Chinese Tattoo 家和万事兴: Meaning & Design Guide
家和万事兴 means “if the family lives in harmony all affairs will prosper (idiom)”, pronounced jia1 he2 wan4 shi4 xing1. Below: each character broken down, and how the phrase works as a tattoo.
Character by character
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Strokes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 家 | jiā | house, home, residence; family | 10 |
| 和 | hé | harmony, peace; peaceful, calm | 8 |
| 万 | wàn mò | ten thousand; innumerable | 3 |
| 事 | shì | affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident | 8 |
| 兴 | xìng | thrive, prosper, flourish | 6 |
Per-character data: Unihan (Unicode).
Words using these characters
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 大家 | dà jiā | everyone | newest-1 |
| 国家 | guó jiā | country; nation; state | newest-3 |
| 回家 | huí jiā | to return home | new-1 |
| 和平 | Hé píng | Heping District of Shenyang city 沈阳市, Liaoning | newest-6 |
| 和谐 | hé xié | harmonious | newest-6 |
| 共和国 | gòng hé guó | republic | newest-7 |
Words: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Placing 家和万事兴
家和万事兴 mixes heavy and light characters — the dense 家 (10 strokes) sits beside the lighter 万 (3) — so equal measured sizes can look uneven on skin. Ask your artist to match the optical weight instead, and to keep the baseline level across all 5 characters. It totals 35 strokes, so it needs a placement with room — the inner forearm or upper back rather than a narrow spot. 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 家和万事兴
家和万事兴 is a fixed expression meaning “if the family lives in harmony all affairs will prosper (idiom)”, read jia1 he2 wan4 shi4 xing1. Because it is set, swapping any character changes the meaning — have the exact wording checked by a native reader before it goes on skin. 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 家和万事兴 mean?
家和万事兴 means “if the family lives in harmony all affairs will prosper (idiom)”.
How is 家和万事兴 pronounced?
家和万事兴 is pronounced jia1 he2 wan4 shi4 xing1.
Is 家和万事兴 a fixed expression?
Yes — it is a set phrase, which is safer than assembling characters yourself. Fixed expressions keep their established wording and meaning.
How should 家和万事兴 be laid out?
Keep all characters the same size on an even baseline, and do not mirror or rotate any of them.
Which style suits 家和万事兴?
Bold regular script keeps every stroke clear. With multiple characters, avoid very fine or highly cursive styles — the smaller each character gets, the more the strokes merge.
Do I need to verify the phrase?
Yes. Confirm the wording, the meaning and the full context with a native reader, and check that the phrase is not a quotation about misfortune or parting.
How many strokes in total?
家和万事兴 is written with 35 strokes across 5 characters — which is why it needs more space than a single character.
Want 家和万事兴 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