Taxonomy of meanings for 傷:　　

Additional information about 傷

說文解字: 【傷】，創也。从人、 𥏻 省聲。 【式羊切】 〔小徐本此字次於「倄」字之後。〕

Criteria
• DISTRESS
  

  1. The most representative current general word for distress is probably kùn 困 (ant. ān 安 "be in a good state"), although the group of words discussed here is selected on singularly problematic grounds.

  2. Qióng 窮 (ant. tōng 通 "have a way out from a difficult situation") refers to a form form of distress as something from which it is impossible or hard to escape.

  3. Kǔ 苦 and the much rarer xīn 辛 (ant. lè 樂 "be in a joyful state") refer to a lasting objective state of distress caused by identifiable external conditions.

  4. Shāng 傷 (ant. yuè 悅 ) refers to lasting psychological distress.

  5. Yōu 憂 (ant. xǐ 喜 "joyful occasion") may very occasionally be used to refer not as standardly to worries of some kind, but to an objective state of precarious trouble.

  6. Jiù 疚 refers to purely psychological and often moral distress caused by a bad conscience or the like.

• SAD
  

  1. The general word for sadness of any kind is bēi 悲 (ant. huān 歡 "joyful" and xǐ 喜 "delighted").

  2. Yōu 悠 refers to a pensive listlessness, a wistful kind of sadness.

  3. Qī 悽 (ant. lè 樂 "feel acute profound joy") refers to acute profound unhappiness.

  4. Yù 鬱 (ant. xīn 欣 "in high spirits") refers to largely endogenic sadness or depression.

  5. Shāng 傷 (ant. yuè 悅 "be pleased") refers to sadness caused by identifiable external conditions.

  6. Cǎn 慘／憯 refers poetically to a kind of despondency.

  7. Mǐn 閔 / 憫 is a very poetic word which typically refers to a kind of sadness that has external causes and can be close to compassion.

  8. Chóu 愁 refers to an internalised sadness one is reluctant to show openly.

  9. Qī 戚 / 慽 is an archaising elevated word for sadness that is common in poetry.

  10. Qī chuàng 悽愴 refers to sadness typically associated with regret or even remorse.

  NB: The vocabulary of sadness in Chinese poses very special problems because it is to huge: in many cases I am quite unable to determine the exact nuances. This subject requires a special monograph.

• EYE
  

  1. The general word for the eye, including the area around the eye is mù 目 (thus when one shāng mù 傷目 what is injured is not necessarily the eyeball itself). (This is a very flexible word which also has verbal uses. For which see SEE.)

  2. Yǎn 眼 is a colloquial word for the eye (particularly the eyeball, as in yú yǎn 魚眼, never yú mù 魚目 in this sense) which became current in Warring States times. See EYE PARTS.

  NB: Jīng 睛 is extremely rare in pre-Buddhist Chinese, and the word refers not so much to the eye as a whole but to the eyeball specifically.

• INJURE
  

  1. The clearly dominant general term referring to the inflicting of bodily harm is shāng 傷. (But note that the word also currently refers to mental harm and psychological distress.)

  2. Chuàng 創 primarily refers to the inflicting of serious external wounds and never has any psychological overtones or implications, but there are occasional usages where the word has a metaphorical sense of inflicting pain or damage on things other than physical bodies.

  3. Jí 疾 refers to the inflicting of typically internal physical harm other than external laceration.

  4. Cuò 挫 refers to deliberate maltreatment involving the inflicting of wounds.

• DAMAGE
  

  1. By far the commonest general word for damage is hài 害 (ant. lì 利 "benefit").

  2. Shāng 傷 "impair" and sǔn 損 "reduce and impair" (all ant. yì 益 "strengthen") are weaker than hài 害 and definitely suggest the survival of what is impaired.

  3. Zéi 賊 is stronger than hài 害 and definitely suggests that the damage done is serious indeed - possibly fatal.

• INJURY
  

  1. The current general word for an injury is shāng 傷.

  2. Chuàng 創 refers very concretely to the wound inflicted, the laceration of the skin.

• OFFEND
  

  1. The current most general word for offending against what one is obliged to act in accordance with or going against a current is probably nì 逆 (ant. shùn 順 "follow and obey"), which refers to any action which goes against something.

  2. Fàn 犯 (ant. cǒng 從 "follow obediently") refers as a derogatory term to a deliberate and active breaking of a rule.

  3. Gān 干 and gān 奸 are rare words referring specifically to culpable breach of the law.

  4. Wéi 違 (ant. xún 循 "follow") and the rarer lí 離 as well as fēi 非 are neutral terms referring to a failure to comply with something.

  5. Fú 拂 refers to something grating against sensibilities or creating a conflict.

  6. Fáng 妨 adds to the failure of compliance the nuance of interference with what one fails to comply with.

  7. Kuī 虧 adds to the failure of compliance the nuance of inflicting harm or damage on what one fails to comply with.

  8. Shāng 傷, hài 害, and bài 敗 add to the failure of compliance the element of ruining what one has failed to comply with exactly by this failure of compliance; but hài 害 has developed a special related meaning of offending logically against something, i.e. being incompatible with it.

Word relations
• Result: (SAD)感/FEEL1 Attribution
• Object: (INJURY)吮/SUCK The current word for sucking something clean is shǔn 吮. 1 Attribution
• Object: (INJURE)人/HUMAN The dominant term is rén 人 which refers to any human. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (DISTRESS)哀/GRIEF The current general word for deep sorrow is āi 哀 (ant. lè 樂 "profound joy"), and this word refers to an inner state of mind that typically finds expression in ritualised action. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (WORRY)病/WORRY
• Assoc: (SAD)悲/SAD The general word for sadness of any kind is bēi 悲 (ant. huān 歡 "joyful" and xǐ 喜 "delighted"). 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (DAMAGE)毀/DESTROY The current general word for destruction of any kind is huǐ 毀, and what is destroyed may anything from a toy or a house to a state. 3 Attributions