The word 悲剧 (bēijù, "tragedy") is formed through a direct and powerful conceptual fusion: it combines 悲 (bēi), which embodies the core emotion of "sorrow", "grief", or "misery", with 剧 (jù), which denotes a "drama" or "play". The formation is not merely additive but transformative; it takes the abstract, raw feeling of profound sorrow and confines or projects it into the structured, narrative vessel of a theatrical performance. Thus, the term conceptually creates the idea of a dramatic art form whose essential purpose and defining characteristic is to enact, explore, and evoke this deep, often cathartic, sense of human suffering and poignant loss.