Emperor Ming of Tang Visits the Moon Palace

Picture China around 720 AD. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty — known as Tang Minghuang, the 'Brilliant Emperor' — sits on the throne during one of the richest, most cosmopolitan moments in Chinese history. The capital Chang'an was bigger than Rome. Silk Road caravans, Persian musicians, Buddhist monks from India — all flowed through his court.

The legend goes that one Mid-Autumn night, a Daoist sage offered to take the Emperor on a magical visit to the Moon Palace. They walked across a bridge of light into the sky. Up there, the Emperor saw celestial maidens in rainbow-feather robes dancing to music more beautiful than anything on earth. He memorised the melody. When he returned, he composed it for his court — the famous 'Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe' dance, performed by his beloved consort Yang Guifei.

For a Western reader: think of it as the Chinese equivalent of an emperor being given a glimpse of paradise and bringing the music back. It's a story about effortless abundance — beauty, art, wealth, and pleasure all arriving at once. But Tang Minghuang's reign also became a cautionary tale about what happens when you assume the music will play forever.

This is one of the brighter sticks in the deck for money matters. The image is the Emperor floating up to the moon on a raft — wealth and pleasure arriving almost without effort. So yes, conditions are genuinely favourable. The thing worth examining is what you do inside that good weather.

Here's where most people misread a 'Very Good' wealth stick. They assume it means a windfall is coming and start eyeing shortcuts. That's not what this sign is pointing at. The Emperor didn't gamble his way to the moon. He was already on the throne — meaning the structure was built, the work was done, and now the rewards were ripening. Your steady income, your craft, your client list, the projects you've been quietly nursing for months — that's the raft. It's seaworthy. Get on it.

We think of Mei Ling, 34, a freelance illustrator in Sheung Wan who spent two years posting work no one paid for. Last spring her inbox started filling — a Japanese publisher, then a Singaporean studio, then a returning client tripling their order. Nothing dramatic on any single day. But the harvest came in waves, all from seeds planted when nothing seemed to be growing. That's the texture of this stick. Deferred effort cashing in.

The caveat sits in the second half of the poem — the heavenly music pauses, but the wine and poetry keep flowing. Translation: the easy abundance creates its own hazard. When money comes in smoothly, people tend to lifestyle-inflate, lend generously to the wrong cousin, or start believing they have a magic touch and reach for speculative routes that have nothing to do with how they actually earned this. The Emperor eventually lost his court because he stopped paying attention. You won't lose anything that dramatic, but the question stands: when income gets easier, does your discipline get softer?

Your relationship with money this season wants to be receptive but not loose. Treasury full, gates still guarded.

Through the rest of this season into autumn, treat incoming money as harvest, not luck. Three concrete moves: First, before the next full moon, sit down and identify which past efforts are now paying off — name them specifically, because that tells you what to keep watering. Second, if someone pitches you a fast, off-pattern way to multiply what's coming in, wait at least one lunar cycle before responding; the answer is usually no.

Third, set aside a fixed portion of any unexpected income before it touches your spending account — old-fashioned, but this stick rewards quiet stewardship. Watch for one trap: generosity that's actually about wanting to be liked. Give from genuine warmth, not from the giddiness of a good month.