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Misery Loves Company
同病相憐 is a Chinese proverb that means “fellow sufferers empathize with each other” or to match it with a western idiom, “misery loves company.” This is also somewhat known in Korean Hanja.
This could be two people who were just dumped by a girlfriend/boyfriend or just divorced. They're drawn together either by their misery or because of the need to share their miserable experience with someone else.
同病相憐 is probably the saddest proverb in our collection.
Literally, the characters mean:
同 together with
病 illness, sickness, disease (in this case, just the mental anguish after some kind of event or life issue)
相 mutual, reciprocal, each other
憐 pity, sympathize
In Japanese, this is written with two extra Hiragana on the end like this: 同病相憐れむ
If you want the Japanese version,
don’t
use the button above but click here instead: Misery Loves Company in Japanese
The Pain of Separation from Your Loves
愛別離苦 is a Buddhist term that refers to “the pain of separation from loved ones,” or “the suffering of being separated from those whom one loves.”
If you translate each character separately, you get, “love(s) separated [and] departed [yields] pain.”
The pain character can also be defined as anguish; suffering; distress; anxiety; worry; trouble; difficulty; hardship; bitterness; to suffer; anguish; distress; anxiety; worry; trouble; difficulty; bitterness; unhappiness; or misery.
You must endure a harsh winter to appreciate the warmth of springtime
You must know hardship to appreciate happiness
bù jīng dōng hán bù zhī chūn nuǎn
This literally translates as: Without having experienced the cold of winter, one cannot appreciate the warmth of spring.
Figuratively, this means: One cannot truly appreciate happiness without having gone through hardship.
There are many contrasts in life. One simply cannot fully know what joy is without having experienced misery, difficulty, and pain. How could you explain “light” if you did not have “darkness” to compare it to?
Embrace hardship, as it makes the good times seem even better.
Not the results for misery that you were looking for?
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your misery search...
| Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
四諦 四谛 see styles |
sì dì si4 di4 ssu ti shitai したい |
More info & calligraphy: Four Noble Truths (Buddhism){Buddh} (See 苦集滅道) The Four Noble Truths catvāri-ārya-satyāni; 四聖諦; 四眞諦. The four dogmas, or noble truths, the primary and fundamental doctrines of Śākyamuni, said to approximate to the form of medical diagnosis. They are pain or 'suffering, its cause, its ending, the way thereto; that existence is suffering, that human passion (taṇhā, 欲 desire) is the cause of continued suffering, that by the destruction of human passion existence may be brought to an end; that by a life of holiness the destruction of human passion may be attained'. Childers. The four are 苦, 聚 (or 集), 滅, and 道諦, i. e. duḥkha 豆佉, samudaya 三牟提耶, nirodha 尼棲陀, and mārga 末加. Eitel interprets them (1) 'that 'misery' is a necessary attribute of sentient existence'; (2) that 'the 'accumulation' of misery is caused by the passions'; (3) that 'the 'extinction' of passion is possible; (4) mārga is 'the doctrine of the 'path' that leads to the extinction of passion'. (1) 苦 suffering is the lot of the 六趣 six states of existence; (2) 集 is the aggregation (or exacerbation) of suffering by reason of the passions; (3) 滅 is nirvana, the extinction of desire and its consequences, and the leaving of the sufferings of mortality as void and extinct; (4) 道 is the way of such extinction, i. e. the 八正道 eightfold correct way. The first two are considered to be related to this life, the last two to 出世間 a life outside or apart from the world. The four are described as the fundamental doctrines first preached to his five former ascetic companions. Those who accepted these truths were in the stage of śrāvaka. There is much dispute as to the meaning of 滅 'extinction' as to whether it means extinction of suffering, of passion, or of existence. The Nirvana Sutra 18 says that whoever accepts the four dogmas will put an end to births and deaths 若能見四諦則得斷生死 which does not of necessity mean the termination of existence but that of continued transmigration. v. 滅. |
