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robheinen

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Goodmorning to All,

Does anyone know of a correlation between years & trigrams? If so, how is this correlation?

Thanks in advance for your anwer(s)

Rob
 

Gmulii

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Goodmorning to All,

Does anyone know of a correlation between years & trigrams? If so, how is this correlation?

Thanks in advance for your anwer(s)

Rob

Hey. This is very complex topics, as there are more then one way to do it, depending what you attempt to use the Hexagrams for.

However, to do it in any possible way, first you need the Stem and Branch of the year(they are marked like that in Chinese calendars, even though Gregorian calendar is what is used everyday now there, their traditional calendars are what is used in Chines Metaphysics and all parts of Yi Jing,Date Selection and similar systems in the East).

To get that we can use any bazi calculator or calendar, I will link our site, obviously:

The other is just to search the net for the year we are interested in, there are many articles already showing that 2020 is "metal rat".

At the calculator its the same.
We look at the most right collumn where it says "Year".
For current year, for example, we have again - Metal Rat(Rat is Yang Water branch). So basically Yang Metal stem, Yang Water Branch.

The next part is how to turn the year to Trigrams or Hexagrams. And as already mentioned there are more then one way to do that, depending on the system and what will the result be used for.

Popular way in Feng Shui and Date Selection styles there is to use this compass(its part of system called Xuan Kong Da Gua and is also used in its date selection sub system and other stuff as well):

1b61a4aa2e6019f5ae2efa3877aa3523.png


We look the 4th ring from the outside in and we can see many stems and branches there. Finding Geng and Zi then looking at the outter Hexagrams ring we can see Geng and Zi are represented by Hexagram 43.Increase.
We can also see a lot of other stuff, we can see Trigrams in void in the ring before that one, meaning anything in that direction won't have effect at a house or a property and for example that related to space that is around 20 degrees of the compass circle and a lot of other information from all around the place,

There are other ways to do it as well, but I'm guessing its already complex enough so lets stop here. Feel free to ask questions, if you have any. : )
 

Thomas6

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first,you need to know ten gans and twelve zhis。
gan: 甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸
I will abbreviate to a single decimal number(1234567890).

zhi:子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥 meaning jan,feb,mar,apr,etc or divide 1 day into 12 zhis: 子23-1, 丑1-3,寅3-5...

To express the date(hour,day,month,year or bigger), you should combine a gan and a zhi:
jan1, feb2, mar3, apr4, may5, jun6, jul7, aug8, sep9, oct0, nov1, dec2,
甲子, 乙丑, 丙寅, 丁卯, 戊辰, 己巳, 庚午, 辛未, 壬申, 癸酉, 甲戌, 乙亥,
jan3, feb4, mar5, apr6, may7, jun8, jul9, aug0, sep1, oct2, nov3, dec4,
丙子, 丁丑, 戊寅, 己卯, 庚辰, 辛巳, 壬午, 癸未, 甲申, 乙酉, 丙戌, 丁亥,
jan5, feb6, mar7...
戊子, 己丑, 庚寅……
There are 60 combinations in all, and then not exist feb1(甲丑), jan2(乙子) and so on. If Jan is jan1 this year then it is jan3 next year and jan5 after next.
甲丙戊庚壬(13579) and 子寅辰午申戌(jan mar may jul sep nov)are yang ganzhis. A day with yang ganzhi is named as hard-day.
乙丁己辛癸(24680) and 丑卯巳未酉亥(feb apr jun aug oct dec) are ying ganzhi. A day with ying ganzhi is named as soft-day.
 
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Thomas6

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let me express a trigram with binary like the illustration. If yin replace by 0 and yang replace by 1, then the lowest trigram "复(Return or Repeat)" in Fuxi's "Big Ahead Trigrams"(大先天图) is expressed as 100000.
Ear000000jan1 Rep100000jan1 100001jan3 100010jan5 100011jan7 100100jan9 100101feb2 100110feb4 100111feb6 101000feb8 101001feb0
101010mar1 101011mar3 101100mar5 101101mar7 101110mar7 101111apr9 110000apr2 110001apr4 110010apr6 110011apr8 110100apr0
110101May1 110110May3 110111May5 111000May7 111001May9 111010jun2 111011jun4 111100jun6 111101jun8 111110jun0

111111jul1 011111jul1 011110jul3 011101jul5 011100jul7 011011jul9 011010aug2 011001aug4 011000aug6 010111aug8 010110aug0
010101sep1 010100sep3 010011sep5 010010sep7 010001sep7 010000sep9 001111oct2 001110oct4 001101oct6 001100oct8 001011oct0
001010nov1 001001nov3 001000nov5 000111nov7 000110nov9 000101dec2 000100dec4 000011dec6 000010dec8 000001dec0
 
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Gmulii

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first,you need to know ten gans and twelve zhis。
gan: 甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸
I will abbreviate to a single decimal number(1234567890).

zhi:子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥 meaning jan,feb,mar,apr,etc or divide 1 day into 12 zhis: 子23-1, 丑1-3,寅3-5...

