Knowledge in Chinese

[Customer]

I'd like to get a single character tattoo with the meaning "knowledge" in both Chinese and Japanese.

Your dictionary helped me identify 学 or 智 as possible candidates (although the second has other meanings besides). The First appears to be a simplified character to 學 will that make it harder to read/understand? What do you think? Thanks

K.S.

[Gary]

You basically found "learning" and "wisdom".

If you want something that specifically means knowledge, try this:
http://www.orientaloutpost.com/shufa.php?q=knowledge
You can search for just about any word using my calligraphy search engine at:
http://www.orientaloutpost.com/shufa.php

As far as Simplified Chinese versus Traditional Chinese: With few exceptions, I recommend Traditional Chinese.

To clarify, 學 is the Traditional Chinese version of learning. The Simplified Chinese and modern Japanese version looks like 学.

-Gary.

[ozymandias1989]

Thanks for your quick reply,
I checked the search and came up with a two character phrase, so there isn't a single character to represent knowledge in Chinese and Japanese, or is there?
Thanks

[Gary]

In general, single characters will have very general, or open definitions. They can be extremely ambiguous in many cases.

A multi-character word will tend to have a more defined meaning.

The single-character words you talked about can mean knowledge, but would more often be understood as wisdom or learning/study.

There are other single characters that can mean knowledge but are more often read as intelligence or "to know; to be aware".

Basically, the two-character word will be like a laser beam. But the single character will be like a shotgun.

-G.