地獄 地狱 see styles |
dì yù di4 yu4 ti yü jigoku じごく |
More info & calligraphy: Hell(1) {Buddh} hell realm; Naraka; (2) {Christn} Hell; (3) hell; misery; nightmare; inferno; (4) place where a volcano or hot springs constantly spew smoke or steam; (place-name) Jigoku naraka, 捺落迦 (or 那落迦) ; niraya 泥犂; explained by 不樂 joyless; 可厭 disgusting, hateful; 苦具, 苦器 means of suffering; if 地獄 earth-prison; 冥府 the shades, or departments of darkness. Earth-prison is generally intp. as hell or the hells; it may also be termed purgatory; one of the six gati or ways of transmigration. The hells are divided into three classes: I. Central, or radical, 根本地獄 consisting of (1) The eight hot hells. These were the original hells of primitive Buddhism, and are supposed to be located umder the southern continent Jambudvīpa 瞻部州, 500 yojanas below the surface. (a) 等活 or 更活 Saṃjīva, rebirth, where after many kinds of suffering a cold wind blows over the soul and returns it to this life as it was before, hence the name 等活. (b) 黑繩 Kaslasūtra, where the sufferer is bound with black chains and chopped or sawn asunder. (c) 線合; 衆合; 堆壓 Saṃghāta, where are multitudes of implements of torture, or the falling of mountains upon the sufferer. (d) 號呌; 呼呼; 叫喚 Raurava, hell of wailing. (e) 大呌; 大號呌; 大呼 Mahāraurava, hell of great wailing. (f) 炎熱; 燒炙 Tapana, hell of fames and burning. (g) 大熱; 大燒炙; 大炎熱 Pratāpana, hell of molten lead. (h) 無間; 河鼻旨; 阿惟越致; 阿毗至; 阿鼻; 阿毗 Avīci, unintermitted suffering, where sinners die and are reborn to suffer without interval. (2) The eight cold hells 八寒地獄. (a) 頞浮陀地獄 Arbuda, where the cold causes blisters. (b) 尼刺部陀 Nirarbuda, colder still causing the blisters to burst. (c) 頞哳吒; 阿吒吒 Atata, where this is the only possible sound from frozen lips. (d) 臛臛婆; 阿波波 Hahava or Apapa, where it is so cold that only this sound can be uttered. (e) 虎虎婆 Hāhādhara or Huhuva, where only this sound can be uttered. (f) 嗢鉢羅; 鬱鉢羅 (or 優鉢羅) Utpala, or 尼羅鳥 (or 漚) 鉢羅 Nīlotpala, where the skin is frozen like blue lotus buds. (g) 鉢特摩 Padma, where the skin is frozen and bursts open like red lotus buds. (h) 摩訶鉢特摩 Mahāpadma, ditto like great red lotus buds. Somewhat different names are also given. Cf. 倶舍論 8; 智度論 16; 涅槃經 11. II. The secondary hells are called 近邊地獄 adjacent hells or 十六遊增 each of its four sides, opening from each such door are four adjacent hells, in all sixteen; thus with the original eight there are 136. A list of eighteen hells is given in the 十八泥梨經. III. A third class is called the 孤地獄 (獨地獄) Lokāntarika, or isolated hells in mountains, deserts, below the earth and above it. Eitel says in regard to the eight hot hells that they range 'one beneath the other in tiers which begin at a depth of 11,900 yojanas and reach to a depth of 40,000 yojanas'. The cold hells are under 'the two Tchahavālas and range shaft-like one below the other, but so that this shaft is gradually widening to the fourth hell and then narrowing itself again so that the first and last hell have the shortest, those in the centre the longest diameter'. 'Every universe has the same number of hells, ' but 'the northern continent has no hell whatever, the two continents east and west of Meru have only small Lokāntarika hells... whilst all the other hells are required for the inhabitants of the southern continent '. It may be noted that the purpose of these hells is definitely punitive, as well as purgatorial. Yama is the judge and ruler, assisted by eighteen officers and a host of demons, who order or administer the various degrees of torture. 'His sister performs the same duties with regard to female criminals, ' and it may be mentioned that the Chinese have added the 血盆池 Lake of the bloody bath, or 'placenta tank' for women who die in childbirth. Release from the hells is in the power of the monks by tantric means. |
