Guan Di lot 63 of 100
Defeat in the past, still strong
Middling (中平, 庚丙). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 庚丙 is from manekineko.com.tw.
曩時敗北且圖南
筋力雖衰尚一堪
欲識生前君大數
前三三與後三三
In the past you were beaten, so now you plan for the south.
Though your strength has faded, you can still do this.
If you want to know the great number of your life,
it is three and three before, and three and three after.
What this lot says
This is a lot about a second try. The verse says that earlier setbacks have led you to a new direction, and that you are still equal to it.
The last line is a riddle about numbers. The commentary on Wikisource reads the threes as nines and a turn of fortune. We leave it as a puzzle and not an answer.
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
Yang Linggong strikes the Li Ling stele (楊令公撞李陵碑)
According to the account on Wikisource, Yang Ye of the Song dynasty was a famous general. In a novel version of the story, he was left without support by a jealous colleague, was trapped, and killed himself by striking his head on a stele. The account says histories record that he was captured and refused to eat.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/63, 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)
曩時敗北且圖南 / 筋力雖衰尚一堪 / 欲識生前君大數 / 前三三與後三三
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
曩時敗北且圖南 / 筋力雖衰尚一堪 / 欲識生前君大數 / 前三三與後三三
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Wikisource adds a bracketed gloss, (曩同昔), after the first character of line 2, which we left out of the verse.
- Line 1: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 征 for 敗, apparently a variant reading.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.