轉禍爲福
wazawai o tenjite fuku to nasu
Turn Misfortune into Good Fortune
Abstract
轉禍爲福, read in Japanese 禍を転じて福と為す, wazawai o tenjite fuku to nasu, turn misfortune into good fortune, is the phrase on which the strategist 蘇秦 closes a speech in the 戰國策, persuading the king of 齊 to give back ten cities he had taken from 燕: 所謂轉禍為福，因敗成功者也, this is what is called turning misfortune into fortune, and making success out of defeat [1]. In Japan the earliest known use, in the National Diet Library's full-text index, searched inside two typesets of the 日本書紀 and two of the 懐風藻 (the 正倉院文書 not searched), is an edict of amnesty of 790 in the 続日本紀, 轉禍爲福。德政居先, to turn misfortune into fortune, virtuous rule comes first [2]; in the later edicts and the one directive read here, from 812 to 1017, the court set it beside offerings to the gods and the reading of sutras, against plague and drought in 812, famine, plague, drought and fire in 832, and locusts in 1017 (The historical record). The デジタル大辞泉 enters the Japanese reading, from the 戰國策, as turning a misfortune round to one's use and arranging matters so as to end up happy, and warns that 禍を変じて福となす is a mistake [3]. I read the phrase as naming an act: in most of its settings read here the turning is something done, by a strategist's argument, by a sovereign's rule, by the rites he orders and the gods and sutras they call on, or, in the 菜根譚, by catching one's own thought; in the prayer 空海 wrote in 813 for an ambassador it is wished for.
A reading
The phrase, as Eri brushes it: 轉禍爲福, four characters; her block hand writes the old forms 轉 and 爲. Word for word: 轉, turn; 禍, misfortune; 爲, make into; 福, good fortune.
In the 戰國策 it is a strategist's maxim. 蘇秦 tells the king of 齊 that the sages, when they manage affairs, 轉禍而為福，因敗而為功, turn misfortune into fortune and, from defeat, make achievement; he gives his examples; and he closes on the bare four characters, 所謂轉禍為福 [1]. The 史記 tells the same episode with 轉禍為福，因敗為功, and says of 管仲 that in governing 善因禍而為福，轉敗而為功, he was good at making fortune out of misfortune and turning defeat into achievement [4][5]. In each of these three passages the turning is done by a person, by counsel or by government, and the reward is plain advantage: the king who returns the cities wins the friendship of 燕 and 秦.
The Japanese court used the phrase in a different register. Its edicts set it beside a remedy the ruler orders: in 790 an amnesty, 德政居先, virtuous rule comes first; in 812 offerings to the gods; in 832, 836 and 1017 the reading of sutras; in 839 rites and offerings (The historical record). In 790 the turning is the sovereign's, by virtuous rule; in the later edicts he orders the rites, and they set the turning beside the way of the gods (812), the One Vehicle and good works (836), the Buddhas and the gods (839) and the power of the Prajñā (1017).
The 菜根譚 later turns it on the self: a thought caught and turned as it rises (The historical record). So I read 轉禍爲福 as naming something done, and I read even the prayer 空海 wrote for the ambassador, which wishes for it, as wishing it on the strength of a vow kept. I take the 大辞泉's 取り計らう, to arrange matters so, and its warning against 変じて, to change, as support: they keep the verb an act of turning, not a change that merely happens. The dictionary gives no reason for its warning [3]. A buyer who hangs these four characters hangs a resolve: that what has gone wrong will be made to serve.
I sign the reading wazawai o tenjite fuku to nasu, turn misfortune into good fortune. Signed, 典.
Overview
The sense. The デジタル大辞泉, under 禍(わざわい)を転(てん)じて福(ふく)と為(な)す: 《「戦国策」燕策から》わざわいに襲われても、それを逆用して幸せになるように取り計らう。〔補説〕「禍を変じて福となす」とするのは誤り, from the 戰國策: even when struck by misfortune, to turn it round to one's use and arrange matters so as to end up happy. Note (補説, printed in brackets): 禍を変じて福となす is an error [3].
The words. 轉 is the old form of 転, 爲 of 為. The 普及版 字通 enters 転禍, てんか（くわ）, 禍いを転じて福とする, to turn misfortune into fortune, citing the 戰國策's 燕一 [6]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives 禍 (か) as 不幸をひきおこす出来事。わざわい。災厄。⇔福, an event that brings misfortune; calamity; the opposite of 福, and quotes as that word's earliest Japanese example the edict of 832 below, 転禍為福 among its words [7]. The 大辞泉 heads the Japanese reading with 為す, and reads 禍 as わざわい [3].
The text in English. Among the English read, earliest first: Legge in 1880, in lectures on the religions of China, giving a line from the last paragraph of the Daoist 太上感應篇, this is what is called changing calamity into blessing [8], and again in 1891, in his full translation, this is called changing calamity into blessing [9]; Inouye's dictionary of 1909, under Wazawai, これが禍を轉じて福となすといふのです, This is an instance of conversion of a misfortune into a blessing [10]; Crump's Chan-kuo Ts'e of 1970, giving 蘇秦's speech as It is the common practice of the sages to turn disaster into good fortune and defeat into victory and closing it is what I mean by turning calamity into good fortune and defeat into accomplishment [11]; and Kenkyusha's dictionary of 1974, under wazawai, ～を転じて福とする turn a misfortune into a blessing and ～転じて福となる例 an instance … of good out of evil (the entry offers a case beside an instance) [12].
The historical record
The speech. The 戰國策, 燕策一, in the episode Crump sets under King Yi of 燕 (332–321 B.C.): when the king of 齊 took ten cities from 燕 during its mourning, 蘇秦 went to him, offered congratulations and condolences in one breath, and argued that the cities had bought him the enmity of 秦 [11][1]. His counsel: 聖人之制事也，轉禍而為福，因敗而為功; his examples, 桓公負婦人而名益尊 and 韓獻開罪而交愈固, Duke Huan of 齊, whose name grew the more honored though 負婦人 (Crump's translation reads it of his turning his back on the woman sent to be his wife, and his note says he returned a woman from 蔡; the 鮑本 note reads it of his fondness for women, 好內, and its 正曰 reads it through a story of 齊's purple cloth, purple being women's dress), and 韓獻子, whose admission of a fault made a bond the firmer; his conclusion, 所謂轉禍為福，因敗成功者也 [1]. The king returned the cities. In another episode of the same book, 齊伐宋宋急, 蘇代's letter brings in the same formula after its argument: 臣聞知者之舉事也，轉禍而為福，因敗而成功 [1]; the 鮑本 note on 桓公 names him as its writer (齊伐宋章，蘇代曰), and the 史記 has the letter as his, to King Zhao of 燕 (蘇代乃遺燕昭王書曰) [1][4]. The 史記 has the speech as 臣聞古之善制事者，轉禍為福，因敗為功, and a letter of 蘇代's in the same chapter swaps the verbs, 因禍為福，轉敗為功 [4]. Of 管仲 the 史記 says 善因禍而為福，轉敗而為功 [5].
The Buddhist register in China. In Buddhist prayer the phrase names the power of the Medicine Buddha, 藥師. A 藥師齋懺文, a liturgy of repentance for a 藥師 rite, under the name of 陳文帝, says that against the eight hardships and nine untimely deaths, flood, fire, thieves, plague and famine, 悉能轉禍為福改危成安, he can turn every misfortune into fortune and danger into safety [13]. The monk 慧矩's preface to 達摩笈多's 隋 translation of the 藥師 sutra says the work was checked and finished on 其年十二月八日, the eighth day of the twelfth month of the year it has just named, 大業十一年 (about the turn of 615 and 616 by the Western calendar); a line set after the preface, before the sutra opens, gives 大業十二年十二月八日, a year later. The preface says that through the sutra 王者攘災轉禍為福, rulers avert calamity and turn misfortune into fortune [14]. I do not claim that the Japanese edicts took the phrase from these texts; they show the register it had reached.
790. An edict of amnesty. The 続日本紀, 延暦九年閏三月壬午 (the sixteenth): 詔曰。朕以寡德臨馭寰區。國哀相尋。災變未息。轉禍爲福。德政居先。思布仁恩。用致安穩。宜可大赦天下, We, of little virtue, reign over the realm; mourning follows mourning in the land, and calamity has not ceased. To turn misfortune into fortune, virtuous rule comes first. We think to spread benevolence, and so bring peace: let there be a general amnesty (my English) [2]. The entry before it, ending at the ○ that opens this one, orders mourning dress (素服擧哀); the 国史大系 typeset of 1914 [2], a manuscript of 1691 presented by 徳川光圀 [15], and the 本朝六国史 of 1907 [16] give 轉禍爲福。德政居先 in the same words, each read at the leaf (the 1907's worn type does not settle 爲 or 為). For 大赦 the 1914 typeset prints 大所天下, and a hand in the National Diet Library's copy has written 赦 beside 所; the 1907 typeset reads 大赦, in worn type [16]. It is the earliest known Japanese use in the books searched: inside two typesets of the 日本書紀 and two of the 懐風藻, the National Diet Library's full-text index returns no snippet of it, while words known to stand in each book return hits [17].
812. Offerings to the gods. The 日本後紀, 卷二十二, which runs from 弘仁三年正月 to 四年二月, 秋七月丁巳朔 (the first of the seventh month of 弘仁三年): 勅。頃者疫旱並行。生民未安。… 但神明之道。轉禍爲福。… 除此灾禍。宜走幣於天下名神, of late plague and drought go together and the people have no peace … as for the way of the gods: to turn misfortune into fortune … to remove this calamity, let offerings be sent to the great gods of the realm (my English; 灾 as the typeset prints it, a form of 災) [18]. The second ellipsis leaves out the edict's hope for the gods' aid, 祐助, whose verb, the character after 庶, I could not read at the leaf.
813. 空海, for an ambassador's vow. In the 性霊集, a 願文 written 爲藤中納言大使, for the Fujiwara 中納言, the ambassador, who in 延暦二十三年 (804) had crossed the whale-sea to the Tang on the emperor's command (I take him, by that year, to be 藤原葛野麻呂, who led that embassy; the identification is mine, not the page's). 空海 has him say that without the gods' unseen protection he could not have carried out his mission (自思不因冥護寧得遂皇華之節乎), so he vowed a copy of the Diamond Sutra for each of 187 gods of heaven and earth; the mission succeeded, public and private business delayed the vow, and on 弘仁四年十月二十五日 (813) the copies were made and offered. Among its wishes the prayer asks that all, enemy and friend alike, may bathe together in 轉禍爲福 (怨親齊沐轉禍爲福) [19].
832. Sutra-reading against famine and plague. The 類聚国史, 卷百七十三, 天長九年五月己酉: 勅。去年秋稼不稔。諸國告飢。今茲疫旱相仍。人物夭折。加以往々火災。… 宜令五畿内七道諸國。一七箇日。轉讀經王。轉禍爲福, last autumn's harvest failed and the provinces report famine; this year plague and drought follow one on another, people die before their time, and fires besides … let every province read the King of Sutras for seven days, to turn misfortune into fortune [20]. This is the example the 日本国語大辞典 quotes under 禍 [7]. Here 轉 stands twice, in 轉讀, reading a sutra by turning through it, and in 轉禍.
836 and 839. The 続日本後紀. On 承和三年十一月丙寅朔 (the first of the eleventh month, 836), an edict: 護持神道。不如一乘之力。轉禍作福。亦憑修善之功, to guard the way of the gods nothing equals the power of the One Vehicle; to turn misfortune and make fortune, rely too on the merit of good works, sending a monk to each province to read the Lotus Sutra at its great shrines [21]. Here 作 stands for 爲. In 承和六年十月乙丑 (the seventeenth, 839), after 出羽 reported stones like arrowheads found on its shore following more than ten days of rain and thunder, an edict told the northern commands and 太宰府 to stand ready, and added 又轉禍爲福。佛神是先。宜修法奉幣, and to turn misfortune into fortune, the Buddhas and the gods come first: let rites be held and offerings made [22].
1017. Locusts. In the 類聚符宣抄, a directive of the Council of State dated 寛仁元年八月三日, on locusts in 山城, 近江 and 丹波, orders the 仁王 and 最勝王 sutras read in every province: 方今轉禍爲福。莫先般若之威神, now, to turn misfortune into fortune, nothing comes before the power of the Prajñā [23].
