Acquired Ba-gua and the Seasons

Yi-jing is Natural Science, in fact the very basic Natural Science. Like seasons, the Winter, the Summer and all that.

In the same paragraph of “Shuo-gua” (說卦), a commentary of Zhou-yi, explaining the Acquired Ba-gua, it highlights only “Dui” (兌) as for Autumn. We can imagine the rest of them do represent different seasons as well. The question is which is which.

If Dui represents Autumn, then it must be mid-Autumn, or “Qiu-fen” (秋分), or Autumnal Equinox as what the western astronomy calls. As such, “Zhen” (震) would be mid-Spring, or “Chun-fen” (春分), or Vernal Equinox, while “Kan” (坎) and “Li” (離) must be Winter Solstice (冬至 or “Dong-zhi”) and Summer Solstice (夏至 or “Xia-zhi”) respectively.

In 24 Solar Segments, we know that between Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox, there is “Li-chun” (立春), or Beginning of Spring, in the middle, so the trigram in the Acquired Ba-gua must be “Gen” (艮). Similarly, “Xun” (巽) will be “Li-xia” (立夏) or Beginning of Summer, “Kun” (坤) as “Li-qiu” (立秋) or Beginning of Autumn, and “Qian” (乾) as “Li-dong” (立冬) or Beginning of Winter.

Oh, almost forgot…. Aries is in Dui, Cancer in Li, while Libra in Zhen and Capricorn in Kan.

Congenital Ba-gua and Acquired Ba-gua

You are most probably aware that there are two different Ba-gua diagrams with different trigram placements, but you may not realize that they are actually coming from the same script which Conficius or his followers wrote two thousand years ago. The name of the script is “Shou-gua” (《說卦》), which literally means the explanation of trigrams. It was an independent script till people found it convenient to make reference to if it is attached to “Zhou-yi” (《周易》) as a commentary.

“Yi” (易) literally means easy or transaction. Since the book “Yi-jing” (《易經》) talks about the interaction of Yin and Yang, Yi can therefore mean change, and hence “Yi-jing” (or people refer it as I-Ching) is called the Book of Change by the westerner. No matter how people try to come up with the meaning for “Zhou” (周), it simply means of the Zhou Dynasty.

However, keep one thing in your open mind, “Zhou-yi” is not the only “Yi-jing” even in Zhou Dynasty. It is just a version happened to be interpreted by Conficius and hence used to refer to by most of the people thereafter. If he interpreted wrongly, then we were fooled during all these times, not to mention the entire study of “Zhou-yi” would just go off course for the last two millenniums.

In “Shou-gua”, there is a paragraph dictated the trigram placement for Congenital Ba-gua. It is as follow:

「天地定位，山澤通氣，雷風相薄，水火不相射，八卦相錯。數往者順，知來者逆，是故《易》，逆數也。」

I am not good in translation, so all I can do is to talk about what it means. The paragraph mentioned heaven and earth, mountain and river, thunder and wind, even water and fire. All these substance pairs have opposite properties nature, like up in the heaven and down on the earth, etc. A practical presentation of Yin and Yang. In fact, the word “定位” means to fix the position.

As Chinese evolved to Zhou Dynasty, the concept of coalescence between human and heaven was gradually established. It is generally acknowledged that the trigram Qian (乾) means heaven. That’s why “Zhou-yi” starts with the hexagram Qian. If Qian assumes the top position, then Kun (坤) should be underneath. As such, we have the Congenital Ba-gua.

However, there is another paragraph in “Shuo-gua” which is far more details in introducing different trigram placements. It is as follow:

「帝出乎震，齊乎巽，相見乎離，致役乎坤，說言乎兌，戰乎乾，勞乎坎，成言乎艮。」

The word “帝” means emperor, but it is here used to represent Sun. “出” means appear, so “帝出乎震” means the Sun arises from Zhen (震). It doesn’t quite make sense unless Zhen means East. Starting Zhen at the left horizon as East and going clockwise, we will then have the Acquired Ba-gua.

The terms Congenital and Acquired in fact are not good descriptions of the Ba-gua’s because they are having the meaning of order of presence. It is generally believed that the Congenital Ba-gua comes before the Acquired Ba-gua. However, later studies show otherwise.

The Congenital Ba-gua demonstrates the opposite properties of different pairs, as compared to Yin and Yang, but also highlights the interaction between them, like mountain and river. The Acquired Ba-gua, on the other hand, illustrates the periodic changes of Yin and Yang, as compared to the change of weather on Earth. The influence, so to speak. It also show directions. This is the primary reason why Chinese metaphysics are based upon the application of Acquired Ba-gua, Luo-shu, and Sexagenary Cycle.

Qi-Men-Dun-Jia and Tai-yi

“Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” (奇門遁甲) and “Tai-yi” (太乙), together with “Liu-ren” (六壬), were considered as the three most secret metaphysics developed throughout “Qin” (秦) Dynasty. They are called “Gu-san-shi” (古三式, or the Three Ancient “Shi”).