同病相憐 同病相怜 see styles |
tóng bìng xiāng lián tong2 bing4 xiang1 lian2 t`ung ping hsiang lien tung ping hsiang lien |
More info & calligraphy: Misery Loves Company |
生老病死 see styles |
shēng lǎo bìng sǐ sheng1 lao3 bing4 si3 sheng lao ping ssu shouroubyoushi / shorobyoshi しょうろうびょうし |
More info & calligraphy: Birth Old-Age Sickness Death(yoji) {Buddh} the four inevitables in human life (birth, aging, sickness, and death) Birth, age, sickness, death, the 四苦 four afflictions that are the lot of every man. The five are the above four and 苦 misery, or suffering. |
哀 see styles |
āi ai1 ai ai あい |
sorrow; grief; pity; to grieve for; to pity; to lament; to condole (obsolete) (See 哀れ・あわれ・1) pity; sorrow; grief; misery; (female given name) Ai Alas! mourn, wail. |
汚 污 see styles |
wū wu1 wu yogore; yogore よごれ; ヨゴレ |
variant of 污[wu1] (kana only) (See 汚鮫・よごれざめ,オーシャニックホワイトティップシャーク) oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) Filthy, impure. kleśa; contamination of attachment to the pleasures of sense, to heretical views, to moral and ascetic practices regarded as adequate to salvation, to the belief in the self, all which cause misery.; Impure; to defile. |
苦 see styles |
kǔ ku3 k`u ku ku く |
bitter; hardship; pain; to suffer; to bring suffering to; painstakingly (1) pain; anguish; suffering; distress; anxiety; worry; trouble; difficulty; hardship; (2) {Buddh} (See 八苦) duhkha (suffering) duḥkha, 豆佉 bitterness; unhappiness, suffering, pain, distress, misery; difficulty. There are lists of two, three, four, five, eight, and ten categories; the two are internal, i. e. physical and mental, and external, i. e. attacks from without. The four are birth, growing old, illness, and death. The eight are these four along with the pain of parting from the loved, of meeting with the hated, of failure in one's aims, and that caused by the five skandhas; cf. 四諦. |
三修 see styles |
sān xiū san1 xiu1 san hsiu san shū |
The three ways of discipline, i.e. three śrāvaka and three bodhisattva ways. The three śrāvaka ways are 無常修 no realization of the eternal, seeing everything as transient; 非樂修 joyless, through only contemplating misery and not realizing the ultimate nirvāṇa-joy; 無我修 non-ego discipline, seeing only the perishing self and not realizing the immortal self. The bodhisattva three are the opposite of these. |
三道 see styles |
sān dào san1 dao4 san tao mitsumichi みつみち |
(surname) Mitsumichi (1) The three paths all have to tread; 輪廻三道, 三輪, i.e. (a) 煩惱道 ; 惑道 ; the path of misery, illusion, mortality; (b) 業道 the path of works, action, or doing, productive of karma; (c) 苦道 the resultant path of suffering. As ever recurring they are called the three wheels. (2) 聾, 緣, 菩 śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, cf. 三乘. |
二業 二业 see styles |
èr yè er4 ye4 erh yeh nigyou / nigyo にぎょう |
(archaism) restaurants and geisha establishments Two classes of karma. (1) (a) 引業 leads to the 總報, i.e. the award as to the species into which one is to be born, e.g. men, gods, etc.; (6) 滿業 is the 別報 or fulfillment in detail, i.e. the kind or quality of being e.g. clever or stupid, happy or unhappy, etc. (2) (a) 善業 and (b) 惡業 Good and evil karma, resulting in happiness or misery. (3) (a) 助業 Aids to the karma of being reborn in Amitābha's Pure—land e. g. offerings, chantings, etc.; (b) 正業 thought and invocation of Amitābha with undivided mind, as the direct method. |
佛德 see styles |
fó dé fo2 de2 fo te buttoku |
Buddha-virtue, his perfect life, perfect fruit, and perfect mercy in releasing all beings from misery. |
倒見 倒见 see styles |
dào jiàn dao4 jian4 tao chien tōken |
