adaptability

變

通

ㄅㄧㄢˋ ㄊㄨㄥ biàn tōng

Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.

Script

Characters

Layout

Bending your method when conditions change, without losing the aim you started with.

Before you commit

Choose with careThere is no single character for adaptability. 通 alone reads as to pass through or to be fluent in something, which is close but not the same idea.

Pairs well with隨機應變 for adapting on the fly, 因地制宜 for suiting the method to the place.

Cultural note變通 has an approving edge: it names the person who solves the problem instead of quoting the rule back at you. The dictionary gives its opposite as 固執, stubbornness.

Meaning

To adapt flexibly; to change the method to fit the case.

The classical and still-current word for bending rules sensibly rather than breaking them.

Other characters for “adaptability”

What to do next

Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.

Related concepts