放
Symbols Life
letting go
下
ㄈㄤˋ ㄒㄧㄚˋ fàng xià
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.
Releasing something you have been holding: a grudge, a person, a version of yourself. Chinese says this as putting it down.
Before you commit
Choose with care放 on its own does not mean letting go emotionally; it reads as put, place or release. The 下 is what makes it the phrase people mean.
Cultural note放下 is the standard Buddhist instruction, from the image of setting down a load at the roadside. Many readers hear it as a temple phrase.
At small sizesEleven strokes over two characters. 下 is only three strokes, so keep the pair stacked vertically or the balance looks odd.
Meaning
To put down, to set aside; to let go of a burden or an attachment.
The exact idiom — Chinese pictures letting go as lowering something to the ground.
Other characters for “letting go”
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