Came across this anecdote from a Chinese book on date selection and thought it would be interesting to share it.
During the Qing dynasty, Emperor Qian Long decided to impersonate as a commoner to visit one of the provinces so that he could understand his people better.
He arrived at this village one day and saw that a wedding ceremony was taking place. Being a date selection expert himself, Emperor Qian Long did a quick calculation and discovered that today was an inauspicious date especially for wedding event. So, he stopped one of the villagers and asked who had selected this date for the couple. Not knowing that he was actually speaking to the emperor, the villager then replied that it was calculated by his neighbor who was a scholar in this village.
Emperor Qian Long then blurted out that, “Today is a very bad day according to the date selection classics. Why on earth did your neighbor choose this day for such an important event?”
“Oh, what I understand from my neighbor is that today is indeed an inauspicious day but he mentioned that because a noble person will pass by our village today, all bad energies will retreat and be suppressed. In fact, because of the arrival of this VVIP, the moment will turn auspicious and great blessings will be felt” said the villager.
Qian Long was surprised to find out that there were actually very skillful people among the commoners. So highly skilled that even they could predict the timing of his arrival.
This story was taken from a small paragraph in the book which emphasizes the presence of noble people or Gui Ren in important events. Hence, it is not uncommon to see ministers, celebrities and politicians being invited for ground breaking or business opening ceremonies. This enhances the “Man” component or Ren He of the cosmic trinity.