Guanyin fortune stick
50
Middle stick
The five lakes and four seas are yours to sail,
raise the sail high and steer as you please.
If a fair wind comes, you will arrive at once,
with a boat full of treasure and joy on joy.
jadealmanac.com
Lot 50 belongs to Fan Li, the adviser who helped King Goujian of Yue destroy the rival state of Wu in the fifth century BCE. Once victory was won, Fan Li judged that Goujian was a ruler who could share hardship but not good fortune. He resigned, took a small boat out onto the Five Lakes, and left court life behind. Settling at a place called Tao, he went into trade, made a great fortune three times, gave it away twice, and became known as Lord Zhu of Tao, still honored as a patron of merchants. The story is almost a picture of the poem: a sail raised on the lakes, a fair wind, a boat full of treasure. The grade stays middle since the wind must come first.
The five lakes and four seas are yours to travel. The phrase means everywhere under heaven, and readers take it as freedom to go in any direction you choose.
Hang the sail high and steer as you please. Temple readers read it as being prepared and confident, equipped for the opportunity before it actually arrives.
If a fair wind comes, you arrive at once. Readers note the condition: speed and ease depend on timing and circumstance, which you watch for rather than make.
A boat full of treasure, joy upon joy. Readers take the closing line as wealth and good news arriving in layers once the wind has carried you where you meant to go.
五湖四海任君行
高挂帆篷自在撑
若得顺风随即至
满船宝贝喜层层
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.sheup.org/constellationmatch/guanyinlingqian/guanyin50.htm; https://www.masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-50/; BW Monastery Singapore, Guanyin lots (base text); Shiji, biography of Fan Li (Lord Zhu of Tao).
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 50, "Sailing With a Fair Wind", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. Drift free and easy without straining; wealth and fortune pile up, and everything turns out sweet.
Not a match.
Look west for gain; delay deals for now.
Be kind and go with the flow; things go well.
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.
