Wong Tai Sin lot 39 of 100
Yi and Qi give up the state
Good (中吉). 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.
夷齊不忍食周粟
兄弟心甘採蕨餐
讓國名應垂萬古
可憐餓倒首陽山
Bo Yi and Shu Qi could not bear to eat Zhou grain.
The two brothers gladly picked bracken to eat.
Their giving up of the state deserves to be remembered for ten thousand ages.
Pity that they starved on Shouyang Mountain.
What this lot says
Two brothers refuse a position on principle and live on wild plants. The verse honours the choice and also mourns its cost.
It is a lot of principle with a price. Fair standing is promised in memory only, and the verse says so plainly.
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
Yi and Qi give up the state (夷齊讓國)
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)
夷齊不忍食周粟 / 兄弟心甘採蕨餐 / 讓國名應垂萬古 / 可憐餓倒首陽山
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
夷齊不忍食周粟 / 兄弟心甘采蕨餐 / 讓國名應垂萬古 / 可憐餓倒首陽山
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
夷齊不忍食周粟 / 兄弟心甘採蕨餐 / 讓國名應垂萬古 / 可憐餓倒首陽山
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 2, character 5: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 採; luckeyes.com reads 采. This is the same character in a different written form.
- The grade: the temple's website (Sik Sik Yuen, taonet.siksikyuen.org.hk) gives 中平 (Middling).
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.