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Bagua Trigram Lookup (八卦)

Looks up one of the eight trigrams (八卦, bagua) and returns its lines, Fuxi (先天, xiantian) and Luoshu (洛书, later-heaven) numbers, directions in both arrangements, element, yin/yang, family member, body part, animal, attribute and season, plus a table of all eight.

When to use

You need the structured attributes of a trigram (乾 兑 离 震 巽 坎 艮 坤) or the whole eight-trigram table, e.g. to build or explain a hexagram, a compass arrangement or a feng shui reference.

Do not use when: You need a six-line hexagram (use hexagram-lookup), a person's Ming Gua trigram from a birth year (use ming-gua) or the Luoshu magic square (use luoshu-square).

Formula

lines bottom→top: 乾 111, 兑 110, 离 101, 震 100, 巽 011, 坎 010, 艮 001, 坤 000; Fuxi number = 8 − binary(lines) reading the bottom line as the most significant bit (乾 = 8 − 7 = 1); Luoshu number from the later-heaven arrangement (坎1 坤2 震3 巽4 乾6 兑7 艮8 离9)

Correspondences follow the 说卦传 (Shuogua) chapter of the Yijing and the standard Fuxi / King Wen arrangements. Traditional cultural reference calculation; not a prediction and not medical, legal or financial advice.

Inputs

ParameterTypeUnitRequiredDescription
trigramstringyesChinese name (乾 兑 离 震 巽 坎 艮 坤, traditional 兌 離 accepted), pinyin (qian, dui, li, zhen, xun, kan, gen, kun), English nature (heaven, lake, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain, earth), symbol (☰ … ☷), 3 line digits bottom→top with 1 = yang (e.g. 010 = 坎), or fuxi:N / luoshu:N number forms.

Outputs

OutputTypeUnitDescription
name_cnstringChinese name of the trigram.
pinyinstringHanyu pinyin of the name.
englishstringNatural image: Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain or Earth.
symbolstringUnicode trigram symbol (U+2630–U+2637).
linesstringThree digits from the bottom line to the top line; 1 = yang ⚊ (solid), 0 = yin ⚋ (broken).
line_descriptionstringThe three lines in words from bottom to top.
fuxi_numberintegerEarlier-heaven number: 乾1 兑2 离3 震4 巽5 坎6 艮7 坤8.
luoshu_numberintegerLater-heaven / Luoshu number: 坎1 坤2 震3 巽4 乾6 兑7 艮8 离9 (5 is the centre).
later_heaven_directionstringCompass direction in the King Wen / later-heaven arrangement used by feng shui.
earlier_heaven_directionstringCompass direction in the Fuxi / earlier-heaven arrangement.
elementstringFive-element attribution: 乾 兑 Metal, 离 Fire, 震 巽 Wood, 坎 Water, 艮 坤 Earth.
yin_yangstring乾 震 坎 艮 are yang trigrams; 坤 巽 离 兑 are yin trigrams (by the family classification of the 说卦传).
family_memberstringFamily role from the 说卦传 (Shuogua).
body_partstringBody correspondence from the 说卦传.
animalstringAnimal correspondence from the 说卦传.
attributestringCharacteristic quality (健 顺 动 入 陷 丽 止 说).
seasonstringSeason assigned in the later-heaven arrangement.
all_trigramslistOne row per trigram (Fuxi order): name, pinyin, symbol, lines, Fuxi number, Luoshu number, later-heaven direction, element.

Example

乾 Qian (Heaven): {"trigram":"乾"} → {"symbol":"☰","lines":"111","fuxi_number":1,"luoshu_number":6,"later_heaven_direction":"Northwest (NW, 西北)","element":"Metal (金)","family_member":"Father (父)"}

kan (Water) by pinyin: {"trigram":"kan"} → {"name_cn":"坎","symbol":"☵","lines":"010","fuxi_number":6,"luoshu_number":1,"later_heaven_direction":"North (N, 北)","element":"Water (水)","family_member":"Middle son (中男)"}

GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/bagua?trigram=%E4%B9%BE

Machine access

Sources

FAQ

Which line is the bottom line?

The first digit of `lines` is the bottom line (line 1) and the last digit is the top line, following the way trigrams are drawn from the ground up; 1 = solid yang line, 0 = broken yin line.

Why does 乾 have two different numbers?

The Fuxi (先天) sequence numbers the trigrams by their binary structure (乾 1 … 坤 8); the Luoshu (后天) numbers come from the King Wen compass arrangement mapped onto the Luoshu square (乾 6 in the northwest). Feng shui and Ming Gua use the Luoshu numbers.

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