Basic feng shui series
Early heaven ba gua - Xian tian ba gua
by Jayashree Bose

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The birth of the trigrams

Explanation of the image
From Wu Ji (nothingness) was born Tai Ji (the union of yin and yang) - Yin(broken line(yao)) and Yang(unbroken line(yao)) further divided to Greater/Old Yin, Lesser/Young Yang, Lesser/Young Yin and Greater/Old Yang. From these four further divisions took place and the eight trigrams were born. From greater/old yang we have Qian and Dui, from greater/young yin comes Kun and Gen, from lesser/young yang comes Kan and Xun, from lesser/young yin comes Li and Zhen.

In family relationships Qian(heaven) represents the father, kun(earth) represents the mother, zhen(thunder) represents the elder son, xun(wind) represents the elder sister, kan(water) represents middle son, li(fire) represents the middle daughter, gen(mountain) represents younger son, dui(lake) represents younger daughter.

These eight trigrams are placed in different order, in the early heaven ba gua and the later heaven ba gua. In this article, I will be explaining the early heaven ba gua.

Early heaven ba gua
Fu Hsi (approx. 29th century BC) formulated the early heaven ba gua also known as the xian tian ba gua. A literal translation would mean "early heaven eight trigrams" a better way to explain it would be the actual or first or the original ba gua. It basically describes the order of the heaven. Quite a number of the feng shui theories have there roots in the early heaven ba gua.

The early heaven ba gua describes the cyclic nature of all events in the perfect world. When we look at the image closely we find that from dui going clock wise we have dui and qian both belonging to greater/old yang, followed by xun and kan belonging to lesser/young yang, then we have gen and kun belonging to greater/old yin and the last set of zhen and li belonging to lesser yin.

The early heaven numbers are as follows :-
Greater Yang
Qian - 1
Dui - 2
Lesser Yin
Li - 3
Zhen - 4
Lesser Yang
Xun - 5
Kan - 6
Greater Yin
Gen - 7
Kun - 8

Another point to be noted in the early heaven ba gua is that any of the opposite trigrams numbers whenever added gives a result of nine. Also the trigrams are arranged in such a manner that the opposite trigram of any given trigram holds the same qi (greater or lesser) but opposite polarity(yin yang).

Example
Lets take Qian - 1 - Greater/old yang
Opposite qian is kun - 8 - Greater/old yin
Qian(1) + Kun(8) = 9

Another example
Dui - 2 - Greater/old yang
Opposite dui is gen - 7 - Greater/old yin
Dui(2) + Gen(7) = 9

Besides the above points the early heaven bagua also represents the waxing and waning of yin and yang. Following the yaos (lines) qian represents pure yang (all lines are unbroken) going clockwise we have xun with one yin yao (broken line) at the bottom - this represents the birth of yin which reaches its peak in kun - pure yin (all lines are broken) then we have zhen with one yang yao (unbroken line) at the bottom this represents the birth of yang that reaches its peak in qian.

Author's note: The design of the early heaven ba gua is perfect in all aspects. It is a beautiful logical representation of the way the perfect universe would be. I can only admire the minds of the early sages who are the actual masters of feng shui.