Liang Hao Passes the Examination
Auspicious
The poem
Original: 锦上添花色愈鲜 / 运来禄马喜双全 / 时人莫恨功名晚 / 一举登科四海传
The story
Liang Hao of Yuncheng sat the imperial examinations year after year through three successive dynasties and failed every time. He swore he would not rest until he took first place. He kept sitting them, and at the age of eighty-two he was at last placed first in the empire. People laughed that it had taken so long; he answered that first place is first place.
What it means
The image is adding flowers to brocade: great good fortune. One more blossom on the embroidery makes the colour brighter still, and when the run turns, rank and income arrive together. The verse carries a particular consolation: do not resent that success is late. Your good thing is coming, only later than other people's, and lateness here is not absence but accumulation, so that it can be given to you all at once. The old is renewed, the moment arrives, the material is ready, and your life's ambition is fulfilled.
By area of life
Wealth
Gain is favoured, though deals meet some resistance. Money needs long cultivation; sit still with it and the middle years bring a large harvest.
Love
Do not rush. A fine match often appears after thirty, but if the flower is already in front of you, pick it rather than waiting for it to fall.
Work
You will search long and hard before you find the work, and the search will not be wasted. Years of building reputation produce a rich late harvest.
Health
Chronic conditions need slow treatment and short courses achieve little. An easy mind and fewer worries are themselves good medicine.
Travel
Building something far away means laying foundations and working at it for years. Real success comes in your middle years, so plan for length rather than speed.
Advice
Your success is not absent, only late and therefore larger, so stop measuring yourself by other people's clocks.