From Taiji to the Eight Trigrams

Everything in the world has Tai Chi, in terms of existence Zhou Yi, and suggests that the universe as a whole is also tai chiFrom an evolutionary perspective, tai chi is the starting point of the universe. The Appendix says: "In AND there is a Great Limit (tai chi), which produces the Two Forms. The two forms produce four images, and these four images produce the eight trigrams." This alludes to the evolution of the cosmological process, and also suggests that things or events can be divided into different parts, but are continuous through the parts and the whole.

The diagram representing the Great Limit is the Diagram Tai Chi, which consists of a white half-ring and a black half-ring, with a moving line separating them. The two half-rings look like fish, so the Taiji diagram is also called a fish yin yang. It is assumed that the universe begins with the original qi , which can be easily transformed into yinqi And yantzi . Yanzi light and clear, so it rises to tian (heaven), while yinqi heavy and dirty, falls down to become earth. This is the cosmological initial process of heaven and earth. In other words, everything is tai chi (Great Limit) as a whole, and it can be divided into yin And Jan"Two forms give rise to four images" means that as yin, and yanskie forms give birth to one yin and one Jan independently of each other, and four images arise: taiyan , shaoyin, Shaoyang, taiyinEach of these four images gives rise to one yin and one Jan, thus forming the eight trigrams.

There are two groups of eight trigrams: the Pre-Heavenly Sequence of Eight Trigrams (Xiantian bagua, 先天八卦) and the Post-Heavenly Eight Trigrams (Houtian Bagua, 后天八卦). The pre-heavenly sequence of the eight trigrams: qian Yes, blow Hello, li 离, zhen 震, xun Hello, canoe Hello, gen Hello, kun 坤, and each of them resonates with the fundamental thing of the image in the Universe: tian (heaven), lakes, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountains and earth.

The Eight Primordial Trigrams represent the original conditions of nature. In the Explanation of the Trigrams (shogua, 说卦) it is said: "Heaven and earth determine the direction. The forces of mountains and lakes are continuous. Thunder and Wind arise from each other. Water and fire do not fight each other. In this way the eight trigrams are intertwined. "This represents the Pre-Heavenly Eight Trigrams for the ancients, the Pre-Heavenly Eight Trigrams symbolized the original prototype of the world. However, after the original qi was divided, its nature remained the same, and the Great Limit developed into two forms, four images and eight trigrams. An example of the continuity of the one and man is that nature is preserved in different forms.

The Post-Heavenly Eight Trigrams were born from the rearrangement of the Pre-Heavenly Eight Trigrams. Sima Qian, a Han historian, wrote that "King Wen of Zhou introduced Zhou Yi , when he was in prison." Ji Chang, King of Zhou, was originally the leader of the state of Zhou in the late Shang Dynasty. He was imprisoned by the Zhou Emperor Yin in the city of Yuli for seven years simply for his "outspokenness." The Zhou Emperor Yin killed Ji Kao, the eldest son of King Wen, cut up his corpse, made a sandwich with it, and forced King Wen to eat it. Old King Wen, at the age of eighty-two, was forced to eat his son's flesh in tears. He then devoted the rest of his life to the trigrams and transformed the Pre-Heavenly Eight Trigrams of Fu Xi into the Post-Heavenly Eight Trigrams, later named after him.

The post-celestial Eight Trigrams start counting from the east and then clockwise. The post-celestial Eight Trigrams correspond to the directions and seasons of the year, as well as the movement of the Big Dipper. Therefore, the use of Zhou Yi based on the Post-Heavenly Eight Trigrams - and extends to the ancient knowledge of astrology, geography, music, military strategy, mathematics, medicine, feng shuiand even immortality pills. The eight trigrams created by Emperor Wen of Zhou are said to be the theoretical basis of ancient Chinese pragmatic culture.

Zhou Yi was created in the Yellow River area. The ancients observed changing phenomena in the sky and on earth over thousands of years and developed the theory of the five processes (wuxing, 五行), which are produced by one and suppressed by another, based on their life experiences. Wood, fire, earth, metal and water correspond to the four directions and the center. In the sequence wood-fire-earth-metal-water, each is the cause of its successor, and each destroys the successor of its successor. In other words, the sequence of creation is wood-fire-earth-metal-water-wood; while the sequence of destruction is wood-earth-water-fire-metal-wood. These patterns help explain the post-heavenly eight trigrams.

Translation of the chapter: Chinese Philosophy by Wen Haiming (11-14)