Tang dynasty painting of courtiers gathered around a low table with three wooden dice in a lantern-lit Luoyang hall

Ming

Ming Chongyan’s
Abacus Ledger

Do you believe big money will come at least once?
Three wooden dice reveal your abacus.

The abacus is the board where money is counted.

  • Anyone who believes a windfall will come at least once,
  • Anyone lying awake weighing whether to put money in or pull it back,
  • Anyone asking whether now is the time to expand the board or fold it.

  1. First Round

    Tang Dynasty under Emperor Gaozong, Eastern Capital Luoyang

    Ming Chongyan was the Daoist master
    kept close by the Emperor and Empress.

    Tang dynasty painting of Daoist master Ming Chongyan in crimson robes resting a finger on three wooden dice while officials watch in awe

  2. Second Round

    Word spread through the palace that he commanded spirits,
    and the Emperor gave him office by the throne.

    Later tales say that when he threw ordinary dice at gaming tables,
    whatever number he called came up.

    Yet when reading another’s fortune, he did otherwise.
    He handed over his own three carved wooden fortune dice for the guest to throw.

  3. Third Round

    Instead of numbers, the wooden dice bore carved auspicious emblems.
    In his abacus ledger he wrote only three lines: the emblems thrown, this year’s roll, and when to move.

  4. Fourth Round

    Even before the Emperor, he refused to flatter
    the Crown Prince’s vessel.

    So bluntly that many suspected those words cost him his life.

    Over any board, he delivered only one of three verdicts.

    • “A Big Roll.”
    • “A Half Roll.”
    • “An Empty Roll.”

  5. In 679, he fell to a bandit’s blade on a night road,
    and the killer was never caught.

    On the final leaf of the abacus ledger he left behind,
    only the three empty places for the dice remain drawn.

    “Those three places—today,
    let your own hand fill them.”