Guan Di lot 53 of 100
A hard road, then a meeting
Lowest (下下, 己丙). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 己丙 is from manekineko.com.tw.
艱難險阻路蹊蹺
南鳥孤飛依北巢
今日貴人曾識面
相逢卻在夏秋交
The way is hard and dangerous, and the path is crooked.
A bird from the south flies alone and relies on a northern nest.
Today you have met a person of rank face to face.
You meet them at the turn between summer and autumn.
What this lot says
This is a lot about a hard road with a helpful meeting on it. The verse describes difficulty and isolation and then a person who can help.
The timing it names is late summer to early autumn. If you are far from home or from your usual support, this lot says an introduction is on its way.
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
Liu Bei marries into Sun Quan's family (劉玄德入贅孫權妹)
According to the account on Wikisource, Sun Quan offered his sister in marriage as a trick to hold Liu Bei, but Zhuge Liang foresaw it and Liu Bei returned with the bride. A well-known saying has it that the plotter lost both the lady and his troops.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/53, 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)
艱難險阻路蹊蹺 / 南鳥孤飛依北巢 / 今日貴人曾識面 / 相逢卻在夏秋交
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
艱難險阻路蹊蹺 / 南鳥孤飛依北巢 / 今日貴人曾識面 / 相逢卻在夏秋交
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Grade: the manekineko.com.tw page title gives 下下 but its sub-heading gives 上上.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.