This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
What is the difference between the two characters 秘 and 密 in 秘密 (mìmì, “secret”)? How should 解密, 解秘, 揭密 and 揭秘 actually be used?
In referring to something hidden, 秘 (mì) and 密 (mì) are close in meaning, but their emphases differ.
秘 concerns the affairs of gods and spirits; it stresses what is not easily known. 密 concerns human affairs; it stresses what one is not allowed to know.
With 秘, the content is mysterious in itself, so that others do not easily discover or perceive it;
密 is to a large degree man-made: something deliberately hidden and deliberately covered up.
秘 is content that is hidden;
密 is hiding the content.
秘 is objective;
密 is subjective.
In short, whatever is profound and unfathomable, rarely heard of and rarely seen takes 秘, for example: 秘本 (rare book), 秘方 (secret recipe), 秘史 (secret history), 秘闻 (little-known story), 秘笈 (secret manual), 神秘 (mysterious), 奥秘 (mystery), 探秘 (exploring mysteries), 揭秘 (unveiling mysteries), 诡秘 (furtive);
whatever is deliberately concealed or strictly controlled takes 密, for example: 密封 (to seal), 密谈 (private talk), 密告 (to inform secretly), 密约 (secret pact), 保密 (to keep secret), 泄密 (to leak a secret), 解密 (to declassify), 告密 (to inform on someone), 绝密 (top secret), 机密 (classified).
Therefore 揭密 should be 揭秘. 揭秘 means to unveil a mystery: to study and explore the mysteries of the objective natural world or the unresolved questions of objective history.
解秘 should be 解密.
解密 means to unlock a secret that its keeper originally, subjectively, did not want more people to know.
