安
安 (ān) — peace, safe, calm. Roof 宀 + 女 (woman): a woman under a roof — settled, safe. Classical life: 安居乐业 — live and work in peace; 安 is the quiet home. Grammar: free morpheme — also: surname An; (bound form) calm; peaceful; to calm; to set at ease; safe; secure; in good health; content; satisfied (as in 安於|安于[an1 yu2]); to place (sb) in a suitable position (job); to install; to fix; to fit; to bring (a charge against sb); to harbor (certain intentions); ampere (abbr. for 安培[an1 pei2])
Closest English meanings
peaceful·safe·calm·secure·settle
The Calligrapher — Huáng Tíngjiān 黄庭坚
Song master of elongated, radical running and cursive script.
Song calligrapher (1045–1105), master of running script/cursive script — Song master of long, sweeping, deliberately stretched running strokes. Song dynasty
Cultural Story
Mencius warned that 'life comes of sorrow, death of ease' — 生于忧患，死于安乐 — and the 'Songs' ask, with the hair gone, 'where shall it rest?' 安 as how or where. The graph roofs a woman, the household made safe, calm as the ground condition of a life.
Energy Reading
Earth (土)
Comparative symbology, not fortune-telling.
Common words & phrases
- 安全 safe · security · safety · secure
- 安静 quiet · peaceful · silent · calm
- 平安 safe · peaceful · well · secure
- 安心 at ease · reassured · peace of mind
- 安排 arrange · plan · settle · organize
- 安宁 peaceful · tranquil · calm · quiet
Read the story behind the character
Airports flash 安全, and New Year texts wish 平安 home. Libraries enforce 安静, while calendars 安排 the week's meetings. The roof over the woman now shields the terminal, the group chat, and the study desk — security dispatched as a sign, a wish, and a schedule.
Own this character
Purchase delivers the original SVG of this glyph, brushed by Huáng Tíngjiān 黄庭坚, ready to place on skin, paper, or screen.