Wong Tai Sin lot 26 of 100
Xu Shu goes home
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.
花影遲遲侵砌上
遙知月鏡掛長空
忽聞鶴淚聲淒切
早買歸舟返里中
Flower shadows creep slowly up the steps.
From far off I know the moon hangs like a mirror in the long sky.
Suddenly I hear a crane weeping, a bitter, piercing sound.
I should soon buy a boat and go back to my village.
What this lot says
A slow evening scene turns sad with the crane's cry, and the speaker decides to head home.
It is a middling lot about knowing when to withdraw. It does not call the retreat a failure, only the sensible next step.
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
Xu Shu goes home (徐庶歸家)
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)
花影遲遲侵砌上 / 遙知月鏡掛長空 / 忽聞鶴淚聲淒切 / 早買歸舟返里中
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
花彩遲遲侵砌上 / 遙知月鏡挂長空 / 忽聞鶴唳聲淒切 / 早買歸舟返里中
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
花影遲遲侵砌上 / 遙知月鏡掛長空 / 忽聞鶴淚聲淒切 / 早買歸舟返里中
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 1, character 2: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 影; luckeyes.com reads 彩. This is a different character.
- Line 2, character 5: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 掛; luckeyes.com reads 挂. This is the same character in a different written form.
- Line 3, character 4: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 淚; luckeyes.com reads 唳. This is a different character.
- The allusion in the lot title: fortunesticks.org and luckeyes.com name it 徐庶歸家; andy.hk names it 孫夫人歸國.
- The allusion in the lot title: the temple's website (Sik Sik Yuen, taonet.siksikyuen.org.hk) names it 水月鏡花.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.