Guan Di lot 26 of 100
Rain for the dry fields
Fairly good (中吉, 丙己). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 丙己 is from manekineko.com.tw.
年來豐歉皆天數
自是今年旱較多
與子定期三日內
田疇霑足雨滂沱
Good harvests and poor ones all follow the way of Heaven.
This year has simply been drier than most.
I set you a date, within three days,
when the fields will be soaked and the rain will pour.
What this lot says
This is a lot about a dry spell that breaks. The verse accepts that some years are lean through no fault of yours, and then names a short time for relief.
Read the three days as a figure for how quickly things can turn once they do. It suits a question about waiting on resources.
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
Shao Yaofu prays to Heaven (邵堯夫告天)
According to the account on Wikisource, Shao Yong of the Song dynasty studied widely, was praised by Master Cheng, and prayed with incense for rain for the people. He declined office when it was repeatedly offered.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/26, 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)
年來豐歉皆天數 / 自是今年旱較多 / 與子定期三日內 / 田疇霑足雨滂沱
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
年來豐歉皆天數 / 自是今年旱較多 / 與子定期三日內 / 田疇霑足雨滂沱
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 2: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 祇 for 自, apparently a variant reading.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.