Guanyin fortune stick
5
Middle stick
With an awl you bore into the ground, hunting for a spring;
the harder you strive for it, the harder it comes.
Then, without trying, you happen on a true friend,
and hand in hand you climb into the blue sky.
jadealmanac.com
Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao, two men of the Eastern Han, went into the Tiantai Mountains to gather medicinal herbs and lost their way. After days of hunger they came upon two immortal women, who welcomed them, fed them sesame rice, and married them. Half a year later the men grew homesick and went down the mountain, only to find that seven generations had passed and no one knew them. When they tried to go back, the path had vanished. The tale comes from a fifth-century collection of marvels, and temple books set it beside the image of boring for a spring with an awl. The fit is in how the men found wonders: only after they were lost, by chance rather than effort. That is why this middle stick rewards the unplanned meeting more than the hard dig.
An awl is a cobbler's point for piercing leather, absurdly small for digging a well. The line shows a goal pursued with the wrong tool, or with too narrow an approach.
Hard striving yields the hardest result: the line admits that effort alone is not producing water. The usual reading is a signal to stop forcing one method.
A true friend, literally one who knows you, appears by chance. Temple readers treat this as the turn of the stick: help that arrives sideways, through a meeting you did not plan.
Climbing the blue sky hand in hand is a stock phrase for sudden success. The joint climb tells readers the gain is shared with the person met by chance.
一锥凿地要求泉
努力求之得最难
无意偶然遇知己
相逢携手上青天
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.k366.com/guanyin/28774.htm; https://services.shen88.cn/chouqian/guanyin-5.html; https://www.masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-5/; 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 5, "Boring the Earth for a Spring", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. The wish in your heart might be sought in the west, but better not to move; plan from where you stand.
The two of you match well.
Smooth; business succeeds.
A helpful person comes to your aid; study practically.
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.
