The Wu-Shen Tai Sui: General Xu Hao

A mountain and a monkey

Wu is yang earth, a mountain you can always come back to. Shen is the monkey in early autumn, quick hands and a quicker mind that finds the shortcut up any slope. The mountain keeps the monkey grounded, and the monkey keeps the mountain from getting stiff.

General Xu Hao guards this year. People born in Wu-Shen years are often smart and practical at the same time, the kind of person you can hand a problem to and stop worrying.

Young and keen

He looks young and bold, with a fine golden battle crown, a handsome face and bright eyes that seem to say, "I haven't met anything I can't do yet."

He wears light colorful armor and a red cloak and holds a sword with confidence: fresh courage sharpened by practice.

Five channels on the mountainside

There was a real Tang dynasty official named Xu Hao, famous for his calligraphy. Folk tradition links the Tai Sui to him, though the history books say nothing about this flood story.

According to the legend, he was sent to a mountain county that flash floods hit again and again. Earlier officials had given up. Xu Hao studied the shape of the mountains on the map with a calligrapher's care and came up with an idea no one expected: instead of one big dam, dig several channels along the mountainside and send the water off to empty lowlands. Split the flood into small pieces, and it can no longer hurt the town.

It meant digging five channels at once. He worked out the route, depth and slope of every section in exact numbers, and when the workers got confused, he picked up a tool and showed them himself.

Thirty dry years

For thirty years after the work was done, the town never flooded again.

Heaven named him the Tai Sui of the Wu-Shen year. A sword in hand and clever, steady skill: that is his gift to everyone born in the Year of the Monkey.