憐
Symbols Emotions
pity
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.
Feeling sorry for someone — in Chinese, often tender and affectionate rather than condescending.
Before you commit
Choose with care憐 doubles as tenderness — 憐愛 is loving care while 可憐 means pitiable. The two senses sit uncomfortably close together.
At small sizes15 strokes, tall and narrow on both halves. Legible at moderate size, poor below that.
Cultural note憐香惜玉 describes treating a woman gently, so 憐 carries a romantic shade that English pity does not.
Meaning
To pity; to cherish tenderly.
Holds both senses at once, which is what makes it interesting.
Other characters for “pity”
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