The word 灰心 (huīxīn) came up in my Chinese lessons recenlty. It could be translated literally as ‘ashen heart’ or ‘heart of ash(es)’, but what does it actually mean?
灰心 (huīxīn) means to lose heart, to be discouraged or to despair. 灰 (huī) means ash(es), dust, lime or mortar, and 心 (xīn) means heart, mind, intelligence or soul [source].
灰 can also mean grey/gray when combined with 色 (sè – colour), as in 灰色 (huīsè), so I thought at first that 灰心 meant ‘grey heart’ [source].
Related phrases include 灰心喪氣 (huīxīnsàngqì), which means disheartened, discouraged, downhearted, downcast or in dispair, or literally “ash heart lose qi”, and 心灰 (xīnhuī), which means extremely disappointed or discouraged [source].
The character 心 (xīn) also appears in phrases such as:
- 开心 [開心] (kāixīn) = happy, delighted, to make fun of (sb), to open up the mind, to enlighten the mind, (lit. “open heart”).
- 关心 [關心] (guānxīn) = to be concerned about, to care for, to put first, (lit. “closed heart”).
- 担心 (dānxīn) = anxious, worried, uneasy, to worry, to be anxious (lit. “to carry (the) heart”).
- 小心 (xiǎoxīn) = to be careful of something, to mind, to beware of, to take care, to be careful (lit. “small heart”).
- 耐心 (nàixīn) = patient (lit. “to withstand (the) heart”).
- 黑心 (hēixīn) = ruthless and lacking conscience (lit. “black heart(ed)”).
- 好心 (hǎoxīn) = goodheartedness, kindness (lit. “good heart(ed)”) [source].