Cast & Chart

Guan Di lot 68 of 100

Pearls south, salt north

Middling (中平, 庚辛). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 庚辛 is from manekineko.com.tw.

南販珍珠北販鹽

年來幾倍貨財添

勸君止此求田舍

心欲多時何日厭

You trade pearls in the south and salt in the north.

In recent years your goods and wealth have grown several times over.

I urge you to stop here and look for a farm and a house.

When the heart wants more, when will it ever be satisfied?

What this lot says

This is a lot about enough. The verse admits you have done well in trade and asks when you will stop wanting more.

It suggests turning gains into something steady. It is not financial advice, only a reminder to decide in advance what enough looks like. For a real financial decision, speak to a qualified adviser.

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

The Great King Qian sells salt (錢大王販鹽)

According to the account on Wikisource, Qian Liu of the Tang dynasty made his living selling salt when he was poor. He later rose through military service, became a regional ruler, and his grandson gave the territory to the Song.

Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/68, 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)

南販珍珠北販鹽 / 年來幾倍貨財添 / 勸君止此求田舍 / 心欲多時何日厭

Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)

南販珍珠北販鹽 / 年來幾倍偵財掭 / 勸君止此求田舍 / 心欲多時何日厭

Retrieved 2026-11-09

Where the sources differ

  • Line 2 reads 年來幾倍貨財添 in Wikisource and 年來幾倍偵財掭 on manekineko.com.tw. We show the Wikisource reading.

English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.