塞翁失马 — Chinese idiom
塞翁失马
sài wēng shī mǎ
Traditional: 塞翁失馬
Meaning
- lit. the old man lost his horse, but it all turned out for the best
- fig. a blessing in disguise
- it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
Character by character
- 塞sàito stop up, to seal, to cork, to block; pass, fron
- 翁wēngold man; father, father-in-law
- 失shīto lose; to make a mistake, to neglect
- 马mǎhorse; surname
Idioms sharing a character
- 敷衍塞责 fū yǎn sè zé
- 茅塞顿开 máo sè dùn kāi
- 闭门塞窦 bì mén sè dòu
- 渔翁之利 yú wēng zhī lì
- 北叟失马 běi sǒu shī mǎ
- 千虑一失 qiān lǜ yī shī
- 丧魂失魄 sàng hún shī pò
- 因小失大 yīn xiǎo shī dà
- 坐失机宜 zuò shī jī yí
- 坐失良机 zuò shī liáng jī
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.