“Shi” (式) is equivalent to “Shi” (栻), which is a wooden device symbolizing “Round Heaven and Square Earth” (天圓地方) for the purpose of casting, and is believed that it is the origin of modern Feng-shui “Luo-pan” (羅盤, or compass). By secret it means the emperors believed they are too powerful in terms of divination, and afraid that someone will use them to overthrow their kingdoms. As such, it is forbidden for the civilian to practice these three metaphysics.

All of them are having tight connection with calendrical calculation, Tai-yi even had its own calendar. It is of course a derivative from the official calendar which published by the emperor. Among them, both QMDJ and Tai-yi are also the direct applications of Sexagenary cycle and Luo-shu.

We are not going to talk about QMDJ, or Liu-ren, or Tai-yi as either one of them are too complicated to discuss in just one blog. I would rather break them down in easily understood topics and introduce them in multiple blogs. So, better stay tuned and particularly when you are ready.

Before I start other new topics, please feel free to comment if you have any question. Will try to answer as details as I can.

Applications of the Sexagenary Cycle: #2

Flying Stars are mostly used to determine the “Qi” (氣). Qi literally means air or airflow in Chinese, but that’s not the true meaning of Qi. The true meaning of Qi is the influences that the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) may have on earth. In scientific terms, it could be electromagnetic field, gravitational field, or other undiscovered matters. However, Qi and the Flying Stars are not equal. We will talk about it in due course.


China metaphysics describes properties of things on Earth in five major categories as it is believed that they are the direct influences of the different Qi’s mentioned above. They are, in English terms, Water (水), Fire (火), Wood (木), Metal (金), Earth (土), but are referred as Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Earth respectively. In general, they are called “Wu-xing” (五行).


It occurs to me that most people translate the word “Wu-xing” as Five Elements in English. It is perhaps due to the fact that there are similar terms in Western metaphysics, like Water, Fire, Air and Earth, which are knows as Four Elements. However, those are the things which every creatures in the Earth depends upon, things that you can feel, and things that are tangible. As such, I disagree to use Five Elements to represent “Wu-xing”. I’d rather just called them “Wu-xing”.


Application #2: Finding Life Trigram of the Birth Year


Other than the adoption of Sexagenary Cycle into “Luo-shu”, the integration of Acquired Ba-gua (as differs from the Congenital Ba-gua) and “Luo-shu” is equally fascinating. According to the description in “Shuo-gua” of “Zhou-yi” (《周易．說卦》) , we can derive the following chart and consider “Kan” (坎☵) in grid #1 as North and Winter, then we will have “Zhen” (震☳) in grid #3 as East and Spring, “Li” (離☲) in grid #9 as South and Summer, and “Dui” (兌☱) in grid #7 as West and Autumn.


Now that we have both charts, we can easily find out where the year is and hence which trigram it belongs to. We will be using the year of 2008 as an example to demonstrate.


Since 2637BCE is the first year of launching the recording system, then it must be the first year of Jia-zi. For every 180 years (Least Common Multiplication of both 9 and 60), the Jia-zi will be returning to the original grid, which is grid #1 for “Kan”, and be starting all over again. Among this 180 years, the Sexagenary Cycle will repeat 3 times. We defined as First Cycle (上元), Second Cycle (中元), and the Third Cycle (下元), or people generally refer as “San-yuan” (三元, or The Great Cycle).


To find out which Cycle the year 2008 belongs to, we need to first find out the number of years (both year inclusive) since the first Jia-zi.


NY = Y – N0 where Y is the current year and N0 = -2637
N2008 = 2008 – (-2637) = 4645


Then divided N2008 by 180, take the next integer, resulting as 26, which mean the year 2008 is in the 26th Great Cycle, or 145 years after the 25th Great Cycle, or 25 years after the first two Cycles in the 26th Great Cycle. Since the Third Cycle must be started with Jia-zi in “Dui” of grid #7, then the 25th year must be Wu-zi (戊子) in “Kan” of grid #1. Thus, the dominating Flying Star for the year 2008 is also 1. For male born in the year 2008, their Life Trigram is referred as “Kan”.


You may say, “Wow, that’s fascinating, but is there any easier way to find out the Life Trigram?” Oh yes, I almost forgot, always the easy way. Tend not to think, aren’t you?


In fact, there is. People use to add all the digits in a number till it gives out only single digit, then subtracted from 11 and further divided by 9, take the remainder. The result of which will then give you the grid number and hence the Life Trigram. For male born in 2008 as an example, the remainder is 1, and therefore the Life Trigram is “Kan”.


2 + 0 + 0 + 8 = 10
1 + 0 =1
11 – 1 = 10
10 ≡ 1 (mod 9)


Most of the people know how it works, but do not know why it works. Only the mathematician will know why, because it is based upon Chinese Remainder Theorem.


1000x + 100y + 10z + w ≡ x + y + z + w (mod9)


Or, we can modify the above equation with the consideration of both (1) 4CE is also Jia-zi and (2) to satisfy each of the Cycle in the Great Cycle as follow:


X + y + z + w – 4 ≡ 7 – p (mod9)


Hence, 11 – (x + y + z + w) ≡ p (mod9)


Question: how about for female?