Wong Tai Sin lot 8 of 100
The cuckoo takes the magpie's nest
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.
鳴鳩爭奪鵲巢居
賓主參差意不舒
滿嶺喬松蘿蔦附
且猜詩語是何如
The cuckoo fights to take over the magpie's nest.
Guest and host are mismatched, and nobody is at ease.
The ridge is full of tall pines wrapped in creepers.
Try to guess what this poem is saying.
What this lot says
The picture is of a stronger party moving into a place that was built by another, so that guest and host are out of order. The graded verdict on this lot is the lowest.
The last line leaves the reading open. As a prompt, it asks where you may be occupying, or yielding, a place that is not settled between the people involved.
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
The cuckoo takes the magpie's nest (鳩佔鵲巢)
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)
鳴鳩爭奪鵲巢居 / 賓主參差意不舒 / 滿嶺喬松蘿蔦附 / 且猜詩語是何如
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
鳴鳩爭奪鵲巢居 / 賓主參差意不舒 / 滿嶺喬松蘿蔦附 / 且猜詩語是何如
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
鳴鳩爭奪鵲巢居 / 賓主參差意不舒 / 滿嶺喬松蘿蔦附 / 且猜詩語是何如
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- The allusion in the lot title: fortunesticks.org names it 鳩佔鵲巢; luckeyes.com names it 崔子弒父; andy.hk names it 崔子弒齊君.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.