A young man named Wei Gu, traveling through Songcheng, saw an old man sitting under the moonlight, reading a book he could not recognize. Beside him lay a red cord.
"What book is that?" Wei Gu asked. "The book of marriages," the old man replied. "Every marriage in the world is recorded here."
"And the red cord?" "I tie it to the feet of those who are destined to be together. Once tied, no distance, no enmity, no poverty can keep them apart. The cord cannot be broken."
Wei Gu asked: "Who is my destined wife?" The old man pointed to a blind woman carrying a baby girl in the marketplace. "That child."
Wei Gu was horrified — the baby was ugly and poor. He sent a servant to stab the girl. The servant wounded her between the eyebrows and fled.
Fourteen years later, Wei Gu married a beautiful woman from a noble family. She always wore a small flower between her eyebrows. He asked why. She said: "As a baby, I was stabbed in the marketplace. The scar remains."
韦固少未娶，旅次宋城，遇异人，倚囊坐，向月检书。固步觇之，不识其字。问之，曰：「此幽冥之书，天下婚牍耳。」固问：「囊中何物？」曰：「赤绳子，以系夫妇之足。虽仇敌之家，贫贱悬隔，天涯从宦，吴楚异乡，此绳一系，终不可逭。」
韦固少未娶，旅次宋城，遇异人，倚囊坐，向月检书。固步觇之，不识其字。问之，曰：「此幽冥之书，天下婚牍耳。」固问：「囊中何物？」曰：「赤绳子，以系夫妇之足。虽仇敌之家，贫贱悬隔，天涯从宦，吴楚异乡，此绳一系，终不可逭。」
Reflection & Analysis · 寓意解读
Core Wisdom
You cannot break the red cord. The connections that are meant for you will find you — through years, through wounds, through all your attempts to escape them.
The story of the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人) is one of the most beloved in Chinese folklore. The red cord has become the Chinese symbol of destined love — the idea that certain connections are fated and cannot be avoided.
Wei Gu's attempt to murder his destiny is both horrifying and darkly comic. He stabbed a baby — and married her fourteen years later. The universe's sense of irony is perfect. The scar between her eyebrows was the proof that the cord held, even through violence.