Trigrams are the very founding basis of feng shui. Everything about feng shui originates from these 8 trigrams.

Trigram representations and relationships

Number	Name	Relationships
1	Kan	Water, North, middle-aged men, winter, ear, blood, kidneys
2	Kun	Earth, SouthWest, old women, matriarch, stomach, reproductive organs
3	Chen	Wood, East, eldest son, spring, feet, throat
4	Sun	Wood, SouthEast, eldest daughter, buttocks, thighs
6	Chien	Metal, NorthWest, old men, patriarch, head, lungs
7	Tui	Metal, West, youngest daughter, autumn, mouth, chest
8	Ken	Earth, NorthEast, youngest son, hands, spine
9	Li	Fire, South, middle daughter, summer, eyes, heart

Here is the visual arrangement which most people will have a little familiarity with.

However do note that there are 2 trigram arrangements in existence. The one above, which is what we use most of the time these days is sometimes called a “Later Arrangement”.

Qi Men Dun Jia (奇门遁甲), another school of thought which is gaining widespread popularity uses it too.

It is termed a “Later” arrangement because there is actually an earlier version of it where all trigrams are in different positions.

These days, it is generally agreed that the early arrangement is used for more “Yin” purposes, while the later arrangement is applied on “Yang” purposes.

Generally, this means that you will be fine by using the later arrangement. If you ever get into a specific situation where the early arrangement needs to be accessed, you should already know the reason why that is so.

Below are the directions of early arrangement and later arrangement in a table.

Trigram representations and relationships

Trigram	Early	Later
Kan	West	North
Kun	North	SouthWest
Chen	NorthEast	East
Sun	SouthWest	SouthEast
Chien	South	NorthWest
Tui	SouthEast	West
Ken	NorthWest	NorthEast
Li	East	South

Do note that because of a difference in positions of the early trigrams compared to later trigrams, early trigrams will represent different numbers, which is not discussed on this page.