脆
Symbols Emotions
vulnerability
弱
ㄘㄨㄟˋ ㄖㄨㄛˋ cuì ruò
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.
Being open to being hurt. In Chinese this is a weakness word, not the modern English virtue of daring to be seen.
Before you commit
Choose with careThe English idea of vulnerability as courage does not exist in Chinese. 脆弱 says fragile and slightly pitiable. If you mean the brave sense, no Chinese word will carry it.
Pairs well withIf what you want is strength that yields rather than breaks, 柔 in 以柔克剛 (the soft overcomes the hard) is the idea Chinese actually honours.
At small sizes脆弱 is 10 and 10 strokes side by side. As two characters it needs a long, straight run of skin.
Meaning
Fragile, easily broken or hurt; frail in body or spirit.
The closest real Chinese equivalent, and it is not a compliment.
Other characters for “vulnerability”
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