An aged lacquered bamboo cylinder of sticks on a dark table, incense smoke rising, a bamboo grove beyond the window

求签

Bamboo fortune sticks

One question. One stick.

Hold your question, shake the old cylinder, and read the stick that falls.

Begin

What it is

In folk temples across China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, people have asked questions this way for generations. You keep one question in mind and shake a bamboo cylinder until a single stick works its way out. Its number leads to a verse.

Our sixty sticks follow the sixty-step cycle of the old calendar, from 甲子 to 癸亥. Every verse was written for this house.

An old keeper in a dark cotton jacket holding the lacquered cylinder in his lap

Your guide

Old Yun

The old keeper of a small hall at the edge of a bamboo grove. 筠 is the smooth green skin of bamboo, and he has handled these sticks for so long that people started calling him by it. He is a character in our story.

Many temples rank their sticks from best to worst. Old Yun keeps no bad ones. His lowest grade is Quiet Wait, and if you draw it he pours you a cup of tea.

上吉: Bright: you can move
中吉: Favourable: go with it
小吉: Small Joy: bit by bit
中平: Even: keep to your days
静待: Quiet Wait: rest, then ask

First

What is your question about?

Choose one, then say your question to yourself once, in a full sentence. You do not need to write it down.