📖 Meaning
When one was in an unfavorable situation, a favorable opportunity arrives and one's fortunes begin to improve. It describes a turn from bad luck to good luck, meaning the moment has finally come for one's luck to change for the better.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom appears in the Qing dynasty novel Shi Sheng (《市声》, 'The Sound of the Marketplace') by the author Ji Wen (姬文), in chapter 17. In the passage, the character A Dali (阿大利) experiences his fortune turning around, as the text reads: 'A Dali, with his time and luck having come, was first to carry the night-soil bucket to the foreign concession to dump it.' The phrase captures the folk belief that when the right time arrives, good fortune follows, and it is synonymous with the more common idiom shi lai yun zhuan (时来运转).
💡 Example Usage
他失业多年，如今时来运来，终于找到了满意的工作。
After years of unemployment, his fortune finally turned — now that his time had come, he landed a satisfying job.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 时来运来
- Pinyin: shí lái yùn lái
- Literal Translation: time comes, fortune comes
- Category: Recovery
- Characters: 4