Chinese Tattoo 慈: Meaning, Strokes & Design Guide
The character 慈 means "kind, charitable, benevolent" and is pronounced cí. Below: its structure, the words it appears in, and how it works as a tattoo.
Quick facts
| Character | 慈 |
| Pinyin | cí |
| Meaning | kind, charitable, benevolent |
| Strokes | 13 |
| Radical | ⼼ (No. 61) |
Words that contain 慈
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 慈善 | cí shàn | benevolent | newest-7 |
| 仁慈 | rén cí | benevolent | newest-7 |
| 慈祥 | cí xiáng | kindly | newest-7 |
| 令慈 | ling4 ci2 | Your esteemed mother (honorific) | — |
| 先慈 | xian1 ci2 | (literary) my late mother | — |
| 严慈 | yan2 ci2 | strict and compassionate | — |
Words and levels: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Characters sharing the ⼼ radical
思 sī 恩 ēn 忠 zhōng 恒 héng 忍 rěn 心 xīn 念 niàn 悟 wù
All of these share the ⼼ radical, so they are visually related — useful when you compare designs.
Placing 慈
慈 runs to 13 strokes, which is dense for a single character. At small sizes the inner strokes close up and the character stops being readable — this one wants a larger placement (upper back, thigh, forearm) rather than a wrist or ankle. Tell your artist the intended size before the stencil is cut, because a design that reads at 8 cm can collapse at 4 cm. Bring the stencil together with the pinyin and the meaning, and ask the artist to follow the stencil rather than redrawing the character freehand — freehand redrawing is the most common way a correct character loses a stroke and becomes a different one.
Design notes for 慈
慈 appears both on its own and inside compounds, so the sense depends on context; here it reads “kind, charitable, benevolent”. Regular script (楷书) keeps every stroke countable, which matters when a Chinese reader checks it. Avoid mirroring or rotating the character, and avoid very fine or cursive styles at small sizes, where strokes merge into a shape that reads as a different character.
Frequently asked questions
What does 慈 mean?
慈 (cí) means “kind, charitable, benevolent”.
How is 慈 pronounced?
慈 is pronounced cí in Mandarin.
How many strokes does 慈 have?
慈 has 13 strokes, under the ⼼ radical (No. 61).
How large should a 慈 tattoo be?
With 13 strokes, 慈 is moderately dense — it stays legible from roughly 4–5 cm upward. Shrinking it below that risks the strokes merging.
Which style works for 慈?
Bold regular script (楷书) keeps the strokes clear. Semi-cursive (行书) adds flow but softens edges. Seal script looks classical but is harder for most readers to verify — use it only if a native reader has confirmed the rendering.
Is 慈 common in modern Chinese?
It appears in everyday words such as 慈善、仁慈、慈祥, though it is more often used inside compounds than alone.
Should I use simplified or traditional 慈?
慈 is written the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose.
Want 慈 as a ready-to-use stencil with a native-checked meaning card, sized for your tattoo artist?
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Character data: Unihan (Unicode) · words: HSK vocabulary & CC-CEDICT · How we verify this