Chinese symbol for “overwrought”

悲不自胜

bēi bù zì shèng

Traditional: 悲不自勝

unable to control one's grief (idiom); overwrought; overcome with sorrow; heartbroken

The closest CC-CEDICT match for overwrought is 悲不自胜 (bēi bù zì shèng), defined as: unable to control one's grief (idiom); overwrought; overcome with sorrow; heartbroken.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

悲 bēi

sorrow, sadness, grief; to be sorry

radical 61 ⼼ · 12 strokes

不 bù

no, not, un-; negative prefix

radical 1 ⼀ · 4 strokes

自 zì

self; private, personal; from

radical 132 ⾃ · 6 strokes

胜 shèng

victory; to excel, to truimph

radical 130 ⾁ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

勝 shèng

Related words

Other words that share a character with 悲不自胜.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
悲剧 (悲劇)	bēi jù	tragedy; 出 (chū)
悲伤 (悲傷)	bēi shāng	sad; sorrowful
悲惨 (悲慘)	bēi cǎn	miserable; tragic
可悲	kě bēi	lamentable
悲哀	bēi āi	grieved; sorrowful
悲观 (悲觀)	bēi guān	pessimistic
不是	bù shì	no; is not
不能	bù néng	cannot; must not
自己	zì jǐ	oneself; (attributive) one's own
胜利 (勝利)	shèng lì	victory; 个 (gè)

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.