頹

頹 expresses both physical ruin and moral or energetic decline.

It originally depicted a bald head drooping down, symbolizing weakness or collapse, and later came to signify ruin, deterioration, or moral decay.

Ideogrammatic compound composed of:

頁 (머리 혈) — representing the head or face.

禿 (대머리 독) — representing baldness, decay, or loss.

Together, these form the image of a head losing hair and drooping down, symbolizing exhaustion, weakness, and decline.

Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):

「頹，壞也。从頁，禿聲。」

“頹 means collapse or ruin. Composed of 頁 (head) and 禿 (bald, phonetic).”

Thus, 頹 combines both semantic (collapse) and phonetic (禿) elements, representing something once upright now fallen or decayed.

Semantic development:

The word’s earliest sense — collapse or falling apart — expanded metaphorically to mean:

Physical collapse: destruction of walls, buildings, or bodies.

Emotional or moral decline: dejection, corruption, despair.

Cultural decay: the weakening of virtue or spirit within a society.

In later Buddhist and literary Chinese, 頹 often appears with words denoting mental or artistic languor, as in 頹靡之風 — “a decadent atmosphere.”

頹廢 (퇴폐) — decadence, corruption, moral decay

頹勢 (퇴세) — a declining tendency or situation

頹敗 (퇴패) — ruin, downfall, collapse

頹唐 (퇴당) — dejected, depressed, dispirited

頹靡 (퇴미) — decadent, effeminate, morally lax

頹傾 (퇴경) — collapse, crumbling, ruin

頹風 (퇴풍) — decadent trend or style

頹喪 (퇴상) — demoralization, discouragement

In Confucian discourse, 頹 marks the opposite of 盛 (성, flourishing) — symbolizing decline after prosperity.

It appears frequently in moral admonitions warning that when virtue weakens, society will “collapse” (頹).

「德頹而國危。」

“When virtue declines, the nation stands in peril.”

In Daoist and Buddhist texts, it may also refer to the impermanent nature of all things — that what rises must inevitably decline.

「盛極必頹。」 (Huainanzi)

“When flourishing reaches its height, decline follows.”

This embodies the cyclical worldview of balance between growth (盛) and decay (頹).

In classical prose, it frequently describes the decline of nations, buildings, or moral order — a concept analogous to decay, entropy, or degeneration.

「國之將頹也。」 (Zuo Zhuan, 左傳)

“When the state is about to fall.”

Symbolic interpretation:

The image of 頹 — a head (頁) stripped bare (禿) — conveys the loss of vitality and structure.

It visually symbolizes decline after fullness, collapse after strength, or barrenness following growth.

This symbolism made 頹 a common literary metaphor for:

- the decline of dynasties or families;

- the exhaustion of moral energy;

- the sadness of waning youth or faded glory.

「人生若朝露，盛極而頹。」

“Human life is like morning dew — bright at dawn, fallen by noon.”

In literature and philosophy alike, 頹 stands as the counterpart to 盛 (flourishing) — a reminder that every height of strength carries within it the seed of decline.