Over 12 Rounds, players buy and sell four Element Cards — Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. At the end of every Round, a Heaven Card is flipped over (one of the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching), which changes the Market Price. At Settlement, if you hold no Water you pay a Living Cost; if you hold no Earth you pay Rent. You can also borrow with your Integrity Tokens, but the money must be repaid — principal and Interest. When the 12 Rounds are over, the player with the highest Net Worth (cash + the market value of your Element Cards − debt) wins. First make sure you survive, then learn to read the Heaven Cards and buy low, sell high — that is the whole secret.
The game supports 2–8 players. Practising alone? You can play against AI. Want a game night with friends? Several people can play together in hot-seat mode (taking turns on the same device). In the online version, you are free to choose the number of players and the AI difficulty when you start a game.
Every game runs a fixed 12 Rounds. A solo game against AI takes roughly 15–30 minutes; hot-seat multiplayer takes longer, since every Round waits for each player's action. The online version offers an option to speed up AI actions, which can cut the time considerably.
When the 12 Rounds are over, each player's Net Worth is calculated: cash + the total market value of the Element Cards you hold − debt. The player with the highest Net Worth wins, and a bankrupt player cannot take the crown. If players tie, they win together. In short: it is not about who holds the most cash, but about who allocates their total assets best.
The Divination decides the opening, and the Heaven Cards decide how Market Prices move — so yes, there is randomness. But the deciding factor is strategy: read the Heaven Card trend and position yourself early, manage your cash flow so Living Costs never drag you down, use the leverage of Loans carefully, and make good use of your Role Skill. In the very same game, an expert and a beginner can finish with very different rankings. Luck decides the opening; strategy decides the ending.
Roles are assigned at random when the cards are dealt, and every Role has a unique skill (active or passive). For example, the Scholar can convert Wood into Gold, Laozi is exempt from the Water cost, and the Tightener can sell without limit. No Role is absolutely stronger or weaker — using it at the right moment is what counts. To get to know each Role first, check out the role introduction article on this site.
On your very first Round, buy a Water Card first to stay alive (otherwise a Living Cost is deducted at Settlement), then watch the Market Prices and the Heaven Card trend and try to buy low and sell high. Do not rush into Loans, and do not bet all your money on a single card. The game has a full tutorial mode built in that walks you step by step through buying and selling, ending a Round, Loans and skills — beginners are advised to play the tutorial once first.
Each Integrity Token lets you borrow 4 gold, and what you borrow must be repaid, with Interest charged as the Heaven Cards unfold. A Loan makes sense when there is a sure price spread (for example, when a Heaven Card clearly points to a rise); it does not suit gambling on luck. Whenever you are holding idle cash, pay off your debt first — the Interest you save is profit you keep.
The online version is completely free — no download or installation required. Just open the page and play: toujiedao.com. It works in both mobile and desktop browsers.
The game is built on the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching as its framework (the Heaven Cards), with the generating and overcoming cycles of the Five Elements as its economic system, all layered with modern financial concepts such as cash flow, loan leverage, Interest on debt and Bankruptcy liquidation. For the detailed mechanics, refer to the rules page and the article "The I Ching and the Wisdom of Trading".
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