Wong Tai Sin lot 13 of 100
Meng Haoran looks for plum blossom
Middling (中平). Grade as given on the named web transcriptions. We have not seen it on a temple printing, and we do not know that the temple prints one.
嶺南初放一枝梅
片片晶瑩入酒杯
卻遇騎驢人早至
兒童背負占春魁
On the southern ridge the first plum branch has opened.
Petal by petal, clear as crystal, they fall into the wine cup.
But a rider on a donkey had already arrived.
The children carried the first blossom of spring off on their backs.
What this lot says
You go looking for the first plum blossom and find someone got there first. The wine cup and the crystal petals are lovely, but the prize is already taken.
As a prompt, the verse is about timing and being a step late. It is graded as middling: pleasant, not a loss, and not what you hoped for.
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
Meng Haoran looks for plum blossom (孟浩然尋梅)
A traditional allusion named with this lot. We have not traced the story to a source we could read, so we do not retell it here.
Where this text comes from
This verse is a traditional temple text with no known author, here read from named web transcriptions. We compared the sites character by character and show every difference. We could not establish whether the sites are independent of one another, and we have not read a temple printing.
Fortune Sticks (fortunesticks.org) (the text shown above)
嶺南初放一枝梅 / 片片晶瑩入酒杯 / 卻遇騎驢人早至 / 兒童背負占春魁
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
嶺南初放一枝梅 / 片片晶瑩入酒杯 / 卻遇騎驢人早至 / 如意背負占春魁
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
嶺南初放一枝梅 / 片片晶瑩入酒杯 / 卻遇騎驢人早至 / 兒童背負占春魁
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 4, character 1: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 兒; luckeyes.com reads 如. This is a different character.
- Line 4, character 2: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 童; luckeyes.com reads 意. This is a different character.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.