Guan Yin lots · 觀音靈籤
Guan Yin lot 12
Adversity Passes, Ease Arrives · Wu Ji meets his teacher
上籤Upper Lot in the Hong Kong text
繁體中文
In one line
This lot describes a turn that is close but not finished, and it puts the weight on staying available while the turn completes.
The verse, line by line
否去泰來咫尺間
Blockage leaves and ease arrives, and the distance is short.
漸教君子出於山
Step by step the worthy one is drawn out of the hills.
若逢虎兔佳音信
Should the tiger or the rabbit bring word,
立志忙中事即閒
hold to the intention: inside the rush, the matter settles.
The Chinese is the Hong Kong published text. The English is a plain rendering written by kaucim.ai to carry the sense of each line; it is not an official or literary translation, and a classical verse supports more than one reading.
Hong Kong and Taiwan texts compared
| Line | Hong Kong | Taiwan |
|---|
| 1 | 否去泰來咫尺間 | 時臨否極泰當來 |
|---|
| 2 | 漸教君子出於山 | 抖擻從君出暗埃 |
|---|
| 3 | 若逢虎兔佳音信 | 若遇卯寅佳信至 |
|---|
| 4 | 立志忙中事即閒 | 管教立志事和諧 |
|---|
The two traditions carry different wording for all four lines of this lot, down past the level of individual characters. The Hong Kong text opens 否去泰來咫尺間; the Taiwan text opens 時臨否極泰當來, "when the time arrives, obstruction at its extreme turns to peace". The sense is close enough that the reading above holds for either, and the branches in line three survive the change: 虎兔 (tiger, rabbit) in Hong Kong appears as 卯寅 (rabbit, tiger) in Taiwan. The one line that shifts is the fourth, where Hong Kong settles the matter inside busyness (立志忙中事即閒) and Taiwan settles it into harmony (管教立志事和諧).
Compare the line on your own slip before applying a reading. Lot numbers match across the two traditions; individual characters do not always.
Wu Ji meets his teacher
Wu Ji is a woodcutter in the Investiture of the Gods who kills a man by accident and lives under sentence until Jiang Ziya takes him as a student. The point of the story in a lot book is the shape of the reversal: the situation that looked closed turned out to be the doorway, and it turned only because someone was willing to teach him and he was willing to be taught.
否 and 泰 in the first line are the names of two hexagrams in the Book of Changes, Obstruction and Peace, which stand next to each other in the received sequence. The phrase "blockage leaves and ease arrives" is the ordinary Chinese idiom for a bad period ending, and it carries that hexagram pair inside it.
Traditional palace assignment: Yin palace (宮位), one of the twelve branch positions the old lot books use to file each verse.
Reading lot 12
The first line says the change is near. The second says it is gradual, one step at a time, and that the person concerned is being drawn out. Nobody in the line is pushing. Those two claims together are the whole lot: near, but not instant, and not entirely yours to force.
The third line names the tiger and the rabbit. These are branches in the twelve-branch cycle, so traditionally they were read as timing markers, either the tiger and rabbit months or years, or people born under those signs. Treat that as the shape of the old reading. It is no use as a date to plan around, and what survives the translation is the instruction to stay reachable, because in this verse the news comes from outside.
The last line is the practical one, and it is the line the two traditions part on. It says the matter settles inside the rush, which reads as a warning against clearing your schedule to wait. If you are waiting on an answer, keep working; the verse does not describe a pause.
A verse can give you a frame for thinking about a situation. It cannot report what another person has decided, and it cannot confirm that a particular event will happen.
Questions about lot 12
Is Guan Yin lot 12 good or bad?
It is graded an Upper Lot. The verse describes a bad period ending, using the hexagram pair Obstruction and Peace, but it keeps the change one step away.
What do the tiger and rabbit mean in lot 12?
They are the third and fourth of the twelve earthly branches. Traditional interpreters read them as timing markers, either tiger and rabbit months or years, or people born under those signs, and the line treats them as where the news comes from, never as what the news is.
What does lot 12 say about waiting?
The last line places the resolution inside ordinary busyness. Practically, it argues against clearing the decks to wait for an answer, and for staying reachable while the answer arrives.
Text and sources
Chinese text checked against both traditions on 2026-07-25; English edition 2026-09-22. The verses are public-domain classical text. The English rendering, the comparison notes and the reading are written by kaucim.ai. kaucim.ai is independently developed and has no official affiliation with, or authorization from, any temple.
