Chapter 7
The Principle of the Eight Trigrams
In This Chapter
The eight trigrams defined
The symbols of the eight trigrams
The meaning of the eight trigrams
The Before Heaven and After Heaven sequence of trigrams
The eight trigrams are the fundamental building blocks that form the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing (The Book of Changes). Each trigram expresses patterns of movement and change. Each has been used extensively in the fields of philosophy, astrology, Chinese traditional medicine, numerology, the martial arts, mathematics, and, of course, feng shui.
Understanding the eight trigrams will give you greater insight into the patterns of change inherent in nature and in you.
Motion over Matter—Qi’s Pattern of Movement
As you learned in Chapter 4, feng shui is wrapped around the concept of qi—the mysterious underlying force whose existence has yet to be proven scientifically. To the Chinese, whether or not this age-old notion is bolstered by scientific data is irrelevant. In the East, intuitive wisdom has always reigned over rational knowledge. Qi is a fact of life. They know it’s here, there, and everywhere. So, how can you study that which cannot be seen?
Simply, the ancient Chinese followed how qi navigates through the cycles of yin and yang. Studying its patterns of movement, transformation, and evolution through nature’s elements was considered far more important than studying the isolated element itself. In fact, the whole of nature was seen as a network of interconnected and interdependent events. These events, phases, or patterns were correlated into a symmetrical model representing all possible natural and human situations. This model is called the principle of the eight trigrams.
Interestingly, Fritjof Capra, in his thought-provoking book, The Tao of Physics (Shambhala, fourth edition, 2000), points out that this Eastern concept bears a striking resemblance to German physicist Werner Heisenberg’s (1901–1976) S-Matrix theory. In the theory developed in 1943, Heisenberg described the realm of hadrons (a class of subatomic particles) as a network of inseparable reactions. Reactions connect particles to other reactions. The particle is secondary to its chain of movement and transformation. Like the principle of the eight trigrams, Heisenberg’s S-Matrix theory explains all possible reactions relating to hadrons.
Wise Words
The eight trigrams are symbols representing transitional phases of all possible natural and human situations.
In feng shui, the movement, change, and interactions of qi, together with the elements of time and space, determine your state of being. Understanding the eight trigrams and their associations will help you to enhance good qi and correct bad qi.
Eight Is Enough
Out of the dynamic interplay of yin and yang, a family of eight trigrams is born. Take a look at the following illustration. As indicated, yang (male) is represented by a solid line, and yin (female) is represented by a broken line. Individually, yang and yin each produce two offspring. How so? Upon closer examination of respective offspring, you’ll notice that the bottom line corresponds to the “parent” yang or yin line in question. The addition of the top yang or yin line results in the production of four unique pairs or bigrams (sixiang, in Chinese). Next, each of the four bigrams produces two trigrams each, the bottom two lines identical to the parent pair. Again, only the addition of the top yang or yin line distinguishes the trigram from its “sibling.”
Together, the eight trigrams, or what is known as the bagua, represent the maximum number of yang or yin combinations in sets of three. If you continue multiplying the eight trigrams by themselves, you’ll end up with the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing, but we won’t concern ourselves with that here.
Wise Words
The bagua are the eight trigrams of the Yijing. “Ba” means “eight,” and “gua” means “the result of divination.” Figuratively, the bagua suggests creating heaven on earth.
How do you interpret the trigram symbols? What do they mean? And what do they have to do with feng shui? You’ll soon find out!
Meet the Bagua Family
As you have just learned, the eight fundamental trigrams (and hexagrams) are built from the bottom line up. The bottom line represents earth. The middle line represents humankind, and the top line, heaven. The line that is different determines the trigram’s gender (a fuller explanation of this is coming up).
Aside from their gender identity, the trigrams are associated with a host of natural and human phenomena: the seasons, the time of day, magnetic directions, the five phases and their corresponding colors, animals, human personality types (merchants, teachers, thieves, and so on), body parts, related illnesses, and numbers. The trigrams are even given a name appropriate to their qi energy (“the arousing,” “the gentle,” “the clinging”). Although each association is significant, we’ve listed only those attributes that will be the most useful to your study and practice of feng shui.
