Wong Tai Sin lot 64 of 100
Meng Zhifan covers the retreat
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.
奔殿須知上古人
入門策馬不誇能
敗師誰肯甘從後
託謂鳴驄畏苦辛
Leading the rear in retreat: you should know this of the ancients.
At the gate he whipped his horse on, without boasting of what he had done.
After a defeat, who would gladly stay at the back?
He made the excuse that his horse was afraid of the hardship.
What this lot says
A man takes the dangerous position at the rear of a defeated army, and then plays it down with a joke about his horse.
It reads as a good lot about quiet courage and about not claiming credit.
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 Zhifan covers the retreat (孟之反殿師)
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)
奔殿須知上古人 / 入門策馬不誇能 / 敗師誰肯甘從後 / 託謂鳴驄畏苦辛
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
奔殿須知上古人 / 入門策馬不夸能 / 敗師誰肯甘從後 / 托謂鳴馬畏苦辛
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
奔殿須知上古人 / 入門策馬不誇能 / 敗師誰肯甘從後 / 託謂鳴驄畏苦辛
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 2, character 6: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 誇; luckeyes.com reads 夸. This is the same character in a different written form.
- Line 4, character 1: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 託; luckeyes.com reads 托. This is the same character in a different written form.
- Line 4, character 4: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 驄; luckeyes.com reads 馬. This is a different character.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.