Chinese symbol for “wise”
哲
zhé
wise; a sage
The closest CC-CEDICT match for wise is 哲 (zhé), defined as: wise; a sage.
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
Other Chinese words for “wise”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 英明 | yīng míng | wise; brilliant |
| 高明 | gāo míng | brilliant; superior; wise |
| 明 | míng | bright; opposite: dark 暗 (àn) |
| 明智 | míng zhì | sensible; wise |
| 智 | zhì | (literary) wise; wisdom |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 哲.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 哲学 (哲學) | zhé xué | philosophy |
| 哲学家 (哲學家) | zhé xué jiā | philosopher |
| 哲理 | zhé lǐ | philosophic theory; philosophy |
| 哲人 | zhé rén | wise man |
| 哲学史 (哲學史) | zhé xué shǐ | history of philosophy |
| 明哲保身 | míng zhé bǎo shēn | a wise man looks after his own hide (idiom); to put one's own safety before matters of principle |
See also: Japanese symbol for “wise”.
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.