Wong Tai Sin lot 82 of 100
Confucius strikes the chime-stone
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.
聖人擊磬在於衛
誰料過門有荷簣
嗟嘆有心挽道窮
可憐日月今將逝
The sage struck the chime-stone in the state of Wei.
Who would have thought a man carrying a basket would pass the gate?
He sighed that the player meant to save a Way that was failing.
Pity that the days and months are about to pass.
What this lot says
A teacher plays music with a purpose, and a passer-by hears in it someone who is trying to save the world. The verse adds a note of regret about time passing.
It is a middling lot about wanting to help and about the limits on what one person can change.
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
Confucius strikes the chime-stone (孔子擊磬)
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)
聖人擊磬在於衛 / 誰料過門有荷簣 / 嗟嘆有心挽道窮 / 可憐日月今將逝
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Luckeyes (算命眼, luckeyes.com)
聖人擊磬在于衛 / 誰料過門有荷簣 / 嗟嘆有心挽道窮 / 可憐日月今將逝
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Andy.hk (加賀風水)
聖人擊磬在於衛 / 誰料過門有荷簣 / 嗟嘆有心挽道窮 / 可憐日月今將逝
Retrieved 2026-11-09
Where the sources differ
- Line 1, character 6: fortunesticks.org and andy.hk read 於; luckeyes.com reads 于. This is the same character in a different written form.
English translation and commentary are by Cast & Chart.