The Chinese idiom 幸灾乐祸 (xìng zāi lè huò), meaning "to take pleasure in others' misfortune," is formed through the classical Chinese literary device of a four-character parallel structure, where two compound ideas are juxtaposed to reinforce a single concept. The first half, 幸灾, literally "rejoice at disaster," pairs with 乐祸, literally "delight in calamity." Each two-character segment functions as a verb-object phrase (幸/乐 + 灾/祸), with 幸 and 乐 being near-synonyms for "take delight in," and 灾 and 祸 being near-synonyms for "disaster or misfortune." The parallelism intensifies the meaning, creating a vivid and morally condemnatory portrait of schadenfreude.