What 诔 means
It names a mourning text that praises the dead.
Pronounced lei, it is the old word for what English calls a eulogy: praise spoken or written for someone who has died. In the early ritual tradition, the text gathered a person's conduct and virtues, then turned that record toward a posthumous name.
Early classical citations place 诔 in the Analects and Mozi. The traditional account says details before Xia and Shang are unknown, then describes an established Zhou form that later reached lower ranks.
What is 诔文?
诔文 is a memorial text built from a person's life record.
Its shape moves from honor to grief: it narrates conduct, affirms lasting worth, and closes in mourning. That is why it can feel part biography and part lament.
In Han-era writing, 诔 continued as a recognized literary vehicle beyond its early rank boundary. Later writers could bend it further: 《红楼梦》 uses 《芙蓉女儿诔》 as a stylized lament for a fictional servant, with a wider critique inside the mourning.
Should you send 诔 by itself?
Usually no: 诔 names a memorial form, not a complete condolence.
Keep it for discussion of classical Chinese, historical ritual, or a deliberately literary memorial. When comforting someone in ordinary language, write the sympathy plainly and reserve 诔 for that formal register.
Classical, formal, and memorial; it reads like literary or historical Chinese, not casual sympathy.
Alone, it can sound like a genre label instead of sympathy.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
3Worth knowing
- In 《红楼梦》, 《芙蓉女儿诔》 uses the form to mourn a fictional servant and carry a wider critique inside its praise.
Questions people ask
1Can I use 诔 as a condolence?
No. It names a classical memorial form; use plain condolence wording unless you are deliberately writing or discussing that register.
How to type 诔
诔\8BD4Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.