{"id":24599,"date":"2026-05-14T14:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24599"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:59:09","slug":"ashen-hearted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24599","title":{"rendered":"Ashen Hearted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The word <strong>\u7070\u5fc3<\/strong> (hu\u012b\u200bx\u012bn) came up in my Chinese lessons recenlty. It could be translated literally as <strong>&#8216;ashen heart&#8217;<\/strong> or <strong>&#8216;heart of ash(es)&#8217;<\/strong>, but what does it actually mean?<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/billy80722\/2343943848\/in\/photolist-4z8jQY-aodE2c-2ojMmGE-2ojJ2WT-BTk79H-rFBUrm-CpLN-vQDr-21TYYa4-f8g1KP-5N8M4c-e65Xnn-2oe1rKc-2oQuyKP-2nPTq1P-2jDGuob-9nbxyT-2iGy29c-2ncqJ1x-2s8pbxW-2kiHffV-2aASc86-2mwNEhQ-2n3UwqW-59Lt4P-2s9GSpq-2ptkJQv-SB5k53-2qnv4LH-2rzZZtM-2rNQ8RF-8xY939-YNqH9X-2nddAHy-Zjqnzy-2mYkvWW-6rFiRH-c85rG-2pCiSSw-2mW668G-2rQTHjc-SEDx2W-2mpgdGb-r5EUcg-2oyNjSH-7mVxSZ-7WMyWx-H7eq68-Xe4i7s-RkmPJ7\" title=\"Discouraged\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3034\/2343943848_a9cb743c73_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Discouraged\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u7070\u5fc3<\/strong> (hu\u012b\u200bx\u012bn) means to lose heart, to be discouraged or to despair. <strong>\u7070<\/strong> (hu\u012b\u200b) means ash(es), dust, lime or mortar, and <strong>\u5fc3<\/strong> (\u200bx\u012bn) means heart, mind, intelligence or soul [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%81%B0%E5%BF%83\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u7070<\/strong> can also mean grey\/gray when combined with <strong>\u8272<\/strong> (s\u00e8 &#8211; colour), as in <strong>\u7070\u8272 <\/strong> (hu\u012b\u200bs\u00e8), so I thought  at first that <strong>\u7070\u5fc3<\/strong> meant &#8216;grey heart&#8217; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%81%B0\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related phrases include <strong>\u7070\u5fc3\u55aa\u6c23<\/strong> (hu\u012bx\u012bns\u00e0ngq\u00ec), which means disheartened, discouraged, downhearted, downcast or in dispair, or literally &#8220;ash heart lose qi&#8221;, and <strong>\u5fc3\u7070<\/strong> (x\u012bnhu\u012b), which means extremely disappointed or discouraged [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%81%B0%E5%BF%83\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The character <strong>\u5fc3<\/strong> (\u200bx\u012bn) also appears in phrases such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u5f00\u5fc3<\/strong> [\u958b\u5fc3] (k\u0101ix\u012bn) = happy, delighted, to make fun of (sb), to open up the mind, to enlighten the mind, (lit. &#8220;open heart&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5173\u5fc3<\/strong> [\u95dc\u5fc3] (gu\u0101nx\u012bn) = to be concerned about, to care for, to put first, (lit. &#8220;closed heart&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u62c5\u5fc3<\/strong> (d\u0101nx\u012bn) = anxious, worried, uneasy, to worry, to be anxious (lit. &#8220;to carry (the) heart&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5c0f\u5fc3<\/strong> (xi\u01ceox\u012bn) = to be careful of something, to mind, to beware of, to take care, to be careful (lit. &#8220;small heart&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u8010\u5fc3<\/strong> (n\u00e0ix\u012bn) = patient (lit. &#8220;to withstand (the) heart&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u9ed1\u5fc3<\/strong> (h\u0113i\u200bx\u012bn) = ruthless and lacking conscience (lit. &#8220;black heart(ed)&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u597d\u5fc3<\/strong> (h\u01ceox\u012bn) = goodheartedness, kindness (lit. &#8220;good heart(ed)&#8221;)  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:Chinese_terms_spelled_with_%E5%BF%83\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u7070\u5fc3 (hu\u012b\u200bx\u012bn) came up in my Chinese lessons recenlty. It could be translated literally as &#8216;ashen heart&#8217; or &#8216;heart of ash(es)&#8217;, but what does it actually mean? \u7070\u5fc3 (hu\u012b\u200bx\u012bn) means to lose heart, to be discouraged or to despair. \u7070 (hu\u012b\u200b) means ash(es), dust, lime or mortar, and \u5fc3 (\u200bx\u012bn) means heart, mind, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,104,10,78],"tags":[416,164,138,281,163,624,625],"class_list":["post-24599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese","category-english","category-language","category-words-and-phrases","tag-chinese","tag-english","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-words","tag-624","tag-625"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24601,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24599\/revisions\/24601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}