Patent Application
20080164656
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game disk, and more particularly to a Ba-Gua (Eight-trigram) game disk for self-divination and home entertainment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Yi-Jing (The Book of Changes) and Ba-Gua (Eight-trigram) are both ancient Chinese heritage. Yi-Jing, Ba-Gua is related to two (Yi) divinations evolving to four (Xiang) divinations, four (Xiang) divinations to eight (Fang) divinations, eight (Fang) divinations to sixteen (Xing) divinations, sixteen (Xing) divinations to twenty-four (Jie) divinations, twenty-four (Jie) divinations to thirty-two (Qi) divinations, thirty-two (
Qi) divinations to forty (Wei) divinations, forty (Wei) divinations to forty-eight (Zhu) divinations, forty-eight (Zhu) divinations to fifty-six (
Chi) divinations and fifty-six (
Chi) divinations to sixty-four (Cheng) divinations. The mysterious principles of Yi-Jing and Ba-Gua tell the Yin-Yang (Moon & Sun) of the Chinese mythology and the eternal recycle of all forms. Yi-Jing and Ba-Gua is the most commonly used method in augury. However, the knowledge involved is so profound and so vast that no one is able to grasp the essence of it within a short period of time. There is no shortcut to learning to master and interpret symbols of Yi-Jing and Ba-Gua. An expert is needed when interpretation of divinatory symbols is required, which is quite troublesome and annoyed.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide an improved eight-trigram game disk to mitigate the aforementioned problems.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an eight-trigram game disk to allow the player to easily grasp the meaning of the divinatory symbols shown from the game disk of the present invention The principle of the game disk is entirely based on forty-eight primary divinations of Yi-Jing Chi-Men (Mysterious Gate). That is, the divinations of the game disk of the present invention have eight primary divinations, i.e. Qian is Heaven, Dui is Marsh, Li is Fire, Zhen is Thunder, Kun is Earth, Gen is Mountain, Kan is Water and Xun is Wind
In order to accomplish the aforementioned objective, the game disk of the present invention has a disk divided into a dice area and a Ba-Gua area surrounding the dice area and composed of Qian (), Dui (
), Li (
), Zhen (
), Kun (
), Gen (
), Kan (
) and Xun (
). A transparent enclosure attached on top of the disk and has an inner cover centrally extending from an inner periphery of the transparent enclosure to cover the dice area such that the Ba-Gua area is separated from the dice area by the inner cover. A dice is movably received in the dice area and a ball is received in the Ba-Gua area such that with assistance of a reference book, the player is able to easily tell the meaning of what the locations of the dice and the ball indicate.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The disk (10) has a centrally formed flat dice area (11) and a Ba-Gua area (12) both formed on a top face of the disk. The disk (10) has a flat bottom face so that the disk (10) is able to be firmly placed on a surface. The dice area (11) is parallel relative to the bottom face and the Ba-Gua area (12) is inclined relative to the dice area (11). That is the Ba-Gua area (12) has a conical outer face and is divided into eight sections (120), namely Qian (), Dui (
), Li (
), Zhen (
), Kun (
), Gen (
) Kan (
) and Xun (
) by eight bars (121) formed on and slightly protruding out of the conical outer face of the Ba-Gua area (12). An annular belt (101) is sandwiched between the dice area (11) and the Ba-Gua area (12). An annular slit (100) is defined at a joint between the dice area (11) and the annular belt (101).
The dice (20) is a cube and has six faces each designated with a numeral from 1˜6. The ball (30) is able to roll on the conical outer face of the Ba-Gua area (12) and eventually received in one of the eight sections (120).
The transparent enclosure (40) is placed on top of the disk (10) to enclose the entire top face of the disk (10). The transparent enclosure (40) is composed of an inner 8 cover (41) corresponding to the dice area (11) and an outer cover (42) integrally formed with the inner cover (41) and corresponding to the Ba-Gua area (12). Therefore, when the transparent enclosure (40) of the present invention is placed on top of the disk (10) after the dice (20) is received in the dice area (11) and the ball (30) is rested on the annular belt (101), a bottom periphery (410) of the inner cover (41) is received in the annular slit (100) and the outer cover (42) is able to connect to an outer periphery of the Ba-Gua area (12) to entirely enclose the dice area (11) and the Ba-Gua area (12) such that the dice (11) is retained within an area defined by the inner cover (41) and the ball (30) is limited within the B a-Gua area (12) and eventually stopped on top of the annular belt (101).
With reference to
A reference book (90) should at least contain forty-eight pages. However, only four pages are shown for reference. Each page of the reference book (90) contains at least a divinatory symbol column (91) on the top left of the page, an interpretation column (96) on the top right of the page, a wishing column (92) at the bottom left of the divinatory symbol column (91) and the interpretation column (96), a male index (94) and a female index (93) at the bottom right of the divinatory symbol column (91) and the interpretation column (96), wherein the wishing column (92) is categorized into a business column, a fortune column, love affair column, a health column, schooling column and travelling column. Each column under the wishing column (92) is again divided into an index description column (95) containing a short description of each index, because each divinatory symbol represents different meanings when it comes to gender.
Explanation of how the game disk is played is provided as followings. After shaking the disk (10) and the disk (10) is placed on a surface, e.g., the ground and the ball (30) stops at Qian () with the dice (20) showing the reference numeral 1 (one point), the player checks the reference book (90) to look for the same divinatory symbol column (91) at the top left of the pages. If the player is a female wishing to know how she is doing in the business, the divinatory symbol Qian 1 (
1) is designated with the wishing index numeral six (6), the player is advised not to be proud of something achieved in the business. If the player is a male wishing to know show he is doing in the business, the divinatory symbol Qian 1 (
1) is designated with the wishing index which represents that the player is advised not to carry away from something achieved in the business.
From the foregoing description, it is quite simple and easy for the player to play the game disk of the present invention. With the interpretation of the reference book (90), there is not need for an expert to interpret the meaning of the divinatory symbol and the game disk of the present invention can be played by multiple players simultaneously.
Despite the Ba-Gua fortune telling game, the game disk of the present invention can also be used to guess what numeral will appear on the dice (20), as shown in the A section, at what divinatory symbol will the ball (30) stops, as shown in the B section and what the combination of the locations of both the dice (20) and the ball (30) will represent, as shown in the C section.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
