General Introduction of Bagua (concept)

The bagua (Chinese: 八卦; Pinyin: bā guà; Wade-Giles: pa kua; literally "eight symbols") is a fundamental philosophical concept in ancient China. It is generally represented with 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.

Origin

 

The eight trigrams of the bagua (King Wen "Later Heaven" order).

There are two possible sources of bagua: The first is from traditional Yin and Yang philosophy. The interrelationships of this philosophy were described by Fuxi in the following way:

無極生有極, 有極是太極,
太極生兩儀, 即陰陽;
兩儀生四象: 即少陰、太陰、少陽、太陽,
四象演八卦， 八八六十四卦
The Limitless (Wuji) produces the delimited, and this is the Absolute (Taiji)
The Taiji produces two forms, named yin and yang
The two forms produce four phenomena, named lesser yang, great yang (taiyang also means the Sun), lesser yin, great yin (taiyin also means the Moon).
The four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (ba gua), eight eights are sixty-four hexagrams.

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, Yu Huang or Nüwa could be considered comparable to Plato's demiurge.

Another philosophical description of the source is the following, attributed to King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty: "When the world began, there was heaven and earth. Heaven mated with the earth and gave birth to everything in the world. Heaven is Qian-gua, and the Earth is Kun-gua. The remaining six gua are their sons and daughters".

Note that "South" is always found at the top of the Bagua.

The Eight Trigrams (Pre-King Wen "Earlier Heaven" order)

The Eight Trigrams (King Wen "Later Heaven" order)

Bagua map

A bagua map is a tool used in modern forms of Feng Shui (especially Black Sect Tantric Buddhist Feng Shui) to map a room or location and see how the different sections correspond to different aspects in one's life. These sections are believed to relate to every area or aspect of our lives and are divided into such categories 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 negative or missing spaces and what may need rectifying or enhancing in life or the environment.

For example, if the Bagua grid is placed over the entire house plan and it shows the toilet, bathroom, laundry, or kitchen in the wealth/blessings area it would be considered that the money coming into that particular environment would disappear very fast, as if to be 'going down the drain.' Malaysia I Ching Net

Other meanings

In Taiwan's colloquial Mandarin and Hong Kong's Cantonese slang, bagua, symbol of all changes and transformations, means "gossip" ; ex : 你很八卦 = You're such a gossip ; 八卦新聞 = tabloid news;

In Popular Culture

The cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures, the trigrams are each written on a face of the Pan Ku Box, though Lake is reassigned to mean Moon.

The creators of the television series, Lost, incorporated the bagua symbol into the logo for the DHARMA Initiative.

In the anime/manga Naruto, the clan known as the Hyuga clan uses combat based on the Eight Trigrams, with their main attack called the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, involving a series of heavy strikes into pressure points on the opponent's body, or as a means of fast weaker attacks against many opponents.

In the anime/manga Outlaw Star, there is a form of energy called Tao Magic which is employed extensively by the Kei Pirates. There is a somewhat obscure Bagua reference near the end of the series when the Kei Pirate Hazanko constructs a method to force the Galactic Leyline open. When the method is completed, a giant Bagua-like shape appears in space with the Leyline as the center just before the way inside is opened.

View a tour plan to Tian'an men Square and Forbidden City