Bagua (八卦) represents the thoughts of Chinese philosophy. Besides the Art Of Chinese Divination and Feng Shui, the impact of using Bagua (八卦) concept involved Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Martial Arts, Chinese Music and other aspects of Chinese Culture.
The relationships between the trigrams are represented in two arrangements:
- The Primordial Bagua (先天八卦)
- The Manifested Bagua (後天八卦)
Also known as "Earlier Heaven" or "Fuxi" Bagua (伏羲八卦)
The trigrams on Primordial Bagua (先天八卦 - Xian Tian Bagua) is symmetrical by forming exact contrary pairs. They symbolize the opposite forces of Yin and Yang and represent an ideal state, when everything is in balance. This arrangement based ONLY on the equilibrium between Heaven and the Universe. It did not take into the consideration the on the changes of the environmental conditions and the elements became hostile.
Primordial Bagua (先天八卦) is mainly used in:
- Taoist Talismans / Sorcery / Rituals/
- Taoist Exorcism
- Taoist Temples
- Taoist Black Command Flag
- Bagua Mirrors
- Feng Shui Analysis for burial sites
THE CREATION OF XIAN_TIAN BA-GUA (先天八卦)
Fuxi (伏羲, Fu Xi or Fu Hsi) is one of the 3 Sovereigns of the ancient period of the "3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors" of China (2850 - 2200 BC). He discovered the HeTu(河图)- "Yellow River Chart" on the back of a mythical dragon-horse that emerged from the Luo River （洛河）.
The HeTu(河图) Fu-Xi discovered inspired him to create the Ba-Gua, known as Primordial Bagua (先天八卦). Primordial Bagua (先天八卦) is derived from HeTu (河图).
HeTu (河图)
Fuxi's Definition Of Ba-Gua:
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 yin, great yin (taiyin also means the Moon), lesser yang, great yang (taiyang also means the Sun).
The four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (bagua), eight eights are sixty-four hexagrams.
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”，此为伏羲八卦，也叫先天八卦
The Manifested Bagua (後天八卦)
- Also known as "Later Heaven" or "King Wen" Bagua (文王八卦)
The arrangement of the trigrams on "King Wen" Bagua (文王八卦) describes the patterns of the environmental changes. "King Wen" Bagua (文王八卦) depicts an evolving and ever-changing universe. It describes the world where time and matter interact and exert their influence upon the living. It also describes the cycle of movement that allows progress.
"King Wen" Bagua (文王八卦) is mainly used in:
- Feng Shui Analysis for residential sites
- The sequence used by the Luo Pan (Feng Shui Compass) in Feng Shui for residential sites
- Chinese Astrology
- Chinese Divination
- Traditional Chinese medicine
- Acupuncture
- Chinese Architecture
The CREATION OF HOU TIAN BA-GUA (後天八卦)
Yu the Great (大禹 c. 2200 - 2100 BC) was a legendary ruler in ancient China famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and for his upright moral character.
According to legend, Emperor Yu was sitting by the banks of Luo River (洛河) when a giant tortoise emerged from the river. Inscribed on its huge back were circular dots of black and white markings which made up a perfect 3 X 3 nine-grid pattern , known as the Luo Shu (洛书) diagram.
King Wen of Zhou (周文王) (1152 – 1056 BC) was king of Zhou during the late Shang dynasty in ancient China. He modified FuXi's Primordial Bagua (先天八卦) according to the Luo Shu (洛书) and the new arrangement became known as the Manifested Bagua (後天八卦 - Hou Tian Ba Gua).
Luo Shu (洛书)
King Wen's Definition Of Ba-Gua:
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 K'un-gua. The remaining six guas are their sons and daughters
周文王的乾坤学说，他认为先有天地，天地相交而生成万物，天即乾，地即坤，八卦其余六卦皆为其子女：震为长男，坎为中男，艮（读音：gèn）为少男；巽（读音：xùn）为长女，离为中女，兑为少女，是为文王八卦，又称后天八卦。
BAGUA AND I-CHING - THE BINARY SYSTEM OF ANCIENT CHINA
The three lines on the 8 corners of BAGUA (八卦) are either "Broken" or "Solid", representing Yin (Negative) or Yang (Positive). In mathematics and computer science, the binary numeral system, or base-2 numeral system, represents numeric values using two symbols: typically 0 (Negative) and 1 (Positive).
The discovery of modern binary number system was often credited to Wilhelm Von Leibuiz (1646-1716) , by the Western Science. Leibniz was first introduced to the I Ching (64 Hexagrams derived from the 2 Baguas Combined) through his contact with the French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet, who visited China in 1685 as a missionary.
Leibniz interpreted the hexagrams as evidence of binary calculus. The text contains a set of eight trigrams (Bagua) and a set of 64 hexagrams ("sixty-four" gua), analogous to the three-bit and six-bit binary numerals, were in use at least as early as the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China.
BAGUA Related Articles:
- The God / Founder Of Bagua (八卦祖师)
- The Taoist Bagua Jade (For expelling ghosts & Destroy Black Magic)