华盖 · Huágài · Imperial Canopy
Canopy
A canopy over the head: apart from the crowd, and interested in what is underneath things.
What it adds
Hua Gai is the star of the solitary thinker — drawn to philosophy, religion, mysticism, and whatever is not obvious.
It shows up as someone who was strange at fifteen and interesting at forty. The distance from the mainstream that made school hard is the same distance that later produces original work.
The classical image is an imperial canopy: honoured, and standing alone underneath it. Both halves of that are meant.
