心病
xīn bìng · HSK 7
sore point
💔 心病 = 心 heart + 病 illness: a heart-illness, the worry that quietly sickens you
Compound of 心 (heart/mind) and 病 (illness). Not a real disease but a sore point or secret worry that gnaws like one. 心 xīn carries the mind-feelings sense, so 心病 is a sickness of mood, not body.
心 — pictograph of a heart with chambers and aorta
心 is a pictograph showing a stylized heart, with strokes representing the organ's chambers and the aorta at the top. Originally meaning the physical heart, it broadened to cover mind, feelings, and intentions, since ancient Chinese thought located thinking and emotion in the heart.
病 — sickness radical 疒 + 丙 (bǐng, phonetic)
病 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 疒 depicts a person lying on a bed and signals illness or ailment. The component 丙 supplies the sound (bǐng → bìng). Originally 病 referred to a serious illness, contrasted with 疾 for a lighter ailment; today it broadly means 'sick' or 'disease.'