Lu Ban Fells the Timber

Lu Ban lived around 500 BC and is the patron saint of Chinese carpenters, builders, and craftsmen. Think of him as China's Leonardo da Vinci of woodwork — he supposedly invented the saw after cutting his hand on a sharp blade of grass, designed the carpenter's square, and built mechanical wooden birds that could fly. Even today, construction workers in Hong Kong still burn incense to him before starting big projects.

The poem here points to a quiet tragedy. Buffalo Mountain is covered in magnificent trees — straight, tall, perfect raw material. But there are no axes to fell them, and even if you had the timber, no measuring rules to shape it properly. Great material, no tools. Or sometimes, tools without skill. Lu Ban himself would have wept.

For a Western reader, the closest image might be a master sculptor handed a flawless block of marble, but his chisels are missing. The potential is real. The execution gap is also real. This sign isn't about whether the trees are good. It's asking whether you've actually picked up the right instruments to shape what you've been given.

On wealth, this stick lands in the middle. Not bad luck — money will come in, money will go out, and the year roughly balances. The real conversation is about why your finances feel stuck even when nothing dramatic is going wrong.

Look at the image again. The trees on Buffalo Mountain are gorgeous. The problem is the missing axe and the missing ruler. Translated into a money relationship: you probably have more raw capability than your bank balance reflects. Skills, contacts, a half-built side project, a price you've been afraid to raise. The timber is there. You haven't shaped it.

We see this constantly with readers in their thirties. Take Marcus, a 34-year-old UX designer we spoke with in Sheung Wan. He's talented, has a steady salary, saves a bit each month. But he's been quietly resentful for two years because he undercharges freelance clients by roughly half the market rate. He knows. He just hasn't touched the conversation. That's Lu Ban without his ruler.

This sign is gently blocking the speculative door. Any shortcut that promises fast money this year — a friend's tip, a sudden opportunity that needs an answer by Friday, a side bet dressed up as a sure thing — will leak more than it brings in. The stick wants you on earned income. Boring, patient, legitimate earned income.

Our take: the trap for Average sticks is spending to feel okay about the stuck feeling. New gadgets, upgraded flights, small luxuries that soothe the frustration of under-shaping your real work. Notice if you're buying mood relief. That's the slow leak here.

Also worth checking honestly — are you hoarding out of anxiety, or spending out of resentment? Both patterns show up under this stick. Neither reflects your actual earning power. The money question this year isn't how much flows in. It's whether you're willing to pick up the tools you already own and finally measure, cut, and finish something.

Before the summer heat peaks, do one thing: write down the price you're currently charging for your main skill, and the price you believe it's actually worth. Sit with the gap. That gap is your axe.

Between now and autumn, close one loose end you've been avoiding — an unsent invoice, a renegotiation, a subscription drain, a client boundary. One per month is enough.

Guard your core income. This isn't the year to quit the stable thing for the exciting thing. If a shortcut opportunity appears with urgency attached, give it a full week before you answer. Most will dissolve on their own.

By next lunar new year, you want to look back and see that you sharpened tools, not chased trees.