📖 Meaning
Describes someone wearing a pained, woebegone expression on their face. It conveys a person who looks gloomy, grieved, or deeply unhappy, often as a visible reaction to sorrow, worry, or misfortune. The phrase emphasizes the outward, miserable look rather than merely feeling sad inside.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Tang dynasty writer Chen Hong's biographical tale "Dongcheng Laofu Zhuan" (The Old Man of the East City), which recounts the life of Jia Chang, the imperial cockfighting attendant favored during Emperor Xuanzong's reign. In the passage, the old man says that ever since he lived by the roadside, county governors would often rest their horses there, and all of them appeared woebegone (惨然不乐). Their miserable expressions reflect their grief and anxiety over the decline of the times. From this description, the four-character phrase came to mean looking bitterly unhappy or sorrowful in appearance.
💡 Example Usage
听闻噩耗后，他整日惨然不乐，茶饭不思。
After hearing the tragic news, he stayed woebegone all day, unable to eat or drink.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 惨然不乐
- Pinyin: cǎn rán bù lè
- Literal Translation: miserable, appearance, not, cheerful
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4