King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “govern”

治理
zhì lǐ
to govern; to administer; to manage; to control

The closest CC-CEDICT match for govern is 治理 (zhì lǐ), defined as: to govern; to administer; to manage; to control; governance.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

治 zhì
to administer, to govern, to regulate
radical 85 ⽔ · 8 strokes
理 lǐ
science, reason, logic; to manage
radical 96 ⽟ · 11 strokes

Other Chinese words for “govern”

WordPinyinMeaning
统辖 (統轄)tǒng xiáto govern; to have complete control over
统治 (統治)tǒng zhìto rule (a country); to govern
衡平héng píngto govern; to administer
辖 (轄)xiálinchpin (pin securing a wheel to an axle); (bound form) to govern; to have jurisdiction over
治zhìto rule; to govern

Related words

Other words that share a character with 治理.

WordPinyinMeaning
政治zhèng zhìpolitics; political
治疗 (治療)zhì liáoto treat (an illness); medical treatment
统治 (統治)tǒng zhìto rule (a country); to govern
自治区 (自治區)zì zhì qūautonomous region – a provincial-level administrative division of China with self-governance for ethnic minorities (five in total: Guangxi,
自治zì zhìautonomy
管理guǎn lǐto supervise; to manage
处理 (處理)chǔ lǐto handle; to deal with; to punish
理论 (理論)lǐ lùntheory; 个 (gè)

See also: Japanese symbol for “govern”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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