Yue Lao Oracle Lot 40 · Fair

踏破鐵鞋無覓處，得來全不費功夫。 You wear out iron shoes searching everywhere in vain, then it falls into your hands without the slightest effort.

The lot

Background: what the original says

Something you could not find no matter where you looked turns up by chance.

"Wear out iron shoes searching everywhere, then find it without the slightest effort" is a common Chinese saying. The Qing scholar Zhai Hao,, traced it to a poem by Xia Yuanding of the Southern Song dynasty; the Yuan playwright Ma Zhiyuan's drama Yueyang Tower has straw sandals instead of iron shoes.

Its most romantic appearance is in The Red Duster (Hongfu ji) by Zhang Fengyi. When the Chen dynasty fell, Princess Lechang and her husband Xu Deyan each kept half of a bronze mirror as a token for finding each other. The princess ended up in the household of the minister Yang Su, who sent a servant to sell her half. The servant returns reciting these lines: a scholar wept at the sight of the mirror, and he was her husband. Yang Su let the couple reunite, the origin of the idiom "the broken mirror made whole." The lot uses the saying for a meeting that comes when the searching stops.

What it means

Searching hard does not always pay off; the right connection may appear when you least expect it.

Reminder: Do not keep looking in the same place, and do not try too hard.

This is a plain reading of the words and their source. How it applies to your own question is best settled with the interpreter at the temple where you drew it.

How to ask Yue Lao for a lot

1. Yue Lao, the Old Man under the Moon, usually has a side shrine inside a larger temple, such as a City God temple or a Mazu temple. Follow the temple's route: pay respects to the main deity first, then go to Yue Lao.
2. Tell Yue Lao your name, birth date and address, describe where you are in love right now, and state the one question you want to ask (for example, "Will this relationship last?" or "When will I meet someone?").
3. Cast the moon blocks (jiaobei, two crescent-shaped wooden blocks) to ask whether you may draw. One face up and one face down means yes; then pull one stick and cast again to confirm it. Many temples ask for three yeses in a row; if not, draw again.
4. Collect the slip with the matching number. Yue Lao lots are quotations from old books, so the meaning often depends on the original passage. If it is unclear, ask the temple's interpreter.

Ask about one thing at a time; the more specific the question, the easier the lot is to apply. Yue Lao lots are for love and marriage only; for other matters, use the temple's general fortune poems.

Common misunderstandings

Previous: Lot 39; next: Lot 41.