Guanyin fortune stick
64
Lower stick
A fish swims freely in a clear green pool,
then blunders into a net closing on every side.
It thinks and thinks but finds no way to wriggle free,
and in the end the whole affair stirs up trouble.
jadealmanac.com
Spilled water before the horse is the story this lot carries, with one edition adding the murdered rich man Shi Chong. Zhu Maichen of Kuaiji, under the Han emperor Wu, was a poor woodcutter who recited books aloud as he carried his loads. His wife, ashamed of the poverty, left him and remarried, though he told her he would be rich by fifty. He was, as governor of Kuaiji. In the popular stage version, she begs to come back; he pours a bucket of water on the ground before his horse and says they will reunite when she gathers it up again. The official history is gentler: he gave her and her new husband a place to live, and she later took her own life. Like the fish in the net, she was caught by her own earlier choice with no way back. That is the lower grade's warning.
A fish swims freely in a clear green pool. Readers take the opening as ordinary ease, a time when nothing seems to threaten and caution feels unnecessary.
It runs into a net closing on every side. Traditionally this is trouble that arrives suddenly and from all directions, often through other people rather than your own fault.
Thinking it over, it finds no way to turn and escape. Temple readers say clever plans to wriggle out tend to fail here, so prevention matters more than escape.
In the end the affair stirs up quarrels and blame. Readers apply this to disputes and lawsuits in particular, and the lot's legal verdict is a loss.
游鱼却在碧波池
撞遭罗网四边围
思量无计翻身出
事到头来惹是非
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.51chouqian.com/guanyinlingqian/64.html (Spilled Water Before the Horse); masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-64 (edition A: also Shi Chong Is Killed).
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 64, "The Fish Caught in a Net", is a lower stick, a cautionary stick. Even sheltering at home, trouble can fall from the sky; notice early and guard first, and you avoid the harm.
The two of you are at odds.
Not smooth; trade is middling, losses possible.
Stay humble and patient; prepare early for exams.
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.
