Cast & Chart

Guan Yin lot 38 of 100

Cloud across the mirror moon

Lowest (下下). Grade from the related Goodfate edition. Grades differ between temples, and many Taiwanese temples print none.

鏡月當空出匣時

剎那雲霧暗迷離

寬心守待浮雲散

更改相宜可望為

A moon like a mirror drawn from its case hangs high.

In an instant cloud and mist blur it dark.

Ease your heart and wait for the drifting cloud to part.

Change what should change, and you may hope to act.

What this lot says

A moon as bright as a polished mirror is dimmed by cloud in an instant. Its light is still there, and clouds drift.

The verse gives two instructions. Keep your heart easy while you wait, and change what needs changing. Hoping for a better time works only alongside an honest adjustment.

If a plan has suddenly gone dark, a job offer has stalled or a relationship has turned confusing, hold off on big conclusions for now. Ask what you would do differently if you had the chance again, and make that change while the cloud passes. Progress may then become possible.

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

He Wenxiu meets disaster (何文秀遇難)

He Wenxiu is the hero of a Yue opera drawn from a Ming play: his family is ruined by a treacherous minister and he is jailed on a false charge, but he later passes the examinations and is reunited with the woman he loves. The story is fiction, and it suits a lot about waiting for cloud to clear.

Source: Chinese Wikipedia, 何文秀

Where this text comes from

This verse is a traditional temple text with no known author. No single original edition is known and wording differs between temples, so we compare named witnesses and record where they differ.

Míguāng (覓光) (the text shown above)

鏡月當空出匣時 / 剎那雲霧暗迷離 / 寬心守待浮雲散 / 更改相宜可望為

Retrieved 2026-11-08

Jiěqiān Gé (解籤閣)

鏡月當空出匣時 / 剎那雲霧暗迷離 / 寬心守待浮雲散 / 更改相宜可望為

Retrieved 2026-11-08

Goodfate (今日運勢), a related edition

鏡月當空出匣時 / 刹那雲霧暗昏迷 / 寬心守時浮雲散 / 更改相宜可望為

Retrieved 2026-11-08

Where the sources differ

  • Line 2 reads 刹那雲霧暗昏迷 in the related Goodfate edition.
  • Line 3 reads 寬心守時浮雲散 in the related Goodfate edition.

English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.