So, let’s meet the men in the bagua family. Remember, a male is represented by the solid yang line. Referring to each illustration, watch how line 1 (the bottom line) moves up the trigram, creating each new male family member.
 | Chinese Name: Qian (pronounced CHEEAN) Palace: Heaven Familial Relation: Father, Husband, Owner, President, King Hou Tian Direction: Northwest Phase: Metal Colors: Gold, Silver, White Body Parts: Head, Lungs Loushu Number: 6 |
 | Chinese Name: Zhen (pronounced JUN) Palace: Thunder Familial Relation: Oldest Son Hou Tian Direction: East Phase: Wood Color: Green Body Parts: Feet, Liver Loushu Number: 3 |
 | Chinese Name: Kan (pronounced KAWN) Palace: Water Familial Relation: Middle Son or Middle-Aged Man Hou Tian Direction: North Phase: Water Colors: Black, Blue Body Parts: Ears, Blood, Kidneys Loushu Number: 1 |
 | Chinese Name: Gen (pronounced GUN) Palace: Mountain Familial Relation: Youngest Son or Child Hou Tian Direction: Northeast Phase: Earth Colors: Brown, Yellow Body Parts: Hands, Fingers Loushu Number: 8 |
Do you see how each family member is created? Now, let’s meet the women of the bagua family. Again, watch how the bottom yin line moves up the trigram, creating each new female family member.
 | Chinese Name: Kun (pronounced KUEN) Palace: Earth Familial Relation: Mother, Wife, Grandmother, Old Woman Hou Tian Direction: Southwest Phase: Earth Colors: Brown, Yellow Body Parts: Abdomen, Stomach Loushu Number: 2 |
 | Chinese Name: Xun (pronounced SHUEN) Palace: Wind Familial Relation: Oldest Daughter Hou Tian Direction: Southeast Phase: Wood Color: Green Body Parts: Thighs, Buttocks, Lower Back Loushu Number: 4 |
 | Chinese Name: Li (pronounced LEE) Palace: Fire Familial Relation: Middle Daughter or Middle-Aged Woman Hou Tian Direction: South Phase: Fire Colors: Red, Purple, Burnt Orange, Pink Body Parts: Eyes, Heart Loushu Number: 9 |
 | Chinese Name: Dui (pronounced DWAY) Palace: Lake Familial Relation: Youngest Daughter or Young Girl Hou Tian Direction: West Phase: Metal Colors: Gold, Silver, White Body Parts: Mouth, Teeth, Tongue, Chest Loushu Number: 7 |
These are the eight members of the bagua, or trigram, family. Although the symbols might seem abstract and their configurations daunting, don’t worry. In time you’ll come to recognize each trigram and its corresponding associations. It’s similar to learning to understand road signs. After a while, the abstract symbols for Yield, No Entry, and No Passing become absorbed into your subconscious realm of knowns. So will the trigrams, if you give them a chance.
The Cyclic Pattern of the Bagua
Although the eight trigrams can be arranged in many different ways, only two configurations really make sense. The first arrangement, shown in the following illustration, is called the Before Heaven sequence. “Before Heaven” is an interpretive translation of the Chinese term Xian Tian, which means “prior to the appearance of the phenomenal world.” The Before Heaven sequence denotes perfect balance and harmony.
All eight qi forces are balanced by their counterparts: Heaven is balanced by earth, water by fire. Or, father is balanced by mother, and middle son by middle daughter. In essence, this arrangement represents the ideal world, the underlying reality. The problem with the Before Heaven sequence is that it’s motionless, a study of still life. It doesn’t move, transform, or interact. Let’s move on.
The second arrangement, shown in the following illustration, is called the After Heaven sequence. Translated from the Chinese term Hou Tian, it means “after the appearance of the phenomenal world.” The After Heaven sequence follows the cyclic changes of yin and yang. Each trigram evolves in a natural sequence of events in a lifelike world. In feng shui, we use the After Heaven sequence to analyze how the movement of qi’s forces affects you.
Beginning with the Zhen trigram to the east and moving in a clockwise motion, spring arrives with a clap of thunder. Next, the Xun trigram’s gentle winds nourish the growth and development of summer’s expansion. Li follows. The intensity of Li’s brightness gives rise to early autumn’s soft light. In human consciousness, Li is a time of love and curiosity. You are the middle daughter exploring new concepts.
Next comes Kun, early autumn. You are maturing and receptive to new ideas. But it is in Dui that you turn inward, harvesting what you’ve learned. It’s a time of reflection and self-assessment. With Qian’s emergence comes the beginning of winter. Intuitive wisdom takes over as you develop your inner spirit. In Kan, you submerge yourself even further into the profundities of life, deep meditation. You are still and quiet as midnight. Your inward journey is now completed. In Gen, clouds form over winter’s repose, and thunder heralds a new cycle of growth and development.
