Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 275

To begin with, it is easy to understand that one Tàijí 太極, divides by two to become Yīn 陰 and Yáng 陽, and then divides by two again to become Sì Xiàng 四象 – Four Images. Sì 四 means four and Xiàng 象 means image, it also means elephant, but of course in this context it means image. Four is very normal, like four seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, like four corners, four limbs, four directions. If we take any two things, we can find another two things inside, this is Sì Xiàng – Four Images.
Sì Xiàng can be divided again by two, and becomes eight and this is the Bāguà 八卦 – Eight Situations. Bā八 mean eight and Guà卦 means situation. The character Guà卦 is only used in the Yìjīng 易經 – Book of Changing, which is ancient Chinese knowledge and though it is over 5000 years old we still use it today. Most people are familiar with hexagrams or trