Guanyin fortune stick
16
Middle stick
Worried brows and anxious thoughts ease for a while;
the clouds part, and joy comes of its own accord.
Like jade hidden in dung and dirt,
a skilled craftsman picks it out of the dust.
jadealmanac.com
Ye Mengxiong was a real Ming official, and temple books know him through a later stage play. In the Wanli reign, when a revolt broke out on the northwest frontier and no one at court would volunteer to put it down, Ye went to the emperor and asked to lead the campaign himself. Historically he did command the force that retook Ningxia in 1592. The poem's jade hidden in dirt, picked out by a good craftsman, matches an able man who had to step forward before anyone saw what he was worth. Master Sean Chan's edition reads the lot more darkly, as carrying a tiger over a mountain, serving a ruler as dangerous as the animal. The image line in this edition, yin and yang in harmony, keeps the stick a hopeful middle.
Knitted brows are the classic Chinese picture of worry. Their opening for a while tells temple readers relief is coming, though the words for a while keep expectations modest.
Breaking out through the clouds into open sky is a picture of release and rising. Joy arriving by itself means the good news is not forced or bargained for.
Jade hidden in dung and dirt is worth as much as polished jade, only unseen. Readers take it as talent or value buried for now in unglamorous circumstances.
The good craftsman who recommends the stone is a jade cutter with a trained eye. Interpreters see a patron, examiner or employer who recognizes worth and speaks up for it.
愁眉思虑暂时开
启出云霄喜自来
宛如粪土中藏玉
良工荐举出尘埃
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.k366.com/guanyin/28874.htm; https://services.shen88.cn/chouqian/guanyin-16.html; https://www.masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-16/; https://www.fatekeep.com/blog/3640.
Optional: the temple way
At a temple the stick is not yours until two moon blocks agree: one flat side up and one round side up, a holy cup.
Stick 16, "Yin and Yang in Harmony", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. What you gain is not lost, and loss hides benefit; petty people meet trouble, decent people meet good luck.
Success.
Investments and business both succeed.
Real talent and real work bring achievement.
Draw another stick , or for a straight yes or no, throw the moon blocks
The verse follows the BW Monastery edition of the Guanyin set; the English rendering and reading are Jade Almanac's own. A drawn stick is a tradition and a prompt for reflection, not advice about health, money or the law.
