Bagua

'eight trigrams') is a set of symbols from China intended to illustrate the nature of reality as being composed of mutually opposing forces reinforcing one another.

[1] Each line having two possible states allows for a total of 23 = 8 trigrams, whose early enumeration and characterization in China has had an effect on the history of Chinese philosophy and cosmology.

This explanation would later be modified to:[citation needed] The Limitless (wuji) produces the delimited, and this is the Absolute (taiji).

[14] The trigrams are related to the five elements of Wu Xing, which are used by feng shui practitioners and in traditional Chinese medicine.

The element of Wood corresponds with the trigrams of Wind (as a force that can erode and penetrate stone) and Thunder.

In the Preface of Shang Shu by Kong Anguo, he writes that "In ancient times, Fu Xi ruled the whole world.

It was he who began to draw Eight Trigrams and to create Scripts in order to substitute the system of tying knots.

Thunder and wind form another pair, being the opposites of each other; the first is on the bottom left next to fire, while the second is next to Heaven on the top right of the bagua.

It is the sequence used by the Luo Pan compass, which is used in feng shui and referred to as the manifest pattern; it analyzes the movement of the qi that practitioners believe affect them.

[17] Experienced practicers of traditional feng shui disregard Western bagua[18] for its simplicity, since it does not take into account the forms of the landscape, time, or the annual cycles.

These sections are believed to relate to every area or aspect of life and are divided into categories such as fame, relationships/marriage, children/creativity, helpful people/travel, career, inner knowledge, family/ancestors/health, and wealth/blessings.

In this system, the map is intended to be used over the land, one's home, office or desk to find areas lacking good chi, and to show where there are spaces that may need rectifying or enhancing in life or the environment.

For example, if the bagua grid is placed over an entire house plan and it shows the toilet, bathroom, laundry, or kitchen in the wealth/blessings area of the map, it would be said that the money coming into that particular environment would disappear very fast.

[19] The Flag of South Korea has the four cardinal trigrams (qian, kun, kan, li) surrounding the taegeuk, or taijitu.