CULTURE & ORIGINS · 文化与起源

From observing nature
to eight simple patterns.

The Fuxi tradition explains the eight trigrams through a powerful idea: observe the world carefully, recognise its patterns, and respond to change.

YiPhase · Updated 1 October 2026 · English with optional Chinese

1. Looking outward, looking inward

The Xici describes Fuxi looking upward at the sky and downward at the earth, observing patterns in birds and animals, and drawing examples from the human body and the wider world. The account connects the eight trigrams with recognising the character of different things.

仰则观象于天，俯则观法于地……近取诸身，远取诸物。

From Xici, Part II, chapter 2. The English explanation here is YiPhase’s own paraphrase.

For a beginner, this offers a useful starting point: the symbols are a way of noticing relationships and change. They do not replace observation with a mysterious answer.

2. What does 卦 (guà) mean?

Guà names a symbolic figure used in divination. In the I Ching, a three-line figure is a trigram; a six-line figure is a hexagram. The written character 卦 is different from the line diagram it names.

The reference calls 卦 a phonosemantic character: one part points to meaning, the other to pronunciation. Its central explanation agrees with the Shuowen: “筮也。从卜，圭声。” In plain English: a divinatory figure, formed with 卜 and the sound component 圭.

The reference also associates 圭 with an instrument for measuring a shadow. That is a separate explanatory association; “measurement plus divination” is not the character derivation given by the Shuowen. Nor does the written character alone tell us how the trigram system was invented.

3. Two kinds of line, eight combinations

A solid line represents yang; a broken line represents yin. These are related qualities, such as activity and receptivity, understood in context. Neither is inherently good or bad, and neither assigns a fixed role to a person’s gender.

The Xici presents a sequence from the two primary forms to four images and then eight trigrams. A simple way to see the combinations is this: each of three positions has two possibilities, giving 2 × 2 × 2 = 8.

Read each trigram from the bottom upward. These eight patterns show the combinations; they are not a compass arrangement. The short themes are beginner paraphrases inspired by the Shuogua.

Put one trigram below another and you have six lines. Eight choices below and eight above give 8 × 8 = 64 hexagrams.

4. Heaven, human life and earth

The Shuogua describes three realms: Heaven, Earth and the human way. A common teaching lens places them in the three positions of a trigram:

1. 3 · TOPHeaven · 天

   The wider conditions and patterns around us.

2. 2 · MIDDLEHuman · 人

   Our choices, relationships and responsibilities.

3. 1 · BOTTOMEarth · 地

   The ground, resources and practical limits we work with.

This diagram is a teaching interpretation. It is not a historical record of Fuxi assigning these labels as he drew the first trigrams. The classical discussion also connects the three realms with the six lines of a hexagram.

5. A simple line, a lasting way to think

“一画开天地” — loosely, one stroke opens a world — is a later poetic celebration of Fuxi’s achievement. It expresses the significance of making complexity visible through simple symbols; it is not a quotation from the passages above.

The trigrams became an enduring vocabulary within Chinese thought. Natural images, human conduct and changing situations could be considered together. To “follow nature” in this learning context means attending to real conditions and timing while taking responsibility for what you can change.