📖 Meaning
Wind and rain cannot be foreseen. It is a metaphor for events or circumstances that are as unpredictable as shifting winds and clouds. The idiom conveys that fortune and misfortune may strike without warning.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from Ling Mengchu's 'Slapping the Table in Amazement' (初刻拍案惊奇), a renowned late-Ming dynasty collection of vernacular short stories. In the ninth chapter, the author describes how a promising official's sudden downfall illustrates that good fortune is often thwarted by unforeseen events. The narrator laments that 'good things meet many obstacles and winds and clouds are unpredictable,' as censors accuse the official of corruption and he is thrown into prison. The idiom thus grew from a cautionary tale about the fragility of prosperity in imperial China.
💡 Example Usage
天有不测风云，人生风雨不测，谁也无法预料明天会发生什么。
Just as the sky has unpredictable storms, life too is subject to unforeseen changes—no one can predict what tomorrow may bring.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 风雨不测
- Pinyin: fēng yǔ bù cè
- Literal Translation: wind, rain, not, predictable
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4