卦 (guà): divinatory diagram, one of the eight divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经, one of the sixty-four divinatory hexagrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经

卦 (guà) is a Chinese character meaning “divinatory diagram.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 圭 (phonetic) and 卜 (semantic). It ranks #2808 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 卦 divination. Its radical form 卜 (divination) appears in many related characters such as 占 (zhàn, to observe), 卡 (kǎ, to stop), 卧 (wò, to lie).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 卜 divination8 strokesFrequency #2808圭 phonetic卜 semantic

Definitions

  1. divinatory diagram
  2. one of the eight divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经
  3. one of the sixty-four divinatory hexagrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经

Etymology & Origin

卦

pictophoneticdivination

Decomposition: ⿰圭卜 (layout: left-right)

Components:圭phonetic卜semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 卦 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
八卦bā guàthe eight divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经[Yi4 jing1]
变卦biàn guàto change one's mind
算卦suàn guàfortune telling
六十四卦liù shí sì guàthe 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes (I Ching or Yi Jing) 易經|易经
八卦山bā guà shānBagua Mountain, Taiwan
八卦掌bā guà zhǎngbaguazhang (a form of Chinese boxing)
八卦阵bā guà zhèneight-trigram battle array
打卦dǎ guàto tell sb's fortune using divinatory trigrams
卦义guà yìinterpretation of the divinatory trigrams
八卦拳bā guà quánbaguazhang (a form of Chinese boxing)
卦辞guà cíto interpret the divinatory trigrams
卜卦bǔ guàto divine using the eight trigrams
12
Total compounds
17
As first character
50
As last character
33
As middle character

卦 appears in 12 compound words: 17 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 33 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 卦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

八bā
0.60023,152 co-occurrences
掌zhǎng
0.4621,926 co-occurrences
卜bǔ
0.4611,014 co-occurrences
拳quán
0.389546 co-occurrences
聊liáo
0.375180 co-occurrences
劈pī
0.37266 co-occurrences
栏lán
0.364186 co-occurrences
棍gùn
0.361150 co-occurrences
戳chuō
0.35242 co-occurrences
象xiàng
0.3501,230 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

六十四卦liù shí sì guàHSK 7+

the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes (I Ching or Yi Jing) 易經|易经

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

卦字由8笔画组成，结构很巧妙。

guà zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "卦" consists of eight strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

彰化社头护天宫自行车驿站动工 打造八卦山新亮点

zhāng huà shè tóu hù tiān gōng zì háng chē 驿 zhàn dòng gōng dǎ zào bā guà shān xīn liàng diǎn

三立新聞網Mar 2026

马办风暴!他喊非八卦:牵涉国共管道内幕

mǎ bàn fēng bào ! tā hǎn fēi bā guà : qiān shè guó gòng guǎn dào nèi mù

Storm at Ma's Office! He Insists It's Not Gossip: Involves Inside Information on KMT-CCP Channels

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

彰化八卦山天空步道要休息了 3月9日起封闭半年维...

zhāng huà bā guà shān tiān kōng bù dào yāo xiū xī le 3 yuè 9 rì qǐ fēng bì bàn nián wéi . . .

Changhua Bagua Mountain Skywalk is going to be closed for half a year from March 9...

Character Family

卜 Radical Family — Characters sharing the divination radical

卜bǔ卡kǎ卤lǔ卧wò占zhàn

Related Characters

占zhàn卡kǎ卧wò卜bǔ卤lǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced guà

挂guà瓜guā刮guā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 卦 (guà) mean in Chinese?
卦 (guà) primarily means "divinatory diagram." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2808 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 卦 and 鞋?
卦 (guà) and 鞋 (xié) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 卜 vs 革 (same 圭 component).
How many strokes does 卦 have?
卦 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 卦?
The radical associated with 卦 is 卜 (divination). This radical appears in many characters related to divination.
What are the components of 卦?
卦 is composed of: 圭 (phonetic), 卜 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰圭卜 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 卦?
Common words with 卦 include: 八卦 (bā guà, "the eight divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经[Yi4 jing1]"); 变卦 (biàn guà, "to change one's mind"); 算卦 (suàn guà, "fortune telling"); 六十四卦 (liù shí sì guà, "the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes (I Ching or Yi Jing) 易經|易经"); 八卦山 (bā guà shān, "Bagua Mountain, Taiwan"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 卦 (guà)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guà: 挂 (to hang), 瓜 (melon), 刮 (to scrape). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 卦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 卦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 卦 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.