Wong Tai Sin lot 77 of 100
Gongye Chang goes to prison
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.
鳥語能通公冶長
南山有個虎拖羊
其身雖在於縲絏
到底非關自己殃
Gongye Chang could understand what the birds said.
On South Mountain a tiger has dragged off a sheep.
Though his body is in chains,
in the end the misfortune was none of his own doing.
What this lot says
A man is imprisoned for something that was not his fault. The verse says plainly that the blame lies elsewhere.
It is a middling lot. Read it as trouble that comes from outside you. It is no forecast about any real legal matter; for that, talk to a qualified lawyer.
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
Gongye Chang goes to prison (公冶長入獄)
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)
鳥語能通公冶長 / 南山有個虎拖羊 / 其身雖在於縲絏 / 到底非關自己殃
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
鳥語能通公冶長 / 南山有個虎拖羊 / 其身雖在于縲紲 / 到底非關自己殃
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
鳥語能通公冶長 / 南山有個虎馱羊 / 其身雖在於縲絏 / 到底非關自己殃
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 2, character 6: fortunesticks.org and luckeyes.com read 拖; andy.hk reads 馱. This is a different character.
- Line 3, character 5: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 於; luckeyes.com reads 于. This is the same character in a different written form.
- Line 3, character 7: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 絏; luckeyes.com reads 紲. This is the same character in a different written form.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.