Guan Di lot 89 of 100
Sing at the cup, wait for the time
Middling (中平, 壬壬). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 壬壬 is from manekineko.com.tw.
樽前無事且高歌
時未來時奈若何
白馬渡江嘶日暮
虎頭城裏看巍峨
Over the cup with nothing to do, sing aloud.
What can you do when your time has not yet come?
A white horse crosses the river and neighs at dusk.
In the tiger-head city, look up at the tall towers.
What this lot says
This is a lot about waiting with good humour. The verse says to enjoy the moment and to accept that the time has not yet come.
Its last two lines picture a horse at dusk and a distant city. It suits a question about a goal that is still some way off.
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
Ban Chao returns through Jade Gate Pass (班超歸玉門關)
According to the account on Wikisource, Ban Chao of the Han dynasty gave up a clerk's work to seek his fortune abroad, helped bring more than fifty states into the Han sphere and was made a marquis. In old age he asked to come home, entered Jade Gate Pass, and died soon after reaching the capital.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/89, 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)
樽前無事且高歌 / 時未來時奈若何 / 白馬渡江嘶日暮 / 虎頭城裏看巍峨
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
樽前無事且高歌 / 時未來時奈若何 / 白馬渡江嘶日暮 / 虎頭城裏看巍峨
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 2: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 來兮 for 來時, apparently a variant reading.
- Line 3: a note in Wikisource's transcription gives 雖 for 嘶, apparently a variant reading.
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.