知
Symbols Relationships
soulmate
音
ㄓ ㄧㄣ zhī yīn
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.
The one person who truly understands you. Chinese has no word for a fated romantic soulmate, but it has an old and better one for being understood.
Before you commit
Choose with care知音 is about being understood, not about romance or destiny. If you mean a romantic destined partner, 知音 will read as deep friendship instead.
At small sizesEight strokes plus nine, both open and evenly built. The pair reads clearly even at modest size.
Cultural noteThe word comes from the story of the zither player Boya, who broke his instrument when the one listener who understood his playing died. It carries loss as well as recognition.
Meaning
One who understands your music; a true, rare friend.
The classical ideal of being understood completely, and instantly recognised.
Other characters for “soulmate”
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