The Later Heaven (後天, hòutiān, "after heaven") is the second classic way of arranging the eight trigram figures in a circle. Where the Earlier Heaven shows ideal balance, this one shows the world in motion: the turning year, the seasons and the work of each moment.
The layout
With south at the top, as in Chinese diagrams, and following the year from spring:
- Thunder in the east: spring, everything wakes.
- Wind in the southeast: late spring.
- Fire in the south: summer.
- Earth in the southwest: late summer.
- Lake in the west: autumn, the harvest.
- Heaven in the northwest: the start of winter.
- Water in the north: winter.
- Mountain in the northeast: late winter, where one cycle ends and the next begins.
Origins: tradition and scholarship
Tradition credits it to King Wen. Its basis is a passage in the Shuogua, one of the Ten Wings, which walks through the trigrams in this order and ties them to the directions. Scholars date that commentary centuries after King Wen's time, and the drawn diagram spread under the Song dynasty.
What it's used for
It's the arrangement most used in practice: in feng shui, in traditional Chinese medicine and in many calendar systems. The directions and seasons you'll see on our trigram pages come from here. You can compare it with the Earlier Heaven in The Eight Trigrams.