泰然处之

tài rán chǔ zhī

to take something calmly; to face it with composure

Character by character

泰tài
calm

然rán
-ly

处chǔ
deal with

之zhī
it

面对突如其来的变故，他泰然处之，第二天照常去上班。

Faced with the sudden blow, he took it calmly and went to work as usual the next day.

Tone: positive (praise).

处 is chǔ, to deal with, and 之 is the trouble itself. Also inverted as 处之泰然. Praise for composure under illness, criticism or loss, close to 坦然面对.

Learn this in Lesson 156 · HSK 7–9: 与癌共存 (Living with cancer)

A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. This lesson is free.