Home › Stories › Tai Sui › Ji-Hai
The Ji-Hai Tai Sui: General Xie Tai
A kung fu teacher who let poor students pay in chores and taught them to protect the weak.
- Guardian of
- People born in a Ji-Hai year, the Year of the Pig
- Born between
- Feb 8, 1959 – Jan 27, 1960
Feb 5, 2019 – Jan 24, 2020 - Past life (legend)
- Xie Tai, a martial arts teacher in the Ming dynasty (folk legend)
- Symbol
- A raised palm that stops evil: a big heart and a strong body
If you were born between these dates, you were born in a Ji-Hai year, the Year of the Pig, and General Xie Tai watches over you.
(A new year starts on Lunar New Year’s Day.)
Rich soil and deep water
Ji is the richest soil, generous and giving. Hai is the deep water at the end of the cycle, holding everything gathered over sixty years. The earth guides the water so its riches flow where they are needed most.
General Xie Tai guards this year. People born in Ji-Hai years are often big-hearted and generous, the first to offer help even when they do not have much, sometimes with a tough outside protecting a soft heart.
"Stop right there"
His wide face is ruddy, with sword-like brows and a thick black beard. His eyes can tell good from bad at a glance.
He wears colorful heavy armor with gold shoulder plates and a heavy red cloak. His right hand is raised, palm out, telling every evil thing: stop right there. While he is here, nothing gets close.
Pay what you can
According to legend, he was Xie Tai, a big, powerful kung fu teacher who ran a martial arts school in a Ming dynasty city. Families who could afford it paid in full. Poorer students paid half. Those who could pay nothing helped fix the building, sweep the yard or run errands instead.
So his students were a real mix: officials' sons, farm boys, merchants' sons and street kids. Along with fighting, he taught them one more thing: "You learn to fight so no one dares to bully you, and so you can stop people from bullying those weaker than you. If you use it to bully others, you've wasted it."
What the students carried
His students became frontier soldiers, local constables, village defenders and teachers themselves. Every one of them left carrying the same words: protect those weaker than you.
Heaven named him the Tai Sui of the Ji-Hai year. A palm that stops harm and a wide, generous heart: that is his gift to everyone born in the Year of the Pig.
Questions people ask
Who is the Tai Sui for people born in 1959?
People born between Feb 8, 1959 and Jan 27, 1960 were born in a Ji-Hai year, the Year of the Pig. Their Tai Sui is General Xie Tai.
Who was General Xie Tai before becoming a Tai Sui?
Xie Tai, a martial arts teacher in the Ming dynasty (folk legend).
What does General Xie Tai hold?
A raised palm that stops evil: a big heart and a strong body.
Stay for the next story
A new fortune poem and the old story behind it, every day on YouTube.