Wong Tai Sin lot 50 of 100
Wu Yuan leaves the pass
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.
記得當年伍子胥
潛奔難渡幸逢漁
欲將寶劍相持贈
大義交朋卻不辭
I remember Wu Zixu in those years.
He fled in secret and could not cross, until luckily he met a fisherman.
He wanted to give the fisherman his precious sword.
Yet between friends of great principle, he would not refuse.
What this lot says
A fugitive is helped across a river by a stranger and offers a sword in return. The verse is about help received at a critical point and about gratitude.
It is graded good. Read it as help arriving when you need it. The note with this lot on andy.hk says the fisherman turned the sword down, and draws from that a lesson about doing good without looking for payment.
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
Wu Yuan leaves the pass (伍員出關)
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)
記得當年伍子胥 / 潛奔難渡幸逢漁 / 欲將寶劍相持贈 / 大義交朋卻不辭
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
記得當年伍子胥 / 潛奔難渡幸逢漁 / 欲將寶劍相持贈 / 大義交朋卻不辭
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
記得當年伍子胥 / 潛奔難渡幸逢漁 / 欲將寶劍相持贈 / 大義交朋郤不辭
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 4, character 5: fortunesticks.org and luckeyes.com read 卻; andy.hk reads 郤. This is the same character in a different written form.
- Line 4, character 6: the temple's website (Sik Sik Yuen, taonet.siksikyuen.org.hk) reads 也 where the three sites read 不. That reading says the fisherman refused the sword, which is how the note on andy.hk tells the story.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.