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塞翁失馬

简塞翁失马 · 繁塞翁失馬

Mandarin · pinyin sài wēng shī mǎ

lit. the old man lost his horse, but it all turned out for the best (idiom)
fig. a blessing in disguise
it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

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Characters in this entry

塞: sāi · stop up, block, seal, cork; pass, frontier; fortress
翁: wēng · old man; father, father-in-law
失: shī · lose; make mistake, neglect
馬: Look up this written character
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–1–3 · sai4 weng1 shi1 ma3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

塞翁失馬 · find source passages ↗ · 塞翁失马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

coi3 jung1 sat1 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 塞翁失馬. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) Every cloud has a silver lining. / A setback may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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