📖 Meaning
When joy reaches its extreme, sorrow is born. It describes a situation where excessive happiness leads to misfortune or sadness. The idiom warns that emotions carried to an extreme will inevitably reverse into their opposite.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the 'Records of the Grand Historian' (史记·滑稽列传) by Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty, which states that wine taken to excess brings chaos, and joy taken to excess brings sorrow—all things follow this pattern, and one must not go to extremes. The 'Huainanzi' (淮南子·道应训), compiled during the Western Han under Liu An, echoes the same wisdom: when things flourish to their peak, they decline, and when joy reaches its extreme, sorrow follows. Both texts draw from the ancient Chinese philosophical principle that yang and yin transform into each other at their limits.
💡 Example Usage
他中了大奖后狂欢不已，不料乐极生悲，当晚就因醉酒摔断了腿。
After winning the lottery he celebrated wildly, but joy turned to sorrow when he broke his leg in a drunken fall that very night.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 乐极生悲
- Pinyin: lè jí shēng bēi
- Literal Translation: joy, extreme, produce, sorrow
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4