Wise Words
The Before Heaven sequence of trigrams, called the Xian Tian in Chinese, represents an ideal reality where natural and human qi forces are in perfect balance. The After Heaven sequence of trigrams, called the Hou Tian in Chinese, denotes motion, transformation, and the interaction of natural and human qi forces.
As shown in the next illustration, the eight trigram circle is squared off to form a grid of eight place values (with the center representing Earth). This allows the principle of the eight trigrams (along with the yin and yang and five phase theories) to correlate to the Luoshu, also known as the magic square, which you’ll learn about in Chapter 11.
Patterns of Numbers
The combination of solid and broken lines forming the trigrams and hexagrams corresponds to the binary system of mathematics—the same system used today in computer programming. Every function your computer performs—calculations, graphics, and word processing—uses binary numeration. The system uses 01 for the number 1 and 10 for the number 2. The succeeding numbers compute as shown in the following table.
1 = 01
2 = 10
3 = 11
4 = 100
5 = 101
6 = 110
7 = 111
8 = 1000
9 = 1001
10 = 1010
11 = 1011
12 = 1100
13 = 1101
14 = 1110
15 = 1111
In the same way, if you let yang (solid line) represent the number one and yin (broken line) represent zero, you can see that the combinations follow the rules of binary numeration. For example, reading the trigrams from the bottom line up, trigram 
, or 001, represents binary number 1.
Trigram 
, or 010, represents binary number 2.
Trigram 
, or 011, represents binary number 3, and so forth.
Get the idea? Flip back a couple of pages to the illustration of the bagua family tree. We’ve included the binary code for all eight trigrams.
How this mathematical interpretation of the trigrams and hexagrams was discovered is an interesting story. It began with German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646–1716), who believed the mathematical system proved God’s creation of the world: Everything was created by God (1) from nothing (0).
As the story goes, Leibnitz was corresponding with a Jesuit missionary in China, Father Joachim Bouvet, at the time. In 1701, hoping to persuade the Chinese to accept the Christian doctrine with his mystical calculations, Leibnitz sent Bouvet a copy of his published work on binary numeration. Bouvet recognized a connection between the binary system and the Yijing’s symbols and sent him a circular arrangement of the hexagrams composed by Song dynasty philosopher Shao Yong. Remarkably, Yong’s arrangement was a mirror image of the base-two system from 0 to 63.
Can the fact that the East and West independently invented binary mathematics serve as an example for our ability to subconsciously tap into the Sea of Consciousness? Well, in this case, no. As we mentioned in Chapter 3, the original Yijing, the Zhouyi, was strictly a system of numerological divination in which sequences of odd and even numbers had significance. A Chinese scholar named Zhang Zhenglang made this discovery in the 1970s, theorizing that over time the odd numbers became the solid yang lines and the even numbers, the broken yin lines as we know them. Moreover, at the time the Yijing was assembled at the end of the second millennium B.C.E. by King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, the concept of zero was not yet known. (For a detailed account of Leibnitz, binary numeration, and the Yijing, see Chapter 10 of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the I Ching.)
Notable Quotables
The nature of the Ultimate Supreme [Taiji] is total balance. When motion is initiated, it generates spirituality. Spirituality generates numbers. Numbers generate emblems. Emblems generate vision. Vision generates transformation, everything returning to spirituality.
—Cosmological philosopher Shao Yong (1011–1077 C.E.)
So the real question is, what is the meaning of the patterns of numbers underlying the trigrams and hexagrams? Although we might never learn their meaning, clearly the ancient Chinese recognized correlative mathematical patterns made manifest in nature and human nature/events. They recorded how these macrocosmic events affected our microcosmic beings. You’ll study one such number-based system in Part 4. Until then, you must first learn about your ming gua, or guardian star, which influences your character.
The Least You Need to Know
The eight trigrams represent transitional phases in nature and in humans.
The eight trigrams are associated with things such as magnetic directions, colors, body parts, illness, and numbers.
The eight trigram symbols are read from the bottom line up. The bottom line represents earth; the middle line, humankind; and the top line, heaven.
The Before Heaven sequence of trigrams represents the perfect world where nature and human qi are balanced. The After Heaven sequence of trigrams represents motion and the interaction between natural forces and human qi.