S6E07 | Tomorrow Never Knows
Saying: “the old man lost his mare, but it all turned out for the best”
Pinyin: Sài wēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú
Chinese: 塞翁失马焉知非福
Here's one that goes back all the way to the Huananzi 淮南子. And it's still used today. And quite often too. Sài wēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú 塞翁失马焉知非福. Eight characters that remind us sometimes you never know when a good thing turns out to be a bad thing and a bad thing turns out to be a blessing in disguise. This is the Chinese Saying that reminds us fate rewards us in strange and roundabout ways. It also taketh away just when you thought you were lucky.
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Terms in Episode
| Pinyin/Term | Chinese | English/Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Qiānlǐ Sòng É’máo | 千里送鹅毛 | A swan feather from a thousand miles away, a saying featured in Season 1 that's used to describe a small insignificant gift that has a great deal of meaning behind it. |
| Sài wēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú | 塞翁失马焉知非福 | A blessing in disguise |
| Sài | 赛 | a place of strategic importance, a fortification or the frontiers of the Chinese empire that was always prone to attacks from nomadic tribesmen |
| Wēng | 翁 | an old man but used in a courteous or respectful manner |
| Lǚ Wēng | 吕翁 | Old Man Lü featured as a character in the Golden Millet Dream |
| Huáng Liáng Měi Mèng | 黄粱美梦 | The Golden Millet Dream, featured in Season 5 |
| Shī | 失 | To lose |
| mǎ | 马 | Horse |
| Yān | 焉 | a pronoun used in classical Chinese…meaning here or this….And in rhetorical questions it means how |
| Zhī | 知 | To know |
| Fēi | 非 | Wrong, error; run counter to |
| Fú | 福 | Good fortune |
| Western Hàn Dynasty | 西汉 | The first part of the Han Dynasty that ran 206 BC to Wang Mang's usurpation in 8 AD (also called the Former Han) |
| Huáinánzǐ, Rénjiān Xùn | 淮南子: 人间训 | The Duke of Huáinán: Lessons from The People, The Huáinánzǐ was a work containing a bunch of scholarly debates carried out at the residence of the Prince of Huáinán that sought to argue the best possible ways to order society and what makes the perfect ruler. The Huáinánzǐ is heavily influenced by Taoist philosophy, and also contains Confucian overtones |
| Huà bù kě jí shēn bù kě cè yě | 化不可及深不可测也 | The changes of life are innumerable and their depths are beyond human prediction. |
| chéngyǔ | 成语 | A Chinese Saying or idiom |
