The eight trigrams
Trigrams are symbols composed of three straight lines, which are said to have been invented by the king Fu Hsi around 4500 BC. He used these symbols to make observations of heaven and earth, and note the comments made. Symbols represent the sky, lake, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain and earth. Characteristic of these symbols is that the continuous lines represent Yang and interrupted in the middle – Yin.
The eight trigrame are placed in a specific sequence, with the sky at the top (south) and earth at the bottom (north). This arrangement of the eight trigrame symbolize natural phenomena or nature forces. For this reason it is considered they have a protection role. There are two arrangements of trigrams, previous the Creation and after. This arrangements of the eight trigrame has been made to reflect the transformation of elements during the four seasons. Thunder and wind have been placed in the east and south-west being attached to wood phase and spring season. The fire was placed in the south to symbolize summer trigrams associated to metal element – the lake and the sky – in the west and north-west symbolizing the fall season and finally, mountain and earth corresponding to earth phase were placed in opposite sides, one in south-west and the other in the north-east – this being the central line of Tai Ji, which reflects the importance of land throughout the year.
Recent Comments