Chinese symbol for “mercurial”

善变

shàn biàn

Traditional: 善變

fickle; mercurial; changeable; capricious

The closest CC-CEDICT match for mercurial is 善变 (shàn biàn), defined as: fickle; mercurial; changeable; capricious; to be apt to change.

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

善 shàn

good, virtuous, charitable, kind

radical 30 ⼝ · 12 strokes

变 biàn

to change, to transform, to alter; rebel

radical 29 ⼜ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

變 biàn

Related words

Other words that share a character with 善变.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
改善	gǎi shàn	to make better; to improve
完善	wán shàn	(of systems, facilities etc) comprehensive; well-developed
慈善	cí shàn	benevolent; charitable
善于 (善於)	shàn yú	to be good at; to be adept at
善良	shàn liáng	good and honest; kindhearted
友善	yǒu shàn	friendly
改变 (改變)	gǎi biàn	to change; to alter
变化 (變化)	biàn huà	(intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation

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.