe qiang ye zhi zu zhe fu ye qiang xing zhe you zhi ye bu zhi qi suo zhe jiu ye si er bu wang zhe shou ye
chih jen che chih yeh tzu chih che ming yeh sheng jen che yu li yeh tzu sheng che ch`iang yeh chih tsu che fu yeh ch`iang hsing che yu chih yeh pu chih ch`i so che chiu yeh ssu erh pu wang che shou yeh
chih jen che chih yeh tzu chih che ming yeh sheng jen che yu li yeh tzu sheng che chiang yeh chih tsu che fu yeh chiang hsing che yu chih yeh pu chih chi so che chiu yeh ssu erh pu wang che shou yeh
Endurance持久ji kyuu / jikyuu / ji kyu / jikyuchí jiǔ / chi2 jiu3 / chi jiu / chijiuch`ih chiu / chihchiu / chih chiu
fukutsu futou
fukutsu futo
bù qū bù náo
bu4 qu1 bu4 nao2
bu qu bu nao
pu ch`ü pu nao
pu chü pu nao
Passion for a Cause熱情
Passion for a Cause
Undaunted After Repeated Setbacks百折不撓
hyaku setsu su tou
hyaku setsu su to
bǎi zhé bù náo
bai3 zhe2 bu4 nao2
bai zhe bu nao
pai che pu nao
kenjiàn / jian4 / jianchien

All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.




A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

single-character wall scroll.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.


Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort


A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei


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