Guan Di lot 97 of 100
Success at fifty
Highest (上上, 癸庚). Grades differ between editions, and many Taiwanese temples print none. Shown as Wikisource gives it. Wikisource prints no stem pair for this lot, so 癸庚 is from manekineko.com.tw.
五十功名心已灰
那知富貴逼人來
更行好事存方寸
壽比岡陵位鼎台
At fifty, your heart has gone cold for fame.
Who knew wealth and rank would press toward you?
Go on doing good deeds and keep them in your heart,
and your years will match the hills and your place will be among the high officials.
What this lot says
This is a lot about a late turn of fortune. The verse says that you have given up hope and that success arrives anyway.
Its last two lines set a condition: keep doing good. It is a lot for someone who thinks it is too late.
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
Zhu Maichen at fifty (買臣五十富貴；朱買臣分妻)
According to the account on Wikisource, Zhu Maichen of the Han dynasty sold firewood and recited books as he walked, and his wife left him. At fifty he became governor of Kuaiji. In the folk version, his wife asked to return and he poured a bucket of water on the ground and told her to gather it back up.
Source: Wikisource, 關聖帝君靈籤/97, 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)
五十功名心已灰 / 那知富貴逼人來 / 更行好事存方寸 / 壽比岡陵位鼎台
Retrieved 2026-11-09. Transcription licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
manekineko.com.tw (富貴轉運站)
五十功名心已灰 / 那知富貴逼人來 / 更行好事存方寸 / 壽比岡陵位鼎台
Retrieved 2026-11-09
English translation, meaning and story summaries are by Cast & Chart.