“BLESSING IN DISGUISE” - 塞翁失马

One of the most common Cheng yu that you need to know is 塞翁失马 - sàiwēng-shīmǎ. It’s commonly translated as “A blessing in disguise” . It is an analogy expressing that even if you suffer a loss for a while, you may be able to benefit from it. It also means that bad things can turn into good things under certain conditions.

As said in the previous article, the problem is that most of the times the literal translation of these chengyu is completely different from the final form commonly used, and guess what? It applies also to this chengyu. As a matter of fact, if you try to translate every single character you will have something like “The old frontiersman lost his horse”, where 塞(sài) corresponds to “frontier”, 翁(wēng) to“old man”, 失(shī) to “lose” and 马(mǎ) to “horse”. To understand why these four characters are used as “A blessing in disguise” we have to analyse the story from which it originated. This saying originally comes from a story in "Lessons from the Human World" of Hua Nan Zi compiled by Liu An in the West Han Dynasty.

Once upon a time, there was a man living on the northern border of China. One day, one of the Old Man's horses escaped from the stable and ran across the border into the territory of the Hu people. Hearing this news, all his neighbors came to comfort the Old Man. To everyone's surprise, the Old Man said, "A horse running off might turn out to be a good blessing in disguise."

(“这怎么就不能是一件好事呢?”)

After few months, the horse returned with a fine horse from the Hu's territory. When his neighbors heard the news, they came by to congratulate to him. This time, the Old Man said, "Getting a fine horse for nothing is probably a bad omen in disguise."

(“这怎么就不能是一件坏事呢?”)

The Old Man had a son who enjoyed horseback riding. One day his son went riding on this fine horse and accidentally fell and broke a leg. So the Old Man's neighbors came to comfort him. He said to everyone, "My son breaking a leg might be a blessing in disguise!" However, shortly there after the Hu people began an invasion on the board area, and all the young men had been summoned to join the army. Most of those young men were killed on the battlefield, yet, the Old Man's son survived the war because he did not have to join the army due to his broken leg. It was only until then that the Old Man's neighbors discovered the wisdom hidden in his words.

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MORAL:

The moral of the story is as follows: Many things in a person's life are predestined. Everything may

be a blessing or a misfortune in disguise, meaning that you cannot just superficially judge whether

something is a blessing or misfortune. One should just let nature run its course and not pursue outcomes. Try not to be too complacent when things go smoothly and too discouraged and depressed when you run into troubles.

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成语故事 - ORIGINAL TEXT

靠近边境一带居住的人中有一个精通术数的人,他们家的马无缘无故跑到了胡人的住地。人们都前来慰问他。那个老人说:“这怎么就不能是一件好事呢?”过了几个月,那匹马带着胡人的良马回来了。人们都前来祝贺他们一家。那个老人说:“这怎么就不能是一件坏事呢?”他家中有很多好马,他的儿子喜欢骑马,结果从马上掉下来摔得大腿骨折。人们都前来安慰他们一家。那个老人说:“这怎么就不能是一件好事呢?”过了一年,胡人大举入侵边境一带,壮年男子都拿起弓箭去作战。靠近边境一带的人,绝大部分都死了。唯独这个人因为腿瘸的缘故免于征战,父子得以保全生命。