This post is specially dedicated to P. She requested to know before this but I was lazy to tell her then. So now I am finding some time to translate it, with the help of my Chinese-educated colleagues (to tell me the pin yin of some Chinese characters) and Google translator (to translate the Chinese characters into English). Few weeks back, I was caught in the middle of a major decision-making and I had actually resorted to ask for some hints from the temple. Judge me all u want but I did it anyway. I asked two questions, one for career, one for love. How do I do it?
First, take a container full of long sticks (made of either bamboo or plastic) with numbers engraved on them. Then squat down, and ask the questions silently and sincerely in your mind, then start to shake the containers. It takes time, but sooner or later a stick will fall out from the container. Pick it up. There is another red circular probe, with bottom surface being flat but the top surface being concaved upwards.
Just imagine something like a ‘pong piah’ biscuit, only that the probe was split into halves, so u get two half-circles. Hokkien called this as ‘buak pui’. U are supposed to pick it up, pray and ask whether this is the stick meant to answer your query, then throw it on the floor. If both show same surface, i.e. flat vs flat or concaved vs concaved, then it’s a NO. If it’s flat vs concaved, then it’s a YES. Hokkien called this ’seng pui’.
If yes, then only u memorise or jot down the number engraved on the stick. Some said that once u get a NO, then u mz reshake the container to get another stick while some said that u have 3 chances to ‘buak pui’, failing upon which u have to request for another stick. Luckily I got YES at the first throw for both queries I asked. Then proceed to the counter, recite the number and u will be given papers (hints, Chinese called them as ‘qian’) with the specific number u obtained. I got number 47 for career and 51 for love.
MY told me that different temple actually has different hints associated with different numbers. Hence, if u want to check out what the hint says from the Internet, u need to know which temple did u ask the hint from. Nowadays, everything also so hi-tech, can even check hints from Internet. Who would have thought of that back then? But I was lucky cos my sis and mom both knew how to interpret the hints.
Each hint will have a title on top which actually relates to a story. Hence, usually when u see the title, you would have known whether the hint is good or bad. Of course there is further explanation below the title as not everyone will know the story behind the title. China has lots of stories which dates back to at least few hundred years, mind you! It’s quite impossible for u to know all, even for the Chinese-eds, let alone for bananas or papayas like me.
Thus usually we will always read the explanation given below the title to further understand the nature of the hint. So to make it easy, it’s either u get a good hint or a bad hint.
For career, the hint title that I got was 姜女哭到长城。The explanation: 一重江水一重山， 此去崎岖路又艰，任是改求终不过，是非终久未能安。解曰：宅平病延，某难处讼不利。
This is the translation obtained from Google Translate which wasn’t perfect, but I believe one look at this translation, will tell that it’s a very bad omen: “Jiangnv cry to the Great Wall. A heavy weight of a mountain river, the rugged road is difficult to, any request is to change the end, however, not safe non-thy latter end. Solutions said: House ping disease extension, a certain difficulty of First Instance of the disadvantaged.”
Confused? From what I understand was that, there wil be many obstacles (explained by the water and the mountain to cross), paths which are hard to cross, and unhealthy gossips. P, pls correct me if I am wrong. U be my Mandarin teacher pls. When I got this hint, I was actually quite adamant to stay put with my decision despite the bad omen. But, when I still felt uneasy just the day before I was supposed to give the final answer, I broke down due to pressure and mom decided to ask for another hint for me. It was that hint which further strengthened my mind to reject the offer.
If the hint above was bad, this one is even worse: 龙虎昆深山。I didn’t have the explanation as the hint was with mom. But basically it says that “dragon and tiger are trapped in a mountain”. Now that’s a very bad omen. For Chinese, we always associate dragon and tiger with strength, mightiness and power. Entrapped in a mountain will portray that both these powerful animals are helpless. I still rmber one of the explanation which says “neither here nor there”. That is good enough for me to reject the offer adamantly. I am not a superstitious person but I do believe that we should have some faith or belief in something. It is this faith which keeps us going in times of adversity, along with other factors of course!
For love, it’s a total opposite. Meaning I got a very good hint: xi交葵na绣球。(sorry, I couldn’t find the word based on my colleague’s pronounciation, so I jz used the pin yin, easier). The explanation: 于今此景正当时，看看欲吐百花魁，若能遇得春色到，一洗清吉脱尘埃。 解曰：某望成百事吉，宅利婚就。
From Google Translate: “Today this scene is the time to see flowers Kui Yu Tu, if the event was Spring into a guitar off the dust cleared. Solutions said: a look into the Pepsi Kyrgyzstan, home to facilitate marriage.” I don’t know how to explain this sentence by sentence as I don’t even understand one bit of it. But suffice to know that is a super good hint for love.
‘Xiu qiu’ is actually related to wedding. If u watched old Chinese drama, u will see that the groom will usually wear black samfu with red trousers with a big red flower in the middle of his chest. That’s the xiu qiu. Also, there was this culture last time where bachelors will compete with each other to grab a rattan ball in order to win the heart of a lady. The lucky guy who managed to get hold of the ball will marry the lady.
Very good hint huh? Wuhoo, felt excited already! But… I am still wondering actually, hmm… where is my Prince Charming?
p/s: Melvin, if u are reading this, please take the trouble to explain it to me, via email. Thanks!
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