Bagua (concept)

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Image:Pakua with name.svg The bagua (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bā guà; Wade-Giles: pa kua; literally "eight symbols") is a fundamental philosophical concept in ancient China. It is an octagonal diagram with one trigram on each side. The concept of bagua is applied not only to Chinese Taoist thought and the I Ching, but is also used in other domains of Chinese culture, such as fengshui, martial arts, navigation, and so on.

[edit] Origin

Image:Trigrams.jpg

There are two possible sources of bagua:

The first is from traditional Yin and Yang philosophy. The interrelationships of this philosophy were described by Fuxi in the following way:

无极生有极, 有极是太极,
太极生两仪, 即阴阳;
两仪生四象: 即少阳、太阳、少阴、太阴,
四象演八卦, 八八六十四卦
The Limitless (Wuji) produces the delimited, and this is the Absolute (Taiji)
The Taiji produces two forms, named yin and yang
The two forms produce four phenomena, named lesser yang, great yang (Taiyang also means the Sun), lesser yin, great yin (Taiyin also means the Moon).
The four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (ba gua), eight eights are sixty-four hexagrams. This has some parallels to Genesis where God starts with a void and separates light from darkness, heaven from earth, land from sea, sun from moon, etc. Gi-ming Shien of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francicso taught that the logos of ancient greece was the same as the Tao of Lao Tzu. Pangu or Yu Huang or Nüwa could also be considered comparable to Plato's demiurge.

Another philosophical description of the source is the following, attributed to King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty: "When the world began, there was heaven and earth. Heaven mated with the earth and gave birth to everything in the world. Heaven is Qian-gua, and the Earth is Kun-gua. The remaining six gua are their sons and daughters".

[edit] The Eight Trigrams

卦名 Name	自然 Nature	性情 Personality	家族 Family	方位 Direction	意義 Meaning
乾Qian	天 Heaven	健	父 Father	西北 Northwest	Expansive energy, the sky.
兌Dui	泽 Marsh	悦	少女 Youngest Daughter	西 West	Joy, satisfaction, stagnation.
離Li	火 Fire	麗	中女 Middle Daughter	南 South	Rapid movement, radiance, the sun.
震Zhen	雷 Thunder	動	長男 Eldest Son	東 East	Excitation, revolution, division.
巽Xun	風 Wind	入	長女 Eldest Daughter	東南 Southeast	Gentle penetration, flexibility.
坎Kan	水 Water	陥	中男 Middle Son	北 North	Danger, rapid rivers, the abyss, the moon.
艮Gen	山 Mountain	止	少男 Youngest Son	東北 Northeast	Stillness, immovability.
坤Kun	地 Earth	順	母 Mother	西南 Southwest	Receptive energy, that which yields.

[edit] Others

In Taiwan's colloquial mandarin, bagua, symbol of all changes and transformations, means "gossip" ; ex : 你很八卦 = You're such a gossip ; 八卦新聞 = tabloïd ;