Wong Tai Sin lot 40 of 100
Boya smashes his zither
Lowest (下下). 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.
人世知音能有幾
碎琴都為子期亡
墳前灑盡千行淚
隔別陰陽各一方
In the human world, how many people really understand your music?
He smashed the zither because Ziqi had died.
Before the grave he shed a thousand lines of tears.
The living and the dead are parted, each on one side.
What this lot says
The verse is about the loss of the one friend who understood. The musician breaks his instrument rather than play for anyone else.
It is graded lowest. Read it as a lot of grief and of a loss that cannot be mended, and as a prompt to value the people who understand you while you can.
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
Boya smashes his zither (伯牙碎琴)
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)
人世知音能有幾 / 碎琴都為子期亡 / 墳前灑盡千行淚 / 隔別陰陽各一方
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
人世知音能有幾 / 碎琴都為子期亡 / 墳前洒盡千行淚 / 隔別陰陽各一方
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
人世知音能有幾 / 碎琴都為子期亡 / 墳前灑盡千行淚 / 隔別陰陽各一方
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 3, character 3: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 灑; luckeyes.com reads 洒. This is the same character in a different written form.
- The allusion in the lot title: fortunesticks.org names it 伯牙碎琴; luckeyes.com names it 伯才碎琴; andy.hk names it 俞伯牙碎琴.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.