The Eight Trigrams

8 entries

Symbol · The Eight Trigrams

The Gentle (Wind)

The Penetrating Root

Gradual influence that enters from below without forcing — and, too mild, never takes hold at all.

What it meansOne yielding line beneath two firm ones: the soft thing entering underneath. The Shuogua gives it wind and wood together — the draught that finds every gap, and the root that splits rock by growing. Gentleness here is defined as penetration, and it works by not stopping.

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Symbol · The Eight Trigrams

The Abysmal (Water)

Water in the Ravine

Kan, the trigram of water: one whole line shut between two broken ones, the image of a stream sunk in a gorge.

What it meansFirm in the middle, yielding at both ends — the exact inversion of fire. The Shuogua gives it water, the ravine, the ear, the pig, and danger as its attribute. Its strength is hidden inside softness, which is why it is both the pit you fall into and the thing that always gets through.

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Symbol · The Eight Trigrams

The Arousing (Thunder)

The First Stirring

The shock that rouses what lay dormant — or spends itself as fast as it arrives and only scatters.

What it meansOne firm line arriving beneath two yielding ones — force entering from below. The Shuogua gives it thunder, the eldest son, the foot, the dragon. It is movement at its first instant, before direction: the shock that begins things and decides nothing about them.

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