Ancient Geyi pattern. "Tai Ping Yu Lan" says, "Fu Xi sat on a square altar, listened to the eight winds, and then drew the Eight Trigrams." Using "—" as yang and "--" as yin, the Eight Trigrams are composed: Qian for Heaven, Kun for Earth, Zhen for Thunder, Kan for Water, Gen for Mountain, Xun for Wind, Li for Fire, Dui for Lake, to classify all things. The Eight Trigrams are placed in eight directions, with the Taiji diagram in the center. "Yi Zhuan" believes that the Eight Trigrams mainly symbolize the eight natural phenomena: Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, Mountain, and Lake, and considers that the Qian and Kun trigrams hold particularly important positions among the Eight Trigrams, being the initial source of all phenomena in nature and human society. Originally, the Eight Trigrams were symbols used by ancient people to record events, later used as divination symbols. In ancient times, the Eight Trigrams were often used as auspicious patterns to ward off evil and disaster.
【Eight Trigrams Knowledge】
The word "gua" (trigram) is a character that conveys meaning, consisting of "gui" and "bu". "Gui" refers to the earth guǐ, which initially was made from mud to measure the shadow of the sun. "Bu" means measurement. Establishing eight guǐs to measure the shadow of the sun, that is, summarizing and recording the observed shadows from four directions and four corners, thus forming the image of the Eight Trigrams.
The most basic unit of the Eight Trigrams is "yao", mostly specialized symbols recording changes in the shadow. Yao has two types, yang yao representing sunlight and yin yao representing moonlight. Each trigram has three yao, representing the three elements of heaven, earth, and humanity. The heavenly part includes the entire movement of the celestial body and meteorological changes, known as astronomy in ancient times. The earthly part refers to methods of calculating the annual cycle by observing the shadow, understanding the entire process of growth, transformation, storage, and release. The human part refers to combining astronomy, geography, and human affairs to carry out production and life according to these laws. The order of each trigram is from bottom to top, the bottom horizontal line is called the first yao, the middle horizontal line is called the second yao, and the top horizontal line is called the third yao.
The Eight Trigrams represent eight basic images: Qian for Heaven, Kun for Earth, Zhen for Thunder, Xun for Wind, Dui for Lake, Kan for Water, Li for Fire, totaling the basic trigrams. By combining two of the eight basic trigrams, sixty-four trigrams are formed.
