Jeon-hwa-wi-bok

轉

구를 전

禍

재앙 화

爲

할 위

福

복 복

Character by character

Meaning

Disaster turned into good fortune.

Origin

From the Strategies of the Warring States and the Records of the Grand Historian, of crises turned into openings.

How it is used

Used when a loss ended up working out in your favour.

Hanja轉禍爲福

Simplified转祸为福

Korean reading전화위복

Pinyinzhuǎn huò wéi fú

Frequently asked questions

Q. What does Jeon-hwa-wi-bok mean?

轉禍爲福 · Disaster turned into good fortune.

Q. Where does Jeon-hwa-wi-bok come from?

From the Strategies of the Warring States and the Records of the Grand Historian, of crises turned into openings.

Q. How is Jeon-hwa-wi-bok used?

Used when a loss ended up working out in your favour.

Idioms in the same group

四面楚歌 Sa-myeon-cho-gaChu songs on all four sides — surrounded with nowhere to turn.進退兩難 Jin-toe-yang-nanHard to advance and hard to retreat.累卵之危 Nu-ran-ji-wiAs precarious as a stack of eggs.風前燈火 Pung-jeon-deung-hwaA lamp flame before the wind — an extremely precarious state.五里霧中 O-ri-mu-jungInside a fog five li deep — completely unable to make sense of things.雪上加霜 Seol-sang-ga-sangFrost on top of snow — one misfortune stacked on another.

The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.