Guan Di lot 50 of 100
Peace at home
Above middling (上平, 戊癸). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 戊癸 is from manekineko.com.tw.
人說今年勝舊年
也須步多要周旋
一家和氣多生福
萋菲讒言莫聽偏
They say this year is better than the last.
Still, you must take care with each step.
A family at peace together brings more good fortune.
Do not listen to gossip that wanders far from the truth.
What this lot says
This is a lot about harmony. The verse admits that things look better this year, but it asks you to be careful with every step, and to keep peace at home.
Its last line warns against listening to slander. If rumours are about, the lot says keep your own counsel.
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
Su Dongpo urges the people (蘇東坡勸民)
According to the account on Wikisource, Su Shi of the Song dynasty, as governor of Hangzhou in a famine year, urged cheaper grain sales, opened the granaries and sent doctors to treat the sick. When a man who sold fans could not pay his debt, Su painted his fans so they sold for a high price.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/50, 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)
人說今年勝舊年 / 也須步多要周旋 / 一家和氣多生福 / 萋菲讒言莫聽偏
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
人說今年勝舊年 / 也須步多要周旋 / 一家和氣多生福 / 萋菲讒言莫聽偏
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Grade: Wikisource gives 上平 and manekineko.com.tw gives 上吉. We show the Wikisource grade.
- Line 1: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 去 for 舊, apparently a variant reading.
- Line 2: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 週 for 周, apparently a variant reading.
- Wikisource prints 蘇東波 in the story line, which we read as 蘇東坡 (Su Dongpo).
- Line 2 reads 也須步多要周旋 in both witnesses. The reading is unusual, and since the two sites may not be independent of each other, their agreement is weak evidence. Our translation follows the apparent sense, to take care at each step.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.