Trigram

A trigram (gua, 卦) is the three-line figure — composed of solid (yang) and broken (yin) lines in every possible permutation — that serves as the fundamental unit of the [[i-ching-wilhelm-baynes|Yijing]]‘s symbolic system. Eight such trigrams exhaust the combinatorial possibilities; paired one above another they generate the sixty-four hexagrams through which the text reads the configurations of the Way.

The eight are Qian (Creative, three solid lines, Heaven), Kun (Receptive, three broken lines, Earth), Zhen (Arousing, Thunder), Kan (Abysmal, Water), Gen (Keeping Still, Mountain), Xun (Gentle, Wind), Li (Clinging, Fire), and Dui (Joyous, Lake). Each trigram carries a cosmic association, a family position, a seasonal and directional correspondence; their combinations encode the range of situations in which the phenomenal world presents itself. The Shuogua, one of the Ten Wings, is the classical treatise on the trigrams. See hexagram and i-ching-wilhelm-baynes.

Relationships

• hexagram
• i-ching-wilhelm-baynes
• yin-yang