Guan Di lot 58 of 100
Three inches of tongue
Good (上吉, 己辛). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 己辛 is from manekineko.com.tw.
蘇秦三寸足平生
富貴功名在此行
更好修為陰騭事
前程萬里自通亨
Su Qin's whole life rested on three inches of tongue.
Wealth and fame were on this journey.
Even better, do hidden good deeds.
Then the road ahead of ten thousand miles will be clear and open.
What this lot says
This is a lot about persuasion and reputation. The verse says your words are your strength and that your standing is on the line.
It adds a quiet condition, doing good that no one sees. If you are about to make a case, this lot says make it, and be generous in private as well.
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 Qin carries a sword on his back (蘇秦背劍)
According to the account on Wikisource, after Su Qin failed to persuade Qin, he went home and studied hard. He then persuaded the ruler of Zhao to unite the states against Qin and was given the seals of office of six states.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/58, 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)
蘇秦三寸足平生 / 富貴功名在此行 / 更好修為陰騭事 / 前程萬里自通亨
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
蘇秦三寸足平生 / 富貴功名在此行 / 更好修為陰騭事 / 前程萬里自通亨
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 4: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 有 for 自, apparently a variant reading.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.