The 感應篇. The Daoist 太上感應篇 closes its counsel to those who once did wrong and repented, 諸惡莫作，眾善奉行，久久必獲吉慶；所謂轉禍為福也, do no evil, practice every good, and in time you will surely find good fortune: this is what is called turning misfortune into fortune [24]. The 日本大百科全書 dates the 感應篇 to the early Southern Song and says such books of morals reached Japan early in the Edo period [25][26]. It is a late user of the phrase, not its source.
The 菜根譚. The Ming book of maxims 菜根譚, which this library's history of 起死回生 dates to about 1600, turns the phrase inward: 念頭起處，纔覺向慾路上去，便挽從理路上來。一起便覺，一覺便轉，此是轉禍為福，起死回生的關頭 …, where a thought arises, the moment you feel it going down the road of desire, pull it back onto the road of reason; as it rises, see it; as you see it, turn it: this is the turning point where misfortune is turned into fortune and the dead return to life (my English) [27]. That history quotes William Scott Wilson's English of the line [28]. Here the one who turns is the reader, and what is turned is the reader's own thought.
The kana reading. The oldest book the full-text index finds with the reading printed is 石川雅望's 『天羽衣』 of 1808 (文化5), where the text says, of 三保's hidden virtue, 禍(わざはひ)を轉(てん)じて福(ふく)となし醜(しう)を以て美(び)にかへつ, turning misfortune into fortune and ugliness into beauty, the reading わざはひ printed beside 禍 [29]. The index holds few Japanese books printed before 1800, so an older kana reading is likely and was not found. The index's later rows run on into the Meiji era, read here only in the index's machine-read text [17]; and CiNii's titles carry the phrase through the twentieth century and after, among them a newspaper's report of a government statement of 1931 and the pandemic's コロナ禍を転じて福となす [30].
Notes
The text as brushed. Eri's sheet has five pieces, each one column of 轉禍爲福; the block hand writes the old forms 轉 and 爲, and the others are in running and cursive hands.
爲 and 作. The 戰國策's speech has both 轉禍而為福 and the bare 轉禍為福; the 史記's letter of 蘇代 reverses the verbs, 因禍為福，轉敗為功; the edict of 836 writes 轉禍作福 [1][4][21].
一七箇日 and 十七箇日. The 日本国語大辞典 quotes the 832 edict with 十七箇日; the 1916 typeset, read at the leaf, prints 一七箇日, one seven of days, and my English follows the typeset [7][20].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
The 正倉院文書, searched in no index for this phrase. The English versions of the 感應篇 that Legge in 1880 says had appeared since Stanislas Julien's French translation, made from Julien's version more than from the Chinese (his note on p. 185), not identified [8]. Suzuki and Carus's T'ai-Shang Kan-Ying P'ien (Open Court, 1906), not on the house's shelf. 芳賀矢一 and others, 『格言大辞典』 (文昌閣, 1916; NDL 1821991), listed by the full-text search beside the 790 edict and not open outside Japan. 曲亭馬琴's 『夢想兵衛胡蝶物語』 in a first edition (it uses 禍を轉じて福とし, read here only in the index's text of an 1882 reprint). A Japanese-English dictionary of 1907 (Yamaguchi and Irie) whose text layer gives to turn evil to good under henzuru, not read at the page.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
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- James Legge, The Texts of Taoism, Part II, Sacred Books of the East 40, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1891, p. 246.
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- J. I. Crump, translator, Chan-kuo Ts'e, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970, no. 445, pp. 508–509.
- Koh Masuda, editor, Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, 4th ed., Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1974, p. 1953, s.v. wazawai.
- 道宣, 『廣弘明集』 卷二十八, 陳文帝 「藥師齋懺文」, T52n2103, p. 334b24, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T52n2103_p0334b24
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- 石川雅望 (六樹園飯盛), 『天羽衣』 2 巻, 文化5 (1808), scan 28, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8942754/1/28
- CiNii Research, search for 転禍為福 and 禍を転じて福となす, November 2026. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/all?q=転禍為福