SCI FI FANTASY SATURDAY MAR. 30: "A Mirror Reflects" pt. 3

Has it really been almost a month since I last posted? Scandalous!  Here's the next ten sentences -- honest! --  of "A Mirror Reflects" (trying a new title). As you recall, we learned that the ancient Chinese mirror was originally crafted by someone named Liu An:

         Yes, the legendary Liu An. He was the one who designed me and commissioned the bronze-smith’s work, and after I was delivered to him, the real task of creation began. 

         Liu An had been a court astrologer to his nephew, Emperor Wu, for some years, and he needed a more efficient way to help the Emperor deal with those around him. Which tribal warlords were a true threat, and which could be pacified by a royal marriage? Which courtiers held the Emperor’s interests at least slightly above their own? Which scandals should be concealed, which ones ignored, and which ones turned to his advantage?

         Diplomacy and spying could tell only so much, but just as there is no hiding from fate, that fate cannot hide from one who reads it in the stars.

         Any competent practitioner of Zi wei dou shu can plot a birth chart; all he needs is the year, month, day, and time of the subject’s birth, and to know how to integrate the strokes in the characters that make up the subject’s name.  But to truly understand the relevance of the Yin and Yang, the positions of the Symbolic Stars, the fluidity of the classical Five Phases, and countless other factors – this requires a true master of the science.

         The Old Prince, as Emperor Wu’s courtiers respectfully called Liu An, was such a one; he could interpret these disparate elements, understand a person’s crucial traits and qualities, predict his current and future relations with family and associates, and do no less than calculate the subject’s destiny.