Bagua includes eight trigram symbols, each consisting of three Yin or Yang symbols.
The logic behind Yin/Yang placements in the trigrams
The specific Yin/Yang placements in a trigram seem to depend on the following conditions:
- Lower symbol – whether the trigram signifies a stage of exteriorisation (Yang), or a stage of interiorisation (Yin)
- Middle symbol – whether the trigram signifies an internal part (Yin), or an external part (Yang)
- Top symbol – whether the trigram signifies a point of minimum (Yin), or a point of maximum (Yang)
By an exteriorisation I mean a stage of becoming an exterior, and by an interiorisation – a stage of becoming an interior.
The points of maximum signify the trigrams, which belong to both categories of “maxium of minimum” and “maximum of maximum” (check the top trigrams’ symbols on the middle image). Hence, the common part – maximum.
Minimum is defined in an analogous way.
Additionally, the stage of exteriorisation can also sometimes be though of as the set of (effects of) events with a source/cause in the interior, and the stage of interiorisation, with a source/cause in the exterior.
It can also appear significant, that somewhat only one half of the circle – e.g. the one related to a stage of exteriorisation – can be used to describe the events of/between entities. After the moment of transition from the interior part to the exterior part, one could “switch” the viewpoints, and say, that now the exterior is the interior.
The meanings of the lower digrams in the trigrams
The lower digrams of the trigrams (the bottom and the middle symbols) can probably be interpreted as:
- ⚍ – exteriorisation of the interior
- ⚌ – exteriorisation of the exterior
- ⚎ – interiorisation of the exterior
- ⚏ – interiorisation of the interior
Hypothetical meanings of representations of trigrams with only two placements
Trigrams could also be defined with use of only two Yin/Yang placements, in which one of the placement could hypothetically remain empty.
Let me change notation to $\cdot$ for Yin and $\times$ for Yang (also the direction on the image below is now coutnerclockwise), and suggest them some interpretations:
The meanings of the placements of the symbols are:
- Left symbol – “outflow (from)” – a symbol signifying an outflow from the given place (interior/exterior)
- Right symbol – “inflow (to)” – a symbol signifying an inflow to the given place
The underscore $\_$ symbol in a given place means, that an outflow or an inflow corresponding to that place is, in general, not concrete (e.g. not from/to a single point), but abstract.
The words outflow, flow and inflow can likely be omitted, and only the phrases from, to and from … to can be used.
Please, be aware, that the phrases “from inside of” and “to outside of” do not always mean the same.
More generally and less unambiguously, however, one should rather use the terms source and endpoint, to describe the eight phases.
Again, please have in mind, that the correspondence of this representation of Bagua trigrams is only my hypothesis.
$\cdot \_$ Source: interior, endpoint: outside (of interior)
$\cdot \times$ Source: interior, endpoint: exterior
$\_ \times$ Source: outside (of exterior), endpoint: exterior
$\times \times$ Source: exterior, endpoint: exterior
$\times \_$ Source: exterior, endpoint: outside (of exterior)
$\times \cdot$ Source: exterior, endpoint: interior
$\_ \cdot$ Source: outside (of interior), endpoint: interior
$\cdot \cdot$ Source: interior, endpoint: interior
The events with sources or endpoints outside seem to lack a well-defined vector description, because, in general, the outside of interior/exterior is not a single place.
Alternative, hypothetical way of defining the trigrams
Eventually, one could also define the trigrams by answering the following questions:
- Which type of flow – from / to / from … to
- Which place occurs with that type of flow – interior/exterior (by assumption, the first occuring place, e.g. outflow from interior, flow from interior to exterior (both from and to have a significance), inflow to exterior, etc.)
- Is it a stage of interiorisation or exteriorisation?
Probably even more ways of defining the trigrams exist.
Force vs movement
In general, the meanings of the trigrams seem to deal with the general concepts of transfer of information or transfer of signals.
The special types of those transfers include, for example, sending of a force or obtaining a certain movement.
For example, a trigram “from interior to outside”, could probably be interpreted as:
- In terms of the force – e.g. “force coming from interior and exerted on outside”
- In terms of the movement – e.g. “moving from interior to outside”
where the word on is a special form case of a word to.
These are, however, only few examples, and I speculate, whether more ways of interpretations exist.
Summary
I hope these insigths may help you understand some of the logic behind the trigrams.
Please, treat them rather as a set of ideas, more than the ultimate definitions.
If you’d like to share some thoughts or ideas, you can write them in the comments
Thanks for your time reading
PS. Leaving a question: Is there a relation of the trigrams with the eight Moon phases in astrology?