self-knowledge

自

知

ㄗˋ ㄓ zì zhī

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

Knowing what you actually are, limits included. The fixed Chinese phrase for it is more about limits than about depth.

Before you commit

Choose with care自知 in Chinese is mostly about knowing your own limits. Saying someone has 自知之明 means they know not to overreach - a compliment, but a modest one.

Pairs well with自知之明 in full, if you have the room. The four characters are instantly recognised where 自知 alone can read as a fragment.

At small sizes自知 is six strokes beside eight, both open and evenly weighted. Safe small and on curved skin.

Meaning

To know oneself; awareness of one's own measure.

From 自知之明, the clear sight of knowing what you are and are not.

Other characters for “self-knowledge”

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