Walk into any working temple in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore — the kind where grandmothers outnumber tourists — and you will eventually hear it: a steady, hollow rattle, like dice in a cup the size of a rolled umbrella. Someone is shaking the fortune sticks. The practice is called 求签 (qiúqiān), "seeking a lot," and it is one of the oldest, most democratic forms of Chinese divination: no specialist required, no coin expertise, just you, a cylinder of numbered sticks, and a question you actually care about.
If the I Ching is the classical concert hall of Chinese divination, the fortune sticks are the folk stage — noisier, warmer, and much closer to daily life. Here is what actually happens, step by step, and how to take part without embarrassing yourself.
The setup: a cylinder, a heap of sticks, numbered lots
The equipment could not be simpler. A tall cylindrical cup holds a bundle of thin bamboo (or wooden) sticks, each marked with a number. Beside it, usually in racks or drawers, sit the printed lots: small paper sheets, one per number, each bearing a short verse — often four lines of classical-style verse — plus a terse verdict on its meaning. How many sticks? It depends on the temple — sets of sixty and of one hundred are both common, and some temples use other counts. The number is the temple's own tradition, and regulars know their temple's count the way card players know a deck.
The verses themselves deserve a word, because they are not what newcomers expect. They are deliberately oblique — images of travelers, magpies, farming seasons, scholars failing or passing examinations — rather than instructions. "The boat is moored under the cliff; do not hurry the sail." That is a real style of answer. The ambiguity is not a flaw; it is the interface. A verse that says nothing definite can be honestly matched against your actual situation by the only person who knows that situation: you.
The procedure, respectfully
The steps most temples follow, with local variation everywhere:
- Settle yourself first. Hold the incense you've lit, state your name and your question — silently is fine — and let the question become specific. One subject per draw; this is the same discipline the I Ching asks for.
- Kneel or stand before the altar, and shake the cylinder. Gently at first, then with intent, until one stick rises above the others and falls out (or juts out enough to take). The stick's number is your lot.
- Confirm the lot. Many temples keep two curved wooden blocks (筊杯, jiǎo bēi) for asking yes-no confirmation: drop the pair, and how they land — one flat side up and one down — signals assent. If the answer reads as no, the stick goes back and the shaking resumes. Visitors are welcome to watch this; if the blocks confuse you, a nearby regular will usually show you with great delight.
- Draw and read your printed verse. Take the paper sheet (or photograph the rack copy) matching your number. This is 解签 (jiěqiān) — "releasing the lot," the interpretation.
- Interpret with care. Larger temples have a counter where a reader — often a volunteer elder — will talk the verse through with you. Where there is no counter, the verse, your question, and some honesty will have to do it together.
What people ask, and what they get back
The questions are, overwhelmingly, the four great平民 subjects: health, work and exams, relationships and marriage, and whether-it's-safe-to-travel-this-year. What people get back is rarely a prediction with a date attached. It is more like a weather advisory written in verse: favorable, unfavorable, favorable-if-you-are-careful. Regulars treat a rough lot the way sailors treat a rough forecast — as information about how to sail, not a verdict that sinks the ship. A bad lot also comes with implied remedies (do good, be careful in a given month, come back after doing X) that keep the whole system oriented around conduct rather than fate.
And plenty of people leave the verse behind entirely. Watch the little stove or box where used lots are returned: an answer serves its moment, then goes back into the fire.
Etiquette for the curious visitor
- Dress and behave as you would in any active place of worship — shoulders covered, voice low, phones quiet.
- Ask before photographing people at prayer; the sticks and the racks are usually fine, faces are not.
- Don't treat it as a game. You can participate genuinely even as a non-believer — hold a real question, draw once, read honestly. What's disrespectful is drawing six times for entertainment while others wait to ask about a sick parent.
- The custom of "returning the favor" (还愿, huán yuàn) — coming back with an offering if a wish granted — varies by region and family; observe locally, ask gently, and feel no obligation.
- A small donation box sits near almost every stick station. Coins are plenty.
Our own stance, consistent across this site: treat any lot as cultural reflection rather than prediction — a mirror arranged by chance, not a window onto fate. The centuries-old verses survive because they are good mirrors: brief, unsentimental, and impossible to argue with until you've argued with yourself first.