Guanyin fortune stick
65
Lower stick
The joy in front of you is not yet real joy.
Not quite in danger, yet not at peace either.
Why cut your own flesh to patch a sore?
Better to keep to old ways and wait for your time.
jadealmanac.com
Sun Bin and Pang Juan are the pair temple editions name here, with one adding King Goujian of Yue as an alternate. In the Warring States period, both men studied military arts under the same master, by tradition the sage Guiguzi. Pang Juan became a general of Wei, and, jealous of Sun Bin's greater talent, had him framed and maimed. Sun Bin pretended to be mad, escaped to Qi and became its chief strategist. At the battle of Maling he lured Pang Juan into an ambush by cutting the number of campfires each night so his army seemed to be deserting. Trapped, Pang Juan killed himself. Pang Juan had harmed his own friend to protect his place, and the injury came back on him. It is the image of cutting your own flesh to patch a sore, and the reason the lot is lower.
The joy in front of you is not yet real joy. Readers take this as a pleasure or gain that looks good now but has not proved itself and may not last.
Not in danger, yet not at peace. Traditionally the line describes an unsettled middle state, nothing collapsing, nothing secure, where hasty action does the most harm.
Cutting flesh to patch a sore is an old Chinese saying for a cure that does as much damage as the illness. Temple readers apply it to robbing one need to cover another.
Better to keep the old ways and wait for your time. Readers treat this as the lot's plain instruction: no drastic fixes now, and patience until conditions change.
眼前欢喜未为欢
亦不危时亦不安
割肉补疮为甚事
不如守旧待时光
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.51chouqian.com/guanyinlingqian/65.html (Sun Bin and Pang Juan); masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-65 (edition A: Sun Bin Is Wronged, also King Goujian of Yue).
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 65, "Cutting Flesh to Patch a Sore", is a lower stick, a cautionary stick. Stop when it's time to stop, ease off when you can; wherever you cut your own flesh, the pain is the same.
It lasts only if you make room for each other.
Not smooth; watch for petty people in trade.
Steady, careful steps; exams give a scare but pass.
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.
