Origin: Eight Diagrams originated from China's ancient thoughts about the basic formation of the universe, the earth's rotation (yin and yang), the relationship between the sun and the moon, and the combination of agricultural society and life philosophy. The original data source is the Book of Changes in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which contains 64 hexagrams, but no images. The Book of Changes records that "it is easy to have Tai Chi, and two devices are born. Two instruments give birth to four elephants, and four elephants give birth to gossip. " The two instruments are yin and yang, which can be extended to heaven and earth, day and night, and the difference between men and women. These four images are Shaoyin, Shaoyang, Taiyin and Sun. In different periods, it can correspond to four directions, four seasons and four elephants respectively. Qinglong lives in the east, with the spirit of spring, and shaoyang is the main one; Suzaku lives in the south, the breath of summer, the sun is the master; The white tiger lives in the west, with autumn qi and less yin; Xuanwu is located in the north, and the atmosphere in winter is mainly lunar. The four seasons of health care also correspond to: birth, growth, harvest and hiding. Eight diagrams, that is, dry, Kun, Xun, exchange, gen, earthquake, separation, Kan. Represents the meaning of heaven and earth respectively, which is explained in detail below.
Some scholars in the Song Dynasty thought that the four images played eight diagrams (directions) and eighty-eight generated sixty-four hexagrams, which was Fuxi Eight Diagrams, also called innate gossip; Some scholars believe that gossip should come from Zhou Wenwang's theory of feeling Kun. He believes that the intersection of heaven and earth produces everything, and heaven is dry and earth is Kun. The other six hexagrams of gossip are their children: Zhen is the eldest male, Kan is the middle male, and Gen (pronounced in Mandarin: gè n; Cantonese: gan3, the same as "Jin") is a boy; Xun (Mandarin pronunciation: xù n; Cantonese: seon3, the same as "Xin") is the eldest daughter, and it is the gossip of Wang Wenzhi, also known as the gossip of the day after tomorrow. The eight diagrams symbols usually appear together with the Taiji diagram, which represents the ultimate truth of China's traditional belief (Confucianism and Taoism): "Tao".