Chinese characters, one of humanity’s greatest and most enduring cultural achievements. Until recent centuries, China had one of the highest literacy rates in the world and more than half of the world’s literature was written in Chinese characters. Due to the central role of calligraphy in Chinese art and the vitality of Chinese civilization, Chinese characters have held a similarly pre-eminent position in the world’s art.

LOVE

GOOD KARMA

SOULMATE

MOTHER EARTH

Combined-meaning characters

Also translated as associative compounds, characters of this sort combine pictograms to symbolize an abstract concept. For instance, is a pictogram of a tree, and putting two together makes ? meaning forest. The character (faith) is a combination of (person) and (word), and means “keeping one’s word”.