A setback may turn out to be a blessing
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
An old man near the frontier lost his horse; the neighbours consoled him and he asked how they knew it was bad luck. The horse came back leading a fine wild stallion; they congratulated him and he asked how they knew it was good. His son rode it, fell and broke his leg — and a year later, when every able-bodied man was conscripted and nine in ten died, the son stayed home.
Source: 《淮南子》Huainanzi, 2nd century BC
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
塞翁失马 is pronounced sài wēng shī mǎ and means a setback may turn out to be a blessing. Literally it says "the old man of the frontier loses his horse" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《淮南子》Huainanzi, 2nd century BC. An old man near the frontier lost his horse; the neighbours consoled him and he asked how they knew it was bad luck. The horse came back leading a fine wild stallion; they congratulated him and he asked how they knew it was good. His son rode it, fell and broke his leg — and a year later, when every able-bodied man was conscripted and nine in ten died, the son stayed home.
sài wēng shī mǎ. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
塞 (sài) To stuff (squeeze in); Strategic importance, 翁 (wēng) Old man (elderly person - father-in-law), 失 (shī) To lose (fail - miss - break), 马 (mǎ) Horse. These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the beginner band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 塞翁失马 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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