Guan Di lot 20 of 100
The Eighteen Rapids
Lowest (下下, 乙癸). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 乙癸 is from manekineko.com.tw.
一生心事向誰論
十八灘頭說與君
世事盡從流水去
功名富貴等浮雲
Whom can you tell the matters of a whole life?
At the Eighteen Rapids I can say it to you.
The affairs of the world all go off with the flowing water,
and fame, wealth and rank are only floating cloud.
What this lot says
This is a lot about letting go. The verse says worldly concerns pass like water and that status is thin, like cloud.
If your question is about a loss or a disappointment, it speaks of acceptance and not of a recovery. It also invites you to talk to the one person you can speak plainly to.
A lot is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
The story behind it
Yan Ziling at the fishing terrace (嚴子陵登釣臺)
According to the account on Wikisource, Yan Guang of the Han dynasty was a friend of Emperor Guangwu, changed his name and refused office. The emperor sent for him three times and offered a high post, and Yan Guang still declined, farmed at Fuchun Mountain, and the emperor had a fishing terrace built for him.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/20, the 故事及記載 section
Where this text comes from
This verse is a traditional temple text with no known author. We read it from two named web transcriptions, Chinese Wikisource (the base text) and manekineko.com.tw. Neither is a scan of a printing, the edition behind them is mixed, and we could not establish whether the two are independent of each other.
Wikisource (關聖帝君靈籤) (the text shown above)
一生心事向誰論 / 十八灘頭說與君 / 世事盡從流水去 / 功名富貴等浮雲
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
一生心事向誰論 / 十八灘頭說與君 / 世事盡從流水去 / 功名富貴等浮雲
Retrieved 2026-11-09
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.