The Physician Ji Ping
Inauspicious
The poem
Original: 出入求谋事宜迟 / 只恐闲愁惹是非 / 如鸟飞入罗网内 / 脱困能有几多时
The story
The physician Ji Ping, angered that Cao Cao held the emperor as a puppet, resolved to rid the Han of him. When Cao Cao's headaches brought him to prescribe, he put poison in the medicine and was discovered. Under torture he refused to submit, cursed Cao Cao to his face, and finally dashed his own head against a stone pillar in the hall.
What it means
The image is keeping to the old and taking what comes, and matters do not go as you wish. Everything undertaken should be delayed, since idle worry is what produces the quarrel. Once you are a bird inside the net there is very little time to work with. The danger is not an attack from outside but your own precipitate action. Hold still, wait for the right person, let what must be slow be slow, and do not let anger close the door behind you.
By area of life
Wealth
Money is being lost. Anything put in now is trapped, so protect the capital and watch how matters actually develop.
Love
The attachment will not last, and holding it together by force only produces more gossip and recrimination in the end.
Work
Whatever you mean to begin should wait for the season. If you are already committed, escape will take a long time.
Health
The illness is like a closing net. Choose the physician carefully and do not stake everything on any one attempt.
Travel
Conditions for going far are not right at present. Wait a good while longer before making any firm arrangements at all.
Advice
Before the net closes, stop flying toward it.