Share this link via
Or copy link
Kanji for Compassion
The kanji most commonly used for "Compassion" are 慈、悲、憐.
慈
Kanji that mean Compassion
慈悲 (jihi) is compassion in Japanese — a Buddhist compound whose halves are worth prying apart. 慈 (ji / itsukushimu) is loving-kindness: the wish to give happiness, maitrī in the sutras. It is the tenderness of a parent — 慈母, the loving mother — and of the bodhisattva 慈悲の観音, Kannon of Mercy. As a name (Shigeru, Chika) it blesses a child with gentleness.
悲 (hi / kanashii) alone means sorrow — but inside 慈悲 it is karuṇā: the ache at others’ suffering and the will to remove it. Compassion, in this analysis, is literally kindness plus shared pain, which is as good a definition as any philosophy has produced.
憐 (ren / awaremu) is pity — feeling for the suffering one; 憐憫 is compassion at its most tender-sad, and 可憐 flips the character to “sweetly touching”. 恕 (jo) is the Confucian half: forbearing empathy — the character Confucius offered when asked for one word to live by.
Words using Compassion kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
-
慈善
じぜん
charity; benevolence; philanthropy
-
悲劇
ひげき
tragedy; tragic drama; tragic play
-
可憐
かれん
sweet (e.g. young girls, flowers blooming); touchingly lovely; cute
-
慈悲
じひ
mercy; compassion; clemency
-
悲しみ
かなしみ
sadness; sorrow; grief
-
悲観
ひかん
pessimism; (taking a) gloomy view; discouragement
-
悲願
ひがん
one's dearest wish; Buddha's vow to save humanity
-
悲鳴
ひめい
shriek; scream
-
悲哀
ひあい
sorrow; grief; sadness
Before you use Compassion kanji
慈 is the finest single choice: loving-kindness, the mother's and the bodhisattva's tenderness — wholly positive. 慈悲 in full is "compassion/mercy" as Buddhism actually writes it. Avoid 悲 alone (it reads simply "sorrow") and 憐 alone (it shades toward "pity", which can look down); 慈 looks across, and up.