Guan Di lot 49 of 100
Close by, and far apart
Lowest (下下, 戊壬). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 戊壬 is from manekineko.com.tw.
彼此家居只一山
如何似隔鬼門關
日月如梭人易老
許多勞碌不如閒
Our homes are only one mountain apart.
Why does it seem we are divided by the Gate of Ghosts?
Days and months go like a shuttle and people age easily.
So much toil is not as good as leisure.
What this lot says
This is a lot about distance between people who live close. The verse says time passes quickly and that busy effort is not worth the lost closeness.
If you have been too busy to visit someone near you, it is a reminder to go.
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
Zhang Zifang disappears from view (張子房遁跡)
According to the account on Wikisource, Zhang Liang of the Han tried to avenge the fall of his state by attacking the First Emperor, helped the Han found its dynasty, and afterwards withdrew from public life to follow a hermit.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/49, 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)
彼此家居只一山 / 如何似隔鬼門關 / 日月如梭人易老 / 許多勞碌不如閒
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
彼此家居只一山 / 如何似隔鬼門關 / 日月如梭人易老 / 許多勞碌不如閒
Retrieved 2026-11-09
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.