Taxonomy of meanings for 悅:　　

Additional information about 悅

說文解字:

Criteria
• FELINE
  

  There is no general concept for felines. Commonly mentioned felines are these:

  1. By far the most common feline in ancient Chinese literature is the hǔ 虎 "tiger". See TIGER.

  2. Bào 豹 refers to the leopard who has also captured the ancient Chinese imagination.

  3. Lí 狸 and māo 貓 refer to lithe small wild-cat-like creatures, possibly badgers, and the inclusion here is tentative to say the least.

  4. Shī zǐ 獅子 refers to the lion, but the lion was largely unknown in China.

  NB: The lion was not known in ancient China and is first mentioned in Eastern Han times by Xún Yuè 荀悅.

• 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.

• WORRY
  

  1. The current general term for all sorts of troubled states of mind, as well as reasons for such states of mind, is yōu 憂 (ant. xǐ 喜 "be well pleased" and lè 樂 "feel deep joy"), and this word may freely refer to troublesome matters of the present or of the future, and the word typiccally refers to a termporary state of hightened awareness of what is troublesome and concern about what should be done about it.

  2. Lu �慮 (ant. wàng 忘 "refuse to think about, ignore") refers to active reflection upon what one is worried about.

  3. Fán 煩 (ant. jìng 靜 "feel completely at peace") refers to a passive reaction of unsettled anxiousness about something other than oneself.

  4. Zào 躁 (ant. dìng 定 "be well-settled and unruffled") refers to the state of being flustered, restless and upset by worries.

  5. Jí 急 (ant. ān 安 "feel comfortable") refers to urgent and particularly acute temporary worries about something present or immediately imminent.

  6. Jí 疾 (ant. níng 寧 "feel at peace") refers to intense and profound worries about something present (and these worries may or may not be lasting).

  7. Huàn 患 (ant. lè 樂 "feel deeply happy with") refers to intense worry or concern about the possible future effects of something or the possibility of events in the future.

  8. Āi 哀 (ant. lè 樂 "feel perfectly happy with"), when it refers to intense worry rather than grief, connotes despondency and hopelessness and not just worry over possibilities.

  9. Chóu 愁 (ant. yuè 說／悅 "feel pleased"), and the rarer poetic sāo 騷, qiǎo 悄, tì 惕 refer to various shades and degrees of poetically conceived anxiousness.

  10. Shì 事 (ant. zhì 治 "well-ordered situation") can refer to the kinds of matters or affairs that cause one to be anxious or worried.

• DISSATISFIED
  

  1. A general word for dissatisfaction of any kind, and for any reason, is hèn 恨 (ant. qiè 慊 / 愜 "be satisfied"), but this word is rare in ancient times, the current way of expressing this idea is to use bù yuè 不悅／說.

  2. Yàn 厭 / 饜 typically refers to dissatisfaction as a result of overexposure to something.

  3. Hàn 憾 refers to a nagging kind of lingering grievance or personal dissatisfaction.

  4. Bìng 病 refers to dissatisfaction as a result of a considered judgment that something is unreasonable or not right.

  NB: There are a number of poetic words for dissatisfaction, notably in CHUCI, which are hard to define in terms to synonym group contrasts.

• 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.

• DELIGHT
  

  1. The general current word referring to the purely psychological notion of a transitory or temporary feeling of pleasure or delight is yuè 悅 (ant. yùn 慍 "feel intensely dissatisfied with, feel offended by").

  2. The equally current lè 樂 (ant. āi 哀 "grief") adds to yuè 悅 the dimensions of practical indulgence, psychological and often philosophical depth, and - very often - a dimension of joy that can be shared and appreciated by others, and that is typically lasting if not permanent. See ENJOY

  3. Xǐ 喜 (ant. yōu 憂 "worry") is openly manifested delight, manifested in an individual, visible to all, but not normally of any profound significance.

  4. Huān 歡 (ant. bēi 悲 "sadness" and chóu 愁 "worried sadness") refers to sociable temporary high spirits, not only visible to many but normally shared by a group.

  5. Kuài 快 refers to momentary elation related to or intense satisfaction with a concrete situation.

  6. Xīn 欣 refers to grateful delight in what is designed to gratify one's desires.

  7. Yú 娛 is often causative "give pleasure to", and when intransitive the word refers to a mild feeling of well-being and gratification, very close to yú 愉 "mild delight".

  8. Yí 怡 refers to a kind of open unhidden dignified satisfaction.

• HAPPY
  

  1. Fú 福 (ant. huò 禍 "misfortune") is the most common noun for material good fortune and well-being.

  2. Lè 樂 refers specifically to happiness as a rewarding inward state.

  3. Huān 歡 / 驩 / 懽 refers to a sometimes transitory form of sociable and communicative happiness.

  4. Xǐ 喜 typically refers to happiness as a response to something.

  5. Yú 愉 / 媮 refers to happy contentment with things as they are.

  6. Kuài 快 refers to a transient, acute state of happiness.

  7. Yú 娛 (ant yo1u 憂 "worry") typically refers to indulgent happiness with thing as they are.

  8. Yì 懌 is an ancient poetic word referring to dignified contentment, and the word became current in the negative 不懌 "be displeased".

  9. Yí 怡 is a fairly rare elevated poetic word referring to the state of being pleased, contented, and thus happy.

  10. Ān 安 can refer to happy peace of mind.

  11. Yuè 悅 can come to refer to a happy state of contentment with what happens to one or around one.

  12. Xìng 幸 "luck" can refer to to a serendipitously found state of happiness.

  13. Qìng 慶 is an archaic way of referring to material as well as psychological well-being.

  14. Kāng 康 is an archaic way of referring to material and physical well-being.

• ANGER
  

  [IMPERSONAL/PERSONAL]

  [INTENSE/WEAK]

  [COVERT/OVERT]

  [LASTING/TRANSITORY]

  See also ANGUISH

  1. Nù 怒 (ant. xǐ 喜 "be delighted") is the general word for anger, and the word tends to imply overt manifestation of feelings of anger, typically in terms of altered breathing patterns. (cf. nù 怒 "to puff oneself up")

  [OVERT], [PERSONAL]

  2. Fèn 忿 (ant. yuè 說／悅 "feel not the slightest anger but on the contrary feel pleased") refers to momentary and intense anger, and it does not typically focus on an show of emotion. There is a difference of degree between nù 怒 "show (often great) anger ( 怒甚, 大怒 ) and fèn 忿 "be momentarily angry" (there is no dà fèn 大忿, fèn shèn 忿甚 ). Nù 怒 forms vtS, whereas fèn 忿 does not have that function.

  [INTENSE], [MOMENTARY], [PERSONAL]

  3. Yùn 慍 (ant. yì 懌 "feel perfectly pleased with something") is lingering indignation which may or may not be overt. See ANGUISH

  [IMPERSONAL], [LASTING], [OVERT]

  4. Fèn 憤 "pent-up anguish" is intense dissatisfaction and anguish rather than an angry attitude directed against any person. See ANGUISH

  [COVERT], [IMPERSONAL], [LASTING]

  5. Huì 恚 is a general word for anger that is remarkably frequent in collocation with near-synonyms.

Word relations
• Assoc: (DELIGHT)愛/LOVE The clearly dominant word referring to love is ài 愛 (ant. hèn 恨 "dislike"; rarely zēng 憎 "dislike"; and wù 惡 "hate"), and this word refers both to the feelings of love and to the expression of love in loving care for another person as well as in sexual relations. (Occasionally, the word may refer to the emotional preference that a small child feels for its parents. For this meaning see PREFER.) 1 Attribution