Guanyin fortune stick
58
Middle stick
Remember to say plainly what you mean,
and don't go seeking a new trade in a distant place.
Hold firmly to your own long-standing work;
anything else you try will turn out badly.
jadealmanac.com
King Wen consulting the oracle is the story this lot carries. In the temple telling, King Wen, a master of divination, was summoned to court by the last Shang king. His own reading warned of seven years of trouble, so before leaving he ordered his eldest son to govern their homeland by the old ways and stay put. King Wen was held captive at Youli. The son went to the capital to plead for him and was killed, a detail drawn from the Ming novel Investiture of the Gods. King Wen, meanwhile, kept to his own craft in confinement and, by tradition, worked out the arrangement of the hexagrams of the Book of Changes. The one who kept to his work came through; the one who left home did not. That is the lot's message of holding to the familiar path, graded middle because it asks for patience.
Speak plainly and remember it. Readers take this as advice to be direct and honest in what you say, since roundabout words cause the trouble in this lot.
Don't go to another place seeking a different trade. Traditionally the line warns against leaving home or switching careers on the hope that somewhere else holds an easier living.
Hold to your own long-standing work. Temple readers treat this as the lot's center: the skill and position you already have are the safe ground, and deepening them is the way forward.
Everything apart from this goes badly. Readers note how absolute the line is; the lot allows almost no exceptions, so new ventures are best delayed until another reading.
直言说话君须记
莫在他乡求别艺
切须守己旧生涯
除此其余都不利
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-58 (edition A: King Wen Divines); https://www.51chouqian.com/guanyinlingqian/58.html.
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 58, "Keeping the Old and Waiting", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. Stay where you can stay, keep what you can hold, take up nothing new, and simply keep to the old.
There will be obstacles.
Investments go well; business succeeds.
Listen to the advice of older people.
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.
