Taxonomy of meanings for 樂:　　

Additional information about 樂

說文解字: 【樂】，五聲八音總名。象鼓鞞木虡也。 〔唐寫本木部殘卷作「象鼓鼙之形。木，其(虛)[虡]也。」〕 【玉角切】 〔小徐本此字次於「枹」字之後。〕

Criteria
• GRIEF
  

  1. 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, and the feeling is prototypically directed not at bereavement as such but at a deceaed person.

  2. Tòng 慟 refers to an excessive display of grief.

  3. Yōu 憂 "worry" (ant. xǐ 喜 "joy") can occasionally come to refer to intense worry with a strong admixture of grief, and this usage must be regarded as a polite periphrasis. (For the main meaning of this word see WORRY.)

  4. Bēi āi 悲哀 is a common abstract and dignified way of referring to grief.

  5. A4o nǎo 懊惱 is a common vernacular way of referring to grief, which became especially common in Buddhist literature.

• MUSIC
  

  1. The current general term for music, including dance, is yuè 樂.

  2. Yīn 音 "tone, tones" is sometimes used by poetic extension to refer generally to music.

  3. Shēng 聲 "sound" is sometimes used to refer specifically to folkways of music.

  4. Qǔ 曲 refers to a piece of folk poetry set to music, but the word is also sometimes used in a generalised sense to refer to a tune as such. See SONG.

  5. Fēng 風 refers to folk tunes, typically associated with folk poetry.

• MUSICIAN
  

  1. The current word for female musical entertainers is nǚ yuè 女樂.

  2. Shī 師 (also expanded to refers to yuè shī 樂師 ) refers to a male music master whose competence is supposed to be practical as well as theoretical.

  3. Gǔ gōng 瞽工 is a colloquial word for a musician.

• ENTERTAINER
  

  1. The most current general word for an entertainer is jì 妓, and this word refers to any entertainer including artists, dancers, and clowns of any kind.

  2. Chàng 倡 refers occasionally to an entertainer specialised in singing, especially the main singer.

  3. Lìng 伶 refers specifically to a musician-entertainer who accompanies the main singers chàng 倡.

  4. Yōu 優 and yōu rén 優人 refers to dwarf-clowns who perform through comic talk, comic action and slapstick comedy.

  5. Pái 俳 and more often pái yōu 俳優 refer to a superior specialist in comic talk.

  6. Zhū rú 侏儒 is a general word for a dwarf, and since the dwarf at court typically acted as a clown, the term came also to refer generally to clowns.

  <div>7. Nu# yuè 女樂 is a standard general term for female musical entertainers or female musicians.</div><div><br></div><div>A splendid comparative overview is found in Beatrice K. Otto, Fools are Everywhere. The Court Jester Around the World, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001<br></div><br>

• 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.

• 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.

• MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
  

  1. Perhaps the most current traditional general term for musical instruments is bā yīn 八音.

  2. Jīn shí 金石 refers not only to bells and stone chimes, but can apparently refer more generally and collectively to musical instruments.

  3. Zhōng gǔ 鐘鼓 can be used to refer collectively to musical instruments and not specifically to bells and drums only.

  4. Yuè 樂 is occasionally used to refer to musical instruments, as in the phrase zhū yuè 諸樂 "the various musical instruments".

• 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.

• DANCE
  

  1. There is only one common word for dancing, wǔ4 舞, and this focusses mainly to the movement of the arms.

  2. Dào 蹈 focusses mainly on the movements of the feet in dancing. Cf. 手舞足蹈 "dance with one's arms and dance with one's feet".

  3. Yuè 樂 is sometimes used to refer specifically to dancing accompanied by music.

• ENJOY
  

  1. The current general word for active enjoyment and delighting in something is lè 樂 (ant. bēi 悲 "be saddened by"), as in 與民同樂 "share one's enjoyings/enjoyments with the people".

