塞翁失馬安知非福

简 塞翁失马安知非福 · 繁 塞翁失馬安知非福
Mandarin · pinyin sài wēng shī mǎ ān zhī fēi fú

Meanings

  1. the old man lost his mare, but it all turned out for the best (idiom); fig. a blessing in disguise
  2. it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
  3. also written 塞翁失馬焉知非福
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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
安
ān · peaceful, tranquil, quiet
知
zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
非
fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175
福
fú · happiness, good fortune, blessing
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

4–1–1–3–1–1–1–2 · sai4 weng1 shi1 ma3 an1 zhi1 fei1 fu2

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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.

塞翁失馬安知非福 · find source passages ↗ · 塞翁失马安知非福 · find source passages ↗

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塞翁失馬安知非福 · sai4 weng1 shi1 ma3 an1 zhi1 fei1 fu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 26,439
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record塞翁失馬安知非福 塞翁失马安知非福 [sai4 weng1 shi1 ma3 an1 zhi1 fei1 fu2] /the old man lost his mare, but it all turned out for the best (idiom); fig. a blessing in disguise/it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good/also written 塞翁失馬焉知非福|塞翁失马焉知非福/