Cf. 顚 19. Upside-down or inverted views, seeing things as they seem, not as they are, e.g. the impermanent as permanent, misery as joy, non-ego as ego, and impurity as purity. |
口輪 口轮 see styles |
kǒu lún kou3 lun2 k`ou lun kou lun kuchiwa くちわ |
muzzle; (place-name) Kuchiwa 正教輪 One of the 三輪. The wheel of the mouth. or the wheel of the true teaching; Buddha's teaching rolling on everywhere, like a chariot-wheel, destroying misery. |
哀れ see styles |
aware あわれ ahare あはれ |
(1) pity; sorrow; grief; misery; compassion; pathos; (adjectival noun) (2) pitiable; pitiful; pathetic; miserable; (interjection) (3) alack; alas; (out-dated or obsolete kana usage) (1) pity; sorrow; grief; misery; compassion; pathos; (adjectival noun) (2) pitiable; pitiful; pathetic; miserable; (interjection) (3) alack; alas |
哀愍 see styles |
āi mǐn ai1 min3 ai min aimin あいみん |
(noun/participle) pity 哀憐 Pity for one in misery. |
塗炭 涂炭 see styles |
tú tàn tu2 tan4 t`u t`an tu tan totan とたん |
extreme distress; in utter misery misery; distress |
婦人 妇人 see styles |
fù rén fu4 ren2 fu jen fujin ふじん |
married woman (sensitive word) (dated) (See 紳士) woman; lady; adult female "Nothing is so dangerous to monastic chastity as woman"; she is the root of all misery, hindrance, destruction, bondage, sorrow, hatred, blindness, etc. |
小乘 see styles |
xiǎo shèng xiao3 sheng4 hsiao sheng shōjō |
Hinayana, the Lesser Vehicle; Buddhism in India before the Mayahana sutras; also pr. [Xiao3 cheng2] Hīnayāna 希那衍. The small, or inferior wain, or vehicle; the form of Buddhism which developed after Śākyamuni's death to about the beginning of the Christian era, when Mahāyāna doctrines were introduced. It is the orthodox school and more in direct line with the Buddhist succession than Mahāyānism which developed on lines fundamentally different. The Buddha was a spiritual doctor, less interested in philosophy than in the remedy for human misery and perpetual transmigration. He "turned aside from idle metaphysical speculations; if he held views on such topics, he deemed them valueless for the purposes of salvation, which was his goal" (Keith). Metaphysical speculations arose after his death, and naturally developed into a variety of Hīnayāna schools before and after the separation of a distinct school of Mahāyāna. Hīnayāna remains the form in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, hence is known as Southern Buddhism in contrast with Northern Buddhism or Mahāyāna, the form chiefly prevalent from Nepal to Japan. Another rough division is that of Pali and Sanskrit, Pali being the general literary language of the surviving form of Hīnayāna, Sanskrit of Mahāyāna. The term Hīnayāna is of Mahāyānist origination to emphasize the universalism and altruism of Mahāyāna over the narrower personal salvation of its rival. According to Mahāyāna teaching its own aim is universal Buddhahood, which means the utmost development of wisdom and the perfect transformation of all the living in the future state; it declares that Hīnayāna, aiming at arhatship and pratyekabuddhahood, seeks the destruction of body and mind and extinction in nirvāṇa. For arhatship the 四諦Four Noble Truths are the foundation teaching, for pratyekabuddhahood the 十二因緣 twelve-nidānas, and these two are therefore sometimes styled the two vehicles 二乘. Tiantai sometimes calls them the (Hīnayāna) Tripiṭaka school. Three of the eighteen Hīnayāna schools were transported to China: 倶舍 (Abhidharma) Kośa; 成實 Satya-siddhi; and the school of Harivarman, the律 Vinaya school. These are described by Mahāyānists as the Buddha's adaptable way of meeting the questions and capacity of his hearers, though his own mind is spoken of as always being in the absolute Mahāyāna all-embracing realm. Such is the Mahāyāna view of Hīnayāna, and if the Vaipulya sūtras and special scriptures of their school, which are repudiated by Hīnayāna, are apocryphal, of which there seems no doubt, then Mahāyāna in condemning Hīnayāna must find other support for its claim to orthodoxy. The