Trigram (Chinese 卦, guà; for three-line symbols: 八卦, bāguà — "the eight symbols") is the basic symbol of Chinese cosmology, consisting of three lines (爻, yáo): solid (Yang, ⚊) and broken (Yin, ⚋).

Eight archetypes of the universe. The eight trigrams reflect the fundamental archetypes of the universe.

Origin

The legend of Fu Xi. The origin of the trigrams is attributed to the mythical emperor Fu Xi (伏羲, fúxī), who, according to legend, saw them on the back of a dragon emerging from the Yellow River.

Three Levels of Lines

Heaven — Human — Earth. The three lines symbolize three levels:

• Upper — Heaven
• Middle — Human
• Lower — Earth

The Eight Images

2³ = 8 combinations. 2³ = 8 combinations produce the eight basic images:

• Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind
• Water, Fire, Mountain, Lake

Trigrams in Different Methods

• I Ching (#6) — the building blocks of the 64 hexagrams: each hexagram = upper + lower trigram
• Feng Shui (#22) — trigrams correlate with the eight directions of space
• Nine Star Ki (#24) — with the nine sectors of the Lo Shu (洛書)