乐极生悲 — Chinese idiom
乐极生悲
lè jí shēng bēi
Traditional: 樂極生悲
Meaning
- extreme joy turns to sorrow ; Don't celebrate too soon, things could still go wrong!
Character by character
- 乐lècheerful, happy, laughing; music
- 极jíextreme, top; final, furthest, utmost; pole
- 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth
- 悲bēisorrow, sadness, grief; to be sorry
Idioms sharing a character
- 何乐不为 hé lè bù wéi
- 助人为乐 zhù rén wéi lè
- 及时行乐 jí shí xíng lè
- 吃喝玩乐 chī hē wán lè
- 喜怒哀乐 xǐ nù āi lè
- 喜闻乐见 xǐ wén lè jiàn
- 安居乐业 ān jū lè yè
- 安贫乐道 ān pín lè dào
- 寻欢作乐 xún huān zuò lè
- 幸灾乐祸 xìng zāi lè huò
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.