  2. Xiǎng 享 refers to enjoying material benefits or - when applied to gods and spirits - to the enjoyment of sacrifices.

  3. Lì 利 refers to the use and enjoyment of what one regards as profitable.

  4. NB: Hān 酣 refers to enjoying (prototypically alcohol) with gusto and enthusiasm, or in a transferred sense enjoying anything else in the way one might enjoy alcohol. The word is marginal to the group.

Word relations
• Inconsist: (DELIGHT)貧/POOR The current general word for poverty is pín 貧 (ant. fù 富 "rich"), but the term does not in general refer to transitory poverty. 1 Attribution
• Result: (HAPPY)安/PEACEFUL The dominant general word for peacefulness is ān 安 (wēi 危 "in imminent danger"), but in addition the word also often has considerable philosophical depth and commonly refers to a deep state of unruffled inner serenity in harmony with the outer world. 1 Attribution
• Result: (DELIGHT)觀/INSPECT The general word for inspection are jiān 監 "survey and inspect by higher orders" and guān 觀 which refers very generally to surveying anything, and not necessarily by order of anyone else, but usually in great detail. 1 Attribution
• Ant: (DELIGHT)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
• Ant: (DELIGHT)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
• Ant: (DELIGHT)憂/WORRY 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. 1 Attribution
• Ant: (DELIGHT)憤/ANGUISH Fèn 憤 "pent-up dissatisfaction and resentment" (ant.* chàng 暢 "vent one's feelings freely" is not a regular antonym that is stylistically acceptable in parallelism) can be a general feeling of dissatisfaction without any concrete person or matter to be dissatisfied about. See also ANGER. [COVERT], [IMPERSONAL], [INTENSE], [LASTING] 1 Attribution
• Ant: (HAPPY)憂/WORRY 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. 1 Attribution
• Ant: (DELIGHT)苦/DISTRESS 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.
• Object: (MUSIC)好/LIKE The general words expressing preference is ài 愛, but the notion is often hard to distinguish from a preferential desire, and for the semantically closely related hào 好 see DESIRE. 4 Attributions
• Object: (ENJOY)學/STUDY The dominant word is xué 學 (ant. jiào 教 "train teach")which refers primarily to studying or training under another person, and secondarily to the learning by heart texts. Very often, the word retains a tinge of immitation. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (ENJOY)聲/MUSIC Shēng 聲 "sound" is sometimes used to refer specifically to folkways of music. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (DELIGHT)好/DESIRE Hào 好 (ant.* yàn 厭 "be fed up with VPing") refers to a general strong, and strongly motivated, inclination in favour of something. 好戰 "is fond of warfare". xxx 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (DELIGHT)好/DESIRE Hào 好 (ant.* yàn 厭 "be fed up with VPing") refers to a general strong, and strongly motivated, inclination in favour of something. 好戰 "is fond of warfare". xxx
• Assoc: (HAPPY)佚 / 軼 / 逸/PEACEFUL Yì 佚/逸 (ant. láo 勞 "engaged in exhausting effort") refers to restful peace of mind, typically after effort. 2 Attributions
• Assoc: (DELIGHT)戲/JOKE The most current general word is perhaps xì 戲 "be less than serious". 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (MUSIC)禮/RITUAL The current general term for everything relating to the system of ritual propriety is lǐ 禮. However the term can also be used to refer to individual prescribed rituals. 9 Attributions
• Assoc: (DELIGHT)佚 / 軼 / 逸/LEISURE1 Attribution
• Relat: (DELIGHT)淫/LEWD The current general word for lewdness and lasciviousness in attitude and in action is yín 淫 (ant. jié 節 "decently restrained"). 1 Attribution
• Oppos: (ENJOY)慮/PLAN Lǜ 慮 refers to a careful personal planning effort based on serious reflection. 3 Attributions
• Oppos: (DELIGHT)約/POOR Yuē 約 (ant. chuò 綽 "be abundantly supplied") refers to mild poverty or straightened circumstances.