A trigram (tri-line system) consists of combination of three continuous or broken lines. A continuous line represents “yang”, while a broken line represents “yin”. With two types of lines in three different positions, eight possible trigrams are formulated. Ancient chinese labelled the time before the world was created as “wuji” (ultimate nothingness). A better paraphrase would be chaos – a state of disorganized formlessness. During the passage of time, “wuji” differentiates within itself to form taichi. The law of change is then derived and described as yin and yang. The trigrams collectively represent the trinity of heaven, earth and mankind. Each trigram is assigned a direction, an element and yin and yang characteristics according to either early or later heaven arrangement.

The evolution of trigrams was founded by the emperor Fu Xi. The form of trigrams sequence by Fu Xi represents symbolically the meanings of opposites relating to Heaven and Earth. Known as Early Heaven Arrangement (“Xian Tian”), it is based on the equilibrium between heaven and the universe. However, environmental conditions changed and the equilibrium became unstable and hostile resulting in troubles. There is no movement.

Later, King Wen rearranged the trigram sequence to incorporate 8 directions in the Bagua. Closely related to the luoshu 9 stars, the new sequence is known as Later Heaven Arrangement (“Hou Tian”), where the universe is always evolving and ever changing. It describes the world where time and matter interact and exert their influence upon the living. It also describes the cycle of movement that allows progress.