{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "bagua-mirror",
 "type": "amulet",
 "names": {
  "name": "Bagua mirror",
  "native": "八卦鏡",
  "script": "Han",
  "lang": "zh",
  "said": "bā guà jìng",
  "aliases": [
   "Pa Kua mirror",
   "eight trigram mirror",
   "feng shui mirror"
  ]
 },
 "etymology": {
  "root": "Chinese 八卦 bāguà, 'eight trigrams', + 鏡 jìng, 'mirror'",
  "note": "A trigram is three stacked lines, each broken or unbroken for yin or yang; two states across three lines give eight figures, which is where the eight comes from.",
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-bagua"
 },
 "region": [
  "china"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "CN",
  "HK",
  "TW"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "modern",
  "status": "living",
  "portable": "fixed",
  "restricted": "open",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "E"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "An octagonal or circular plaque with the eight trigrams set around a mirror at its centre. The mirror is flat, convex or concave, and which one it is decides what the object claims to do. It is screwed or hung above a front door or a window, facing out. It resembles a luopan, the feng shui compass, but it is not an instrument — nothing is read off it.",
  "story": "The thing it answers is a direction, not a person. In feng shui, sharp corners of neighbouring buildings and an open road running at a house count as sources of poison-arrows — Sha Qi, 煞氣 — and a bagua mirror is hung to deal with the arrow rather than the archer. A flat mirror is held to reflect it, a convex one to disperse it, a concave one to converge or absorb it, and so to alter the feng shui of the residence.\n\nModern bagua mirrors are described as evolved from ancient bronze-cast versions used by Taoist masters to perform Mirror Techniques, 鏡術, said to reveal or destroy evil spirits, or even to overcome natural calamities. The household version is the cheap end of that: an inexpensive, often self-administered quick fix to a specific feng shui concern.\n\nWhich is exactly where the trouble is. Whatever the mirror sends back goes in the direction the mirror faces, so pointing one at a neighbour's home is generally considered offensive and is a feng shui taboo — and the do-it-yourself nature of the object makes it easy to misuse for a private vendetta. Conflicts caused by offensive installations are well known in dense Chinese communities such as Hong Kong, and feng shui mirror feuds have been parodied in popular culture. *Inference —* this is one of the few charms in this atlas whose recorded quarrels are between neighbours rather than between believers and sceptics; the argument is not whether it works but where it is aimed.",
  "how": "Bought ready-made and mounted by the householder, above a door or a window, facing the corner or the road that is the problem. No consecration is described in the source read, and no specialist is required — which is the difference between this and the bronze mirrors of the Taoist masters it is said to descend from.",
  "today": "Sold in hardware shops, feng shui shops and online across the Chinese-speaking world as of 2026, in plastic and wood as often as in metal. A mirror over a doorway is also read by neighbours, which is why some cities treat their appearance as news."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "descended from bronze Taoist mirrors; the household form is modern and undated in the source",
  "from_year": null,
  "to_year": null,
  "living": true,
  "label": "undated here; hung now",
  "method": "undated",
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-bagua",
  "note": "The source read gives no years at all — not for the trigrams, not for the bronze mirrors, not for the modern remedy. Charms carrying the eight trigrams are separately attested on Chinese coin charms from the Tang and Song, which the numismatic source describes by dynasty rather than by year."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "mirror",
  "materials": [
   "glass",
   "brass",
   "copper",
   "wood",
   "plastic"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "door",
   "wall",
   "shop",
   "roof"
  ],
  "made_by": "manufactured and sold ready to hang; installed by the householder",
  "inscription": "the eight trigrams of the bagua, set around the glass",
  "script": "Han",
  "single_use": false,
  "source": "s:wp-bagua",
  "note": "The three variants are the point of the object: flat to reflect, convex to disperse, concave to converge or absorb. No measurement is published in the source read."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "house",
   "who": "feng shui practice, in which sharp building corners and a road running at a house are sources of poison-arrows the mirror is hung to deflect",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "spirits",
   "who": "the account of the bronze mirrors this one descends from, used by Taoist masters in Mirror Techniques said to reveal or destroy evil spirits",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "bad-luck",
   "who": "householders who hang one to alter the feng shui conditions of a residence",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "mirror-sign",
   "as": "the sign family it belongs to: a surface that sends a thing back where it came from",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "to": "toli-mirror",
   "as": "the steppe cousin — a metal mirror worn on a shaman's body as armour, where this one is bolted to a building",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "as": "the tradition behind the Taoist mirror techniques it is said to descend from",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "charm-coin",
   "as": "the pocket-sized carrier of the same eight trigrams, cast in bronze",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "fu-talisman",
   "as": "the written remedy at the same doorway, where this is the optical one",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "as": "the practice: a charm fixed to a building, aimed outward, guarding a threshold and not a body",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "hex-sign",
   "as": "Pennsylvania's painted answer on the same part of a building, argued over in the same way",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "nazar",
   "as": "the other thing hung facing out over a door, which answers a look rather than a corner",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "ping-an-fu",
   "as": "the portable Taiwanese charm for the same household, renewed yearly while this stays up",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Bagua — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-bagua",
  "s:wp-chinese-numismatic-charm",
  "s:wp-fulu"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-bagua",
    "note": "the closing observation about neighbours is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "the retail description is reasoned from the source's point about cheap self-administered fixes; no market source was read"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Bagua mirror.jpg",
