Bagua in the context of "Taiji (philosophy)"

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⭐ Core Definition: Bagua

The bagua (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bāguà; lit. 'eight trigrams') is a set of symbols from China intended to illustrate the nature of reality as comprising mutually opposing forces reinforcing one another. Bagua is a group of trigrams—composed of three lines, each either "broken" or "unbroken", which represent yin and yang, respectively. Each line having two possible states allows for a total of 2 = 8 trigrams, whose early enumeration and characterization in China has had an effect on the history of Chinese philosophy and cosmology.

The trigrams are related to the divination practice as described within the I Ching and practiced as part of the Shang and Zhou state religion, as well as with the concepts of taiji and the five elements within traditional Chinese metaphysics. The trigrams have correspondences in astronomy, divination, meditation, astrology, geography, geomancy (feng shui), anatomy, decorative arts, the family, martial arts (particularly tai chi and baguazhang), Chinese medicine and elsewhere.

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👉 Bagua in the context of Taiji (philosophy)

In Chinese philosophy, taiji (Chinese: 太極; pinyin: tàijí; Wade–Giles: tʻai chi; trans. "supreme ultimate") is a cosmological state of the universe and its affairs on all levels—including the mutually reinforcing, codependent interactions between the two opposing forces of yin and yang (a dualistic monism), as well as that among the Three Treasures, the four cardinal directions, and the Five Elements—which together ultimately bring about the myriad of things from the Eight directions, each with their own nature. The concept of taiji has reappeared throughout the technological, religious, and philosophical history of the Sinosphere, finding concrete application in techniques developed in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine.

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Bagua in the context of King Wen sequence

The King Wen sequence (Chinese: 文王卦序) is an arrangement of the sixty-four divination figures in the I Ching (often translated as the Book of Changes). They are called hexagrams in English because each figure is composed of six 爻 yáo—broken or unbroken lines, that represent yin or yang respectively.

The King Wen sequence is also known as the "received" or "classical" sequence because it is the oldest surviving arrangement of the hexagrams. Its true age and authorship are unknown. Traditionally, it is said that King Wen of Zhou arranged the hexagrams in this sequence while imprisoned by King Zhou of Shang in the 12th century BC. A different arrangement, the "binary sequence" named in honor of the mythic culture hero Fu Xi, originated in the Song dynasty. It is believed to be the work of scholar Shao Yong (1011–1077 AD). As mirrored by the 先天 Earlier Heaven and 後天 Later Heaven arrangements of the eight trigrams, or bagua, it was customary to attribute authorship to these legendary figures. Of the two hexagram arrangements, the King Wen sequence is, however, of much greater antiquity than the Fu Xi sequence.

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Bagua in the context of East Asian religions

In the study of comparative religion, the East Asian religions, form a subset of the Eastern religions which originated in East Asia.

This group includes Chinese religion overall, which further includes ancestor veneration, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism and popular salvationist organisations (such as Yiguandao and Weixinism), as well as elements drawn from Mahayana Buddhism that form the core of Chinese and East Asian Buddhism at large. The group also includes Shinto and Tenrikyo of Japan, and Korean Shamanism, all of which combine shamanistic elements and indigenous ancestral worship with various influences from Chinese religions. Chinese salvationist religions have influenced the rise of Japanese new religions such Tenriism and Korean Jeungsanism; as these new religious movements draw upon indigenous traditions but are heavily influenced by Chinese philosophy and theology. All these religious traditions generally share core concepts of spirituality, divinity and world order, including Tao ('way') and Tian ('heaven').

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Bagua in the context of Fengshui woodland

A "Fengshui woodland," "Fungshui woodland," or "Fengshui Forest," known in Chinese as 風水林 (fēngshuǐlín - "Wind-water Forest") is a grove, forest, or woodland protected by the residents of villages, towns, or, in some cases, religious communities associated with Daoist or Buddhist monasteries or temples. Also known as Chinese geomantic woodlands, they are most often found near lineage villages. The trees and other plants in the woodland can either be natural or planted. Many of the trees in fengshui woodlands are the results of natural succession, and they comprise some of the most mature forest stands in China, often resembling old growth forests. Fengshui forests also contain trees planted by village ancestors, because people consider the fengshuilin an essential part of a geographical environment largely shaped by humans. These strategically protected and cultivated forests were part of the landscape design repertoire of wet rice farmers as they adapted to the humid subtropical ecosystems of southern China. Fengshui and fengshui groves were also utilized to meet the specific conditions affecting houses, tombs, temples, and entire villages. Fengshui woodlands are widely located in East Asia, while a few can be found in Chinese settlements outside of Asia.

In addition, fengshui woodland are related to many Chinese culture concepts, including funerals, the city gods, redecorating the temple, the eight diagrams. Only important individual objects are described.

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Bagua in the context of Hexagram (I Ching)

The I Ching book consists of 64 hexagrams.A hexagram in this context is a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines ( yáo), where each line is either Yang (an unbroken, or solid line), or Yin (broken, an open line with a gap in the center). The hexagram lines are traditionally counted from the bottom up, so the lowest line is considered line one while the top line is line six. Hexagrams are formed by combining the original eight trigrams in different combinations. Each hexagram is accompanied with a description, often cryptic, akin to parables. Each line in every hexagram is also given a similar description.

The Chinese word for a hexagram is "guà", although that also means trigram.

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Bagua in the context of Fu Xi

Fuxi or Fu Hsi (Chinese: 伏羲) is a culture hero in Chinese mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2900 BC or 2000 BC. He is also said to be the originator of bagua (the eight trigrams) after observing that there were eight fundamental building blocks in nature: heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake. These eight are all made of different combinations of yin and yang, which are what came to be called bagua.

Fuxi was counted as the first mythical emperor of China, "a divine being with a serpent's body" who was miraculously born, a Taoist deity, and/or a member of the Three Sovereigns at the beginning of the Chinese dynastic period. Some representations show him as a human with snake-like characteristics, "a leaf-wreathed head growing out of a mountain", "or as a man clothed with animal skins."

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Bagua in the context of Flag of South Korea

The national flag of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), also known as the Taegeukgi (Korean태극기; Hanja太極旗), consists of three components: a white rectangular background, a red and blue taegeuk in its center, accompanied by four black trigrams, one in each corner. The predecessors to the current Taegeukgi were used as the national flag of Korea by the Joseon dynasty, the Korean Empire, as well as the Korean government-in-exile during Japanese rule. South Korea adopted Taegeukgi for its national flag in 1948.

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Bagua in the context of Baguazhang

Baguazhang (Chinese: 八卦掌; pinyin: bā guà zhǎng; Wade–Giles: pa-kua chang) is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being tai chi and xingyiquan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia). Baguazhang literally means "eight trigram palm", referring to the bagua "trigrams" of the Yijing, one of the canons of Daoism.

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