📖 Meaning
Describes a state of profound sorrow and grief, where one is deeply distressed and worn down by anguish. The idiom conveys not just sadness, but a consuming melancholy that drains one's vitality and leaves them visibly haggard and forlorn.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the 'Book of Later Han' (《后汉书》), specifically the 'Biography of Liang Hong' (《梁鸿传》), compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century during the Liu Song dynasty. Liang Hong was a reclusive scholar and poet of the Eastern Han dynasty, known for his integrity and his devoted wife Meng Guang, who together gave rise to the idiom 'raising the tray to the level of the eyebrows' (举案齐眉). The phrase appears in a poem where Liang Hong laments the political turmoil and moral decay of his era, expressing the sorrow that weighs on his heart and wears him down.
💡 Example Usage
闻此噩耗，他终日惙怛伤悴，寝食难安。
Upon hearing the tragic news, he was consumed by grief and anguish all day, unable to eat or sleep in peace.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 惙怛伤悴
- Pinyin: chuò dá shāng cuì
- Literal Translation: worried, grieved, wounded, haggard
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4