Additional information about 慘
說文解字: 【慘】，毒也。从心、參聲。 【七感切】
- Criteria
- 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.