To express the date(hour,day,month,year or bigger), you should combine a gan and a zhi:
jan1, feb2, mar3, apr4, may5, jun6, jul7, aug8, sep9, oct0, nov1, dec2,
甲子, 乙丑, 丙寅, 丁卯, 戊辰, 己巳, 庚午, 辛未, 壬申, 癸酉, 甲戌, 乙亥,
jan3, feb4, mar5, apr6, may7, jun8, jul9, aug0, sep1, oct2, nov3, dec4,
丙子, 丁丑, 戊寅, 己卯, 庚辰, 辛巳, 壬午, 癸未, 甲申, 乙酉, 丙戌, 丁亥,
jan5, feb6, mar7...
戊子, 己丑, 庚寅……
There are 60 combinations in all, and then not exist feb1(甲丑), jan2(乙子) and so on. If Jan is jan1 this year then it is jan3 next year and jan5 after next.
甲丙戊庚壬(13579) and 子寅辰午申戌(jan mar may jul sep nov)are yang ganzhis. A day with yang ganzhi is named as hard-day.
乙丁己辛癸(24680) and 丑卯巳未酉亥(feb apr jun aug oct dec) are ying ganzhi. A day with ying ganzhi is named as soft-day.

This is very inaccurate. : )
The branches change by the Solar Terms in the Solar Calender, while they change by the new Moon for the Lunar.
If you just take the gregorian month number and apply it to the branch you will get some very interesting combinations that have very little to do with chinese metaphysics in good portion of the time.
 

Thomas6

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This is very inaccurate. : )
The branches change by the Solar Terms in the Solar Calender, while they change by the new Moon for the Lunar.
If you just take the gregorian month number and apply it to the branch you will get some very interesting combinations that have very little to do with chinese metaphysics in good portion of the time.
the gregorian is a solar calender, while signs of the zodiac changing in the fixed date range.
 

Thomas6

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This is very inaccurate. : )
The branches change by the Solar Terms in the Solar Calender, while they change by the new Moon for the Lunar.
If you just take the gregorian month number and apply it to the branch you will get some very interesting combinations that have very little to do with chinese metaphysics in good portion of the time.
although the 1st day of gregorian month isn't the 1st day of Chinese Branch Month, but the day is contained in corresponding branch month.
 
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Gmulii

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the gregorian is a solar calender, while signs of the zodiac changing in the fixed date range.
It is, but while the Solar Calendar in China is fixed to the Sun, the Gregorian calendar adds leap days to compensate for it.
(while the Lunar adds leap months, but I think we should leave that one aside as its messy and usually for Chinese metaphysics we use the Solar, with some exceptions).

Meaning that for any given day, to know what stem and branch that would be in the Chinese Calendars(both of them as the day stem and branch are always the same in both calendars), we will need to know the amount of days since a 甲子 day, since the count to 60 begins from it each time.

That also means that the first day of the Rat month(子) will need a lot of calculations to know and in the same way 1 january of each year will again be difficult to know.

For example
1 January 2020 - Gui(10) Mao(4)(Rabbit) Day. 癸卯
Yet if we look 1 year back:
1 January 2019 - Wu(5) Xu(11)(Dog) Day - 戊戌

Suggesting they are far, far apart. And that distance isn't constant either, since the leap days will move it all around.
Similar rules we can observe for the first day of the Chinese Months in both calendars.


although the 1st day of gregorian month isn't the 1st day of Chinese Branch Month, but the day is contained in corresponding branch month.

Sure, it will be somewhere in there. But it will be different each time as well(see above).

Overall we can't calculate it manually. Well, at least not in an easy way, its messy formulas that are challenging to use without calculators or programming languages. And if we want the month transition to be exact we will need the position of the Sun(the so called geocentric apperent ecliptical longitude of the Sun), as that is what the Solar Terms are based on.

In short - I can recommend to not convert it manually just use a calculator or a ten thousand year calendar. In this case it could work as its about the year and the year we all probably know starts early february and is metal rat in this case(that being Geng/Zi), but if we want to use the other stuff manual conversation just won't do the job.
While some stuff like the stem of the year can be calculated in a second, the more we go into the 4 pillars the more effort it will require.
 
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Freedda

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I don't know about associating the trigrams with years, but the Later Heaven Bagua (Trigram) Circle (I've attached an image below) associates the trigrams with seasons of the year (each being about 45 days long), with times of the day within a daily cycle, with the eight cardinal directions, and with different tasks done within the annual cycle by people of ancient Chinese agricultural cultures.

Here's a broad outline, starting on the left side of the circle and moving clockwise:

Thunder - is in the East - it is spring and the beginning of the year. It is also early morning, sunrise, the beginning of a new day. This was the time when Thunder awoke from it's winter hibernation it was a time for a fresh start: crops are planted, the world is reawakening from winter's grip.

Wind/Wood - is in the Southeast - it is late spring, and morning. Plant roots are starting to spread and shoots are emerging. It is a time of slow, but consistent growth. People feel hopeful and have little doubt that they can overcome obstacles, in the same way that roots find their way around (and through) rocks and hard earth.

Fire - is in the South - it is summer and late-morning to noon. Here the days are their longest, there is the most amount of light, and the south sides of buildings and moutains get the most amount of sunlight.

Earth - it is the Southwest - it is late summer, and after noon. This was the time for caring for the crops, watering, feeing and weeding them, and protecting them from pests.

Lake - is in the West - it is the Fall, and late-afternoon/early evening. It is the time of the harvest, and much joy and enjoying the fruits of the harvest.

Heaven - is in the Northwest - it is late fall, and later in the evening. With the shorter days, there was more time in the evening for thinking, planning, and setting goals. It was the time when the peasant farmers were done with the harvest, and so could become peasant soldiers and be sent off to fight battles, assuming there was a reason to do so, and that they had a strong and intelligent leader to lead them. It was a time of important decisions - to fight and how and when; or not to fight and so how to spend the rest of the year and prepare for winter.

Water - is in the North - it is winter and approaching midnight, the darkest times of both the day and the year. There was fear here: would the grain stores last, how long would the bitter freezing cold last, and how could they keep the beasts and demons hidden in the darkness at bay?

Mountain - is in the northeast - it is late winter, and very early morning. It is still dark, and even though both the new day and the new year are coming soon, this was a time when the people conserved what little food they had - to make sure it would last until they could hunt and forage in the spring). It was a time for looking back at the year: what had gone well, and what might they want to do differently in the coming year.

* It's interesting to note that in the Later Heaven circle, South is at the top of the map - and not at the bottom as most of us are used to. Maps in ancient China were oriented with south at the top, which makes sense, as it was the the time when the sun remained the longest in the sky each day. The few times when I turned a modern map of the world upside down, it really messed with my head, and I couldn't help thinking that something was off or wrong. This suggests to me that I need to think and see in new ways if I want to grasp the Yi.

later-heaven-bagua-circle.jpg
 
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Thomas6

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Chinese Branch Calendar try to construct a flawless chronology with 12x30. So, there's not much difference between recording days and years.
12DoubleHour × 30day × 12month × 30year × 12世 × 30运 × 12会 × 30元
 
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Gmulii

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Chinese Branch Calendar try to construct a flawless chronology with 12x30. So, there's not much difference between recording days and years.
12DoubleHour × 30day × 12month × 30year × 12世 × 30运 × 12会 × 30元

Chinese months aren't always 30 days, though.
That shouldn't be difficult to see, as a year is definitly more then 30x12 = 360 days, and will usually take around 365 days, and 365 / 12 = 30,4 meaning for every 3 month that are long around 30 days there will be one around 31 days.

Leap years however would add one more day in Gregorian, making the value not a constant when we relate the 2 calendars together.
Adding Milankovitch cycles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles and now we know the year isn't a constant value it will expand and contract with the movement of the Earth through centuries..

That suggests 2 outcomes.
There aren't fixed amount of days in each Chinese year, or month, meaning you can't calculate day stem/branch without calculating how the Sun is moving, if you want high enough accuracy.

Lunar Calendar is even more messy, as the months there can be 13 in years with leap month, suggesting again that the formula will need to be much more complex that that.
 

Thomas6

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Chinese months aren't always 30 days, though.
That shouldn't be difficult to see, as a year is definitly more then 30x12 = 360 days, and will usually take around 365 days, and 365 / 12 = 30,4 meaning for every 3 month that are long around 30 days there will be one around 31 days.

Leap years however would add one more day in Gregorian, making the value not a constant when we relate the 2 calendars together.
Adding Milankovitch cycles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles and now we know the year isn't a constant value it will expand and contract with the movement of the Earth through centuries..

That suggests 2 outcomes.
There aren't fixed amount of days in each Chinese year, or month, meaning you can't calculate day stem/branch without calculating how the Sun is moving, if you want high enough accuracy.

Lunar Calendar is even more messy, as the months there can be 13 in years with leap month, suggesting again that the formula will need to be much more complex that that.
The focus is not what you said, but the method of using the gan-zi in a unified way
 

Gmulii

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The focus is not what you said, but the method of using the gan-zi in a unified way

I'm not sure I understand. How are you gonna use them without converting the gregorian date to stem/branch?
 

Thomas6

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I'm not sure I understand. How are you gonna use them without converting the gregorian date to stem/branch?

if you want to use chinese branch then you only need to download a chinese calendar application or any other chinese divination application. Actually, build a Hexagrams not need any branch. For example

2020/05/30 12:00

2020+2055+12=2067055 2055/8=256…7(Gen)

2055+12=2067 2067/8=258…3(Li)

2067/6=344…3(changed line)

||:::| ->|||::|

This is a date method for building hexagram by Plum Divination.梅花易数 You will find that it is actually random.
 

Gmulii

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if you want to use chinese branch then you only need to download a chinese calendar application or any other chinese divination application. Actually, build a Hexagrams not need any branch. For example

2020/05/30 12:00

2020+2055+12=2067055 2055/8=256…7(Gen)

2055+12=2067 2067/8=258…3(Li)

2067/6=344…3(changed line)

||:::| ->|||::|

This is a date method for building hexagram by Plum Divination.梅花易数 You will find that it is actually random.

Sure, at first glance. But this is because it uses numbers that we see. Car plates, phone numbers etc. so it doesn't matter that its the Gregorian calendar, it matters that we see the numbers.

Yet to read the result, if we want to use Plum Blossom, we need to know the strength of the trigram in the season, and for that we will again need to know how to convert Gregorian date to Chinese one since to know the element of the season we need to know the month branch. : )

Of course, we can make hexagram with Plum Blossom approach and read the text with the lines.
That can work, sure, and for that won't need the Chinese calendar. But that is more related to making Hexagram from numbers that we see, then making them from the year, in my view.
 

Gmulii

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if you want to use chinese branch then you only need to download a chinese calendar application or any other chinese divination application.

Yes, but that is the difference between the philosophical approach and the divination, in my view.
The divination(as has already been said so many times - more connected to daoism vs the philosophical commentaries more connected to confucianism) is always very related to the Calendars. And the changes in the reading come from changes in the calendar.
The philosophical approach even when used for divination is always cut off from time unless a time component is incorporated in the commentaries, it will provide an answer that will be equally valid(or not valid) for any element, in that way reading will be not connected to the elements or other ways to measure time, usually while they may be connected to specific premade formula(often texts).

So that becomes important. While I'm not going into what may be "better", with the idea there are practitioners that can be happy with both, a question for the connection between hexagram and the year, suggest someone is aiming for a connection with some form of calendar, as cyclical measure of time connected to the elements, in the context of the Five Arts at least.
 

Thomas6

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Yes, but that is the difference between the philosophical approach and the divination, in my view.
The divination(as has already been said so many times - more connected to daoism vs the philosophical commentaries more connected to confucianism) is always very related to the Calendars. And the changes in the reading come from changes in the calendar.
The philosophical approach even when used for divination is always cut off from time unless a time component is incorporated in the commentaries, it will provide an answer that will be equally valid(or not valid) for any element, in that way reading will be not connected to the elements or other ways to measure time, usually while they may be connected to specific premade formula(often texts).

So that becomes important. While I'm not going into what may be "better", with the idea there are practitioners that can be happy with both, a question for the connection between hexagram and the year, suggest someone is aiming for a connection with some form of calendar, as cyclical measure of time connected to the elements, in the context of the Five Arts at least.
actually, I have invented some method to extract the date in a hexagram, or convert 6ren(六壬) and 6line(六爻) each other. So I can analyze a hexagram use a virtual time.
 
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Gmulii

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actually, I have invented some method to extract the date in a hexagram, or convert 6ren(六壬) and 6line(六爻) each other.

I'm trying to stay as close to the masters and practitioners from the east as possible.
While there are many possible ways of doing each step of the way, in practice, for me at least, it seems any deviation to the accepted ways of calculation and reading there lead to loss of accuracy.
And it makes sense, some of this stuff has been perfected for a very long time, by schools, masters and students all around the East.

Of course, that doesn't mean new approaches can't work. Just not my focus last few years. But if it works for you that is great. : )
 

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