Guanyin fortune stick
69
Middle stick
Winter comes, and on the ridge there is a single plum branch.
Its leaves fall, its twigs dry, yet it is never broken.
As soon as warm spring slips in, quiet and quick,
it will be the first of all flowers once again.
jadealmanac.com
Plum blossom taking first place among flowers is the image line, and most editions attach the story of the plum blooming twice, from the Qing novel of that name; one edition adds the orphan of Zhao, hidden and raised by the doctor Cheng Ying. In the novel, the official Mei Kui is killed by a treacherous minister. His son Mei Liangyu escapes and lives under a false name in the house of his father's friend Chen Risheng. One day the household's plum tree blooms and Chen honors his dead friend before it, but that night a storm strips every flower. Chen, his daughter Xingyuan and the young man pray, and the tree blooms a second time. Mei Liangyu later tops the imperial exams, clears his father's name and marries Xingyuan. Blossom after a ruined first flowering is the promise of a middle lot that says later is better.
Winter comes, and a single plum branch stands on the ridge. The plum is one of the friends of winter in Chinese art, the flower that blooms in the cold.
Its leaves fall and its twigs dry, yet it is never broken. Readers take this as a lean season that looks like failure from outside while the life inside holds.
Warm spring arrives suddenly and quietly. Traditionally the line says the change will come without warning, so the waiting is not endless even when it feels so.
Then I am first among flowers again. Temple readers apply this to exams, rankings and comebacks, and the word again marks it as a return to a place once held.
冬来岭上一枝梅
叶落枝枯终不摧
但得阳春悄急至
依然还我作花魁
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.51chouqian.com/guanyinlingqian/69.html (The Plum Blooms Twice); masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-69 (edition A: also Cheng Ying Hides the Orphan).
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 69, "The Plum Blossom Takes First Place", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. An arrow shot into the empty sky is not wasted; wait for spring, and the color is already inside.
Success, but later.
Be cautious; wait for the right time to trade.
Steady, careful steps; make good use of study time.
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.
