The Ji-Mao Tai Sui: General Long Zhong

A rabbit in a spring meadow

Ji is soft, rich soil that feeds everything without asking for anything. Mao is the rabbit in spring, light on its feet in the morning mist. Good soil makes the grass grow, and the rabbit walks there calmly.

General Long Zhong guards this year. People born in Ji-Mao years often sense how others feel before they say a word, listen well, and build bridges between people in a gentle but principled way.

Someone you could tell a secret

He wears a black hat edged with a fine gold line. His face is fine and calm, with clear, kind eyes, the kind you can tell a secret to without worrying.

He wears a bright red robe with a green sash and a yellow cloak, like a watercolor of a spring garden. At his side stands a red staff with a silk tassel that sways in the wind.

A school outside the palace walls

According to legend, he was Long Zhong, a musician at the Tang court who was also a fine calligrapher and poet. He cared most about passing culture on to ordinary people.

After many years at court, he asked the emperor to let him leave and teach. He opened a school outside Chang'an and took in anyone, rich or poor. Fees were whatever you could pay, and if you could not pay, you could help with the work instead.

At its peak there were more than a hundred students in music, calligraphy and poetry. They went on to become teachers, storytellers and calligraphers, and some collected folk songs into books.

The peach tree

In old age he planted a peach tree in the school yard. "The people I taught are this tree's peaches," he said. "When I'm gone, the tree and the peaches will still be here. That's enough."

Heaven named him the Tai Sui of the Ji-Mao year. A tasseled staff at his side and a gentle, gifted heart: that is his gift to everyone born in the Year of the Rabbit.