Guanyin fortune stick
80
Upper stick
You climb straight up the immortals' cliff to learn their ways,
never knowing that one day the emperor would summon you.
Sun and moon keep shining in the blue sky,
and an upright heart spreads your name across the four seas.
jadealmanac.com
Editions name this stick Liu Zhiyuan Joins the Army, after the hero of the old southern play The White Rabbit. Liu Zhiyuan, of Shatuo Turkic descent, was poor and married into the Li family, where his wife's brothers despised him and tried to get rid of him. He left his wife, Li Sanniang, enlisted as a soldier, and rose through merit to high command. When the Khitan destroyed the Later Jin, he declared himself emperor at Jinyang in 947 and founded the Later Han. The story fits an upper stick about a sudden summons: a man who seemed headed nowhere, pushed out of his household, was raised by events far beyond his own plans, and his name spread across the country.
Climbing the immortals' cliff to study their arts is the classic move of the recluse who leaves society. Readers treat it as a sign you may have stepped back from ambition or chosen a quieter path.
The emperor's summons is the old story of the hermit called to court against all expectation. The usual reading takes it as recognition or an offer arriving from someone above you, unasked.
Sun and moon always shining in a clear sky stand for an order where merit is seen. Interpreters see it as assurance that honest effort under this stick will not go unnoticed.
An upright heart whose name reaches the four seas means reputation built on character. Readers stress the condition: the stick's fortune holds for those who keep their conduct straight.
直上仙岩要学仙
此知一旦帝王宣
青天日月常明照
心正声名四海传
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: zhouyi.cc Guanyin lot 80: https://www.zhouyi.cc/lingqian/guanyin/5463.html; buyiju.com Guanyin lot 80: https://www.buyiju.com/guanyin/80.html; ttlingqian.com Guanyin lot 80 (cites The White Rabbit): https://www.ttlingqian.com/guanyin/80.html; masterseanchan.com Guanyin oracle lot 80.
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 80, "A Patron Leads You In", is a upper stick, a favorable stick. Finish what you start, don't swing east and west; follow your heart's plan, and patron after patron will help.
Well suited to each other.
Profit; trade goes as you wish.
Smooth; good exam results.
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.
