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Bagua (concept)

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The eight trigrams of the bagua.
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The eight trigrams of the bagua.

The bagua (Chinese: 八卦; Pinyin: bā guà; Wade-Giles: pa kua; literally "eight trigrams") is a fundamental philosophical concept in ancient China. It is an octagonal diagram with one trigram on each side. The concept of bagua is applied not only to Chinese Taoist thought and the I Ching, but is also used in other domains of Chinese culture, such as fengshui, martial arts, navigation, and so on.

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Origin

Bagua (Eight Trigrams)

八卦
卦名
Name
卦像
Trigram
自然
Nature
性情
Personality
家族
Family
方位
Direction
Qian 天Heaven 父 Father Northwest
Dui 泽Marsh 少女 Youngest Daughter West
Li 火Fire 中女 Middle Daughter South
Zhen 雷Thunder 長男 Eldest Son East
Xun 風Wind 長女 Eldest Daughter Southeast
Kan 水Water 中男 Middle Son North
Gen 山Mountain 少男 Youngest Son Northeast
Kun 地Earth 母 Mother Southwest

There are two possible sources of bagua:

This has some parallels to Genesis where God starts with a void and separates light from darkness, heaven from earth, land from sea, sun from moon, etc. Gi-ming Shien of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francicso taught that the logos of ancient greece was the same as the Tao of Lao Tzu. Pangu or Yu Huang or Nüwa could also be considered comparable to Plato's demiurge.

One representation of the bagua
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One representation of the bagua

Others

In in Taiwan's colloquial mandarin, bagua, symbol of all changes and transformations, means "gossip" ; ex : 你很八卦 = You're such a gossip ; 八卦新聞 = tabloïd ;

See also

External links

 


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