Guan Yin lot 60 of 100
Carrying firewood to a fire
Lowest (下下). Grade from the related Goodfate edition. Grades differ between temples, and many Taiwanese temples print none.
抱薪救火火增烟
燒卻三千及大千
若問營謀併出入
不如收拾莫憂燃
Carry firewood to put out a fire, and the fire only smokes the more.
It burns three thousand worlds, and the great thousand too.
If you ask of plans and of comings and goings,
Better to clear things away and not fret at the burning.
What this lot says
Firewood is the wrong thing to bring to a fire, however good your intentions. The verse describes help that feeds the problem, and damage that spreads further each time someone adds to it.
Its advice is to stop. Put the plan down, tidy what you can and leave the flames alone for now.
In a heated argument at work or at home, the next message may be the firewood. Before you try another fix or another explanation, wait, then ask what has actually made things worse. A quieter response gives the situation room to burn itself down.
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 battle of Red Cliffs (赤壁鏖兵)
In the winter of 208 to 209, Huang Gai feigned surrender and sent burning ships on the wind into Cao Cao's fleet on the Yangtze, and Cao Cao's forces were routed. It is a large-scale picture of this lot's spreading fire.
Source: Wikipedia, Battle of Red Cliffs
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)
抱薪救火火增烟 / 燒卻三千及大千 / 若問營謀併出入 / 不如收拾莫憂燃
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Jiěqiān Gé (解籤閣)
抱薪救火火增烟 / 燒卻三千及大千 / 若問營謀併出入 / 不如收拾莫憂燃
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Goodfate (今日運勢), a related edition
抱薪救火火增煙 / 燒卻三千及大千 / 若問營謀并出入 / 不如收拾莫憂燃
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Where the sources differ
- Line 1 reads 抱薪救火火增煙 in the related Goodfate edition.
- Line 3 reads 若問營謀并出入 in the related Goodfate edition.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.