Guan Yin lot 47 of 100
Flowers on brocade
Highest (上上). Grade from the related Goodfate edition. Grades differ between temples, and many Taiwanese temples print none.
錦上添花色更鮮
運來祿馬喜雙全
時人莫訝功名晚
一舉登科四海傳
Flowers added to brocade make the color brighter.
Luck comes, with stipend and horse, a double joy.
Let no one wonder that honor came so late.
One pass at the exam, and the news crosses the four seas.
What this lot says
Brocade is already beautiful, and flowers laid on it make it brighter. The verse describes good things arriving together, and it tells people not to be surprised when recognition comes late.
Two ideas sit side by side: success adds to what is already there, and the timing is its own. Someone who has kept working through a long wait has built the cloth the flowers land on.
If you are going for a promotion, an exam or a qualification later than your peers, this lot says age should not stop you. Put in your best effort and let others wonder.
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
Liang Hao passes the examination (梁灝登科)
Liang Hao placed first in the Song imperial examination in 985. Popular legend makes him 82 at the time, while official histories record a man in his twenties, so the lot's theme of late success rests on the legend.
Source: Chinese Wikipedia, 梁灝
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)
錦上添花色更鮮 / 運來祿馬喜雙全 / 時人莫訝功名晚 / 一舉登科四海傳
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Jiěqiān Gé (解籤閣)
錦上添花色更鮮 / 運來祿馬喜雙全 / 時人莫訝功名晚 / 一舉登科四海傳
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Goodfate (今日運勢), a related edition
錦上添花色愈鮮 / 運來祿馬喜雙全 / 時人莫恨功名晚 / 一舉登科四海傳
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Where the sources differ
- Line 1 reads 錦上添花色愈鮮 in the related Goodfate edition.
- Line 3 reads 時人莫恨功名晚 in the related Goodfate edition.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.