The Geng-Zi Tai Sui: General Lu Mi

A blade and a midnight mouse

Geng is yang metal, a sword that cuts cleanly. Zi is midnight, when the Rat sees everything in the dark. A sharp blade guided by quiet knowledge strikes exactly where the real danger is.

General Lu Mi guards this year. People born in Geng-Zi years often keep a low profile, yet notice and know a great deal. In the moments that count, they are often the ones who make the difference.

Simple, and knowing

He dresses more simply than the other generals, in dark robes with a yellow cloak. His face is calm, as if he knows everything and simply hasn't said it.

He holds an open document, a record of what he has seen and a sign of the secrets he guards.

The man who wasn't there

According to legend, he was Lu Mi, an intelligence officer of the Tang dynasty whose name never appeared on any official document. His job required him not to exist.

Yet this invisible man warned frontier generals before enemy attacks, tipped off ministers to plots before they broke out, and quietly defused disasters that could have cost many lives. As far as the world knew, nothing had happened.

He never received a public reward, because his work could not be made public.

"That is enough"

In old age he wrote in a letter: "I did many things no one knows I did. But because of them, many people lived. That is enough."

Heaven named him the Tai Sui of the Geng-Zi year. An open book in his hand and quiet, watchful wisdom: that is his gift to everyone born in the Year of the Rat.