  "File:Pakua mirror.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "An octagonal or circular plaque with the eight trigrams set around a mirror at its centre. The mirror is flat, convex or concave, and which one it is decides what the object claims to do.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "china",
   "name": "China",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "mirror-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The mirror",
   "as": "the sign family it belongs to: a surface that sends a thing back where it came from",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "to": "toli-mirror",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Toli",
   "as": "the steppe cousin — a metal mirror worn on a shaman's body as armour, where this one is bolted to a building",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Fulu — Taoist talismanic craft",
   "as": "the tradition behind the Taoist mirror techniques it is said to descend from",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "charm-coin",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Chinese charm coin",
   "as": "the pocket-sized carrier of the same eight trigrams, cast in bronze",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "fu-talisman",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Fu talisman",
   "as": "the written remedy at the same doorway, where this is the optical one",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Hanging at the door",
   "as": "the practice: a charm fixed to a building, aimed outward, guarding a threshold and not a body",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "hex-sign",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hex sign",
   "as": "Pennsylvania's painted answer on the same part of a building, argued over in the same way",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "nazar",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Nazar",
   "as": "the other thing hung facing out over a door, which answers a look rather than a corner",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "ping-an-fu",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ping'an fu",
   "as": "the portable Taiwanese charm for the same household, renewed yearly while this stays up",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-bagua",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Bagua",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-chinese-numismatic-charm",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Chinese numismatic charm",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numismatic_charm",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-fulu",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Fulu",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulu",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "note": "the closing observation about neighbours is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "inference",
   "note": "the retail description is reasoned from the source's point about cheap self-administered fixes; no market source was read"
  },
  "etymology": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "house",
   "label": "Harm to a house or a field",
   "who": "feng shui practice, in which sharp building corners and a road running at a house are sources of poison-arrows the mirror is hung to deflect",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "spirits",
   "label": "Ghosts and hungry spirits",
   "who": "the account of the bronze mirrors this one descends from, used by Taoist masters in Mirror Techniques said to reveal or destroy evil spirits",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "bad-luck",
   "label": "Bad luck, unspecified",
   "who": "householders who hang one to alter the feng shui conditions of a residence",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-bagua",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "glass",
   "label": "Glass",
   "kind": "fired"
  },
  {
   "key": "brass",
   "label": "Brass",
   "kind": "metal"
  },
  {
   "key": "copper",
   "label": "Copper and bronze",
   "kind": "metal"
  },
  {
   "key": "wood",
   "label": "Wood",
   "kind": "plant"
  },
  {
   "key": "plastic",
   "label": "Plastic and resin",
   "kind": "modern"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "door",
   "label": "At the door",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "wall",
   "label": "On a wall",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "shop",
   "label": "At the till",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "roof",
   "label": "On the roof",
   "group": "placed"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "mirror",
  "label": "Mirror"
 },
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "undated",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "CN",
   "name": "China"
  },
  {
   "iso": "HK",
   "name": "Hong Kong"
  },
  {
   "iso": "TW",
   "name": "Taiwan"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "charm-coin",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Chinese charm coin",
   "as": "the other object that puts the eight trigrams to work, on a wall rather than in a pocket",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "fu-talisman",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Fu talisman",
   "as": "the other Taoist fixture at a doorway, working by reflection where this works by writing",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "hex-sign",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hex sign",
   "as": "the other painted geometric disc in this atlas fixed to the outside of a building, and a useful comparison because nobody argues about what that one is for",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "ping-an-fu",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ping'an fu",
   "as": "the fixed version at the same door: this one rides in a pocket, that one is screwed above the lintel",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "toli-mirror",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Toli",
   "as": "the Chinese neighbour doing the same optical job from a doorway, on a building rather than on a body",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Fulu — Taoist talismanic craft",
   "as": "the door-piece whose techniques the tradition is credited with, and the one household object here that works by reflection rather than by writing",
   "rel": "carries"
  },
  {
   "from": "coin-square",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The square hole",
   "as": "hung on the same walls and sold from the same shelf, and appearing on lock charms as a design",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "mirror-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The mirror",
   "as": "the Chinese object itself — trigrams round a disc, fixed above a door",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "from": "hanging-at-door",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Hanging at the door",
   "as": "the Chinese door fitting that answers the same question about what arrives at an entrance",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "the-eye-everywhere",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "The eye everywhere",
   "as": "the case this read declines to claim: a parallel with no documented line back to Sumeria",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ]
}