A distressed individual, faced with the grave illness of their father, sought tirelessly for a remedy, only to find their efforts fruitless. Consumed by anxiety, they resorted to composing a plea to the venerable diviner, Wang Long, in hopes of divine intervention.
Wang Long’s ominous response was stark: the addition of a character to the plea would hasten the transformation of the petitioner’s father into a corpse, suggesting a grim prognosis of survival until the morrow.
Undeterred, the petitioner penned another character, clinging to the slender hope of securing a chance at life for their ailing parent.
To their dismay, Wang Long’s interpretation was chillingly succinct: the character denoting “life” was overshadowed by the presence of “ox” above and “soil” below. In the realm of ailment, earth symbolizes an inauspicious omen, compounded by the association of the ox with misfortune. Wang Long’s conclusion was unequivocal: the impending demise of the petitioner’s father was all but certain on the morrow, marked by the ill-fated alignment of celestial forces.
With a heavy heart, the petitioner was urged to hasten back to attend to the somber preparations awaiting them in anticipation of their father’s inevitable passing. Upon hearing this, he wept bitterly, and the next day his father indeed passed away due to illness.