sūtras on which it chiefly relies, as regards the Buddha, have no authenticity; while those of Hīnayāna cannot be accepted as his veritable teaching in the absence of fundamental research. Hīnayāna is said to have first been divided into minority and majority sections immediately after the death of Śākyamuni, when the sthāvira, or older disciples, remained in what is spoken of as "the cave", some place at Rājagṛha, to settle the future of the order, and the general body of disciples remained outside; these two are the first 上坐部 and 大衆部 q. v. The first doctrinal division is reported to have taken place under the leadership of the monk 大天 Mahādeva (q.v.) a hundred years after the Buddha's nirvāṇa and during the reign of Aśoka; his reign, however, has been placed later than this by historians. Mahādeva's sect became the Mahāsāṅghikā, the other the Sthāvira. In time the two are said to have divided into eighteen, which with the two originals are the so-called "twenty sects" of Hīnayāna. Another division of four sects, referred to by Yijing, is that of the 大衆部 (Arya) Mahāsaṅghanikāya, 上座部 Āryasthavirāḥ, 根本說一切有部 Mūlasarvāstivādaḥ, and 正量部 Saṃmatīyāḥ. There is still another division of five sects, 五部律. For the eighteen Hīnayāna sects see 小乘十八部. |
微苦 see styles |
wéi kǔ wei2 ku3 wei k`u wei ku miku |
(some) slight misery |
憂事 see styles |
ureigoto / uregoto うれいごと |
bitter experience; misery; distress; grief; sad thoughts |
憂患 忧患 see styles |
yōu huàn you1 huan4 yu huan yuukan / yukan ゆうかん |
suffering; misery; hardship (noun, transitive verb) sorrow; worry; distress anxiety, worry, care, distress (Skt. upasarga) |
憂惱 忧恼 see styles |
yōu nǎo you1 nao3 yu nao unō |
misery |
憂愁 忧愁 see styles |
yōu chóu you1 chou2 yu ch`ou yu chou yuushuu / yushu ゆうしゅう |
to be worried (n,vs,adj-no) melancholy; gloom; grief misery |
憂目 see styles |
ukime うきめ |
(irregular okurigana usage) bitter experience; misery; distress; grief; sad thoughts; hardship |
憂身 see styles |
ukimi うきみ |
(irregular okurigana usage) wretched life; life of misery |
憐れ see styles |
aware あわれ ahare あはれ |
(out-dated or obsolete kana usage) (1) pity; sorrow; grief; misery; compassion; pathos; (adjectival noun) (2) pitiable; pitiful; pathetic; miserable; (interjection) (3) alack; alas |
憫れ see styles |
aware あわれ ahare あはれ |
(out-dated or obsolete kana usage) (1) pity; sorrow; grief; misery; compassion; pathos; (adjectival noun) (2) pitiable; pitiful; pathetic; miserable; (interjection) (3) alack; alas |
智斷 智断 see styles |
zhì duàn zhi4 duan4 chih tuan chidan |
Mystic wisdom which attains absolute truth, and cuts off misery. |
智火 see styles |
zhì huǒ zhi4 huo3 chih huo chika |
Te fire of knowledge which burns up misery. |
果斷 果断 see styles |
guǒ duàn guo3 duan4 kuo tuan kadan |
firm; decisive To cut off the fruit, or results, of former karma. The arhat who has a 'remnant of karma', though he has cut off the seed of misery, has not yet cut off its fruits. |
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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Misery Loves Company | 同病相憐 同病相怜 | doubyou shou awaremu doubyoushouawaremu dobyo sho awaremu | tóng bìng xiāng lián tong2 bing4 xiang1 lian2 tong bing xiang lian tongbingxianglian | t`ung ping hsiang lien tungpinghsianglien tung ping hsiang lien |
| The Pain of Separation from Your Loves | 愛別離苦 爱别离苦 | ai betsu ri ku aibetsuriku | ài bié lí kǔ ai4 bie2 li2 ku3 ai bie li ku aibieliku | ai pieh li k`u aipiehliku ai pieh li ku |
| You must endure a harsh winter to appreciate the warmth of springtime | 不經冬寒不知春暖 不经冬寒不知春暖 | bù jīng dōng hán bù zhī chūn nuǎn bu4 jing1 dong1 han2 bu4 zhi1 chun1 nuan3 bu jing dong han bu zhi chun nuan | pu ching tung han pu chih ch`un nuan pu ching tung han pu chih chun nuan |
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| In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. | ||||
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