廉
Symbols Virtues
incorruptibility
ㄌㄧㄢˊ lián
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
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Refusing what you could take and no one would notice.
Before you commit
Choose with care廉 is strongly tied to public office and anti-corruption language. It also means cheap or low-priced in 廉價, which is a jarring second reading.
At small sizesThirteen strokes under a broad shelter radical. It needs width; it flattens badly on a narrow placement.
Cultural noteThe incorruptible official is a stock heroic figure in Chinese history and opera, so 廉 carries genuine admiration rather than dry officialdom.
Meaning
Honest and incorruptible, especially about money and office.
The classical virtue of the official who takes nothing.
Other characters for “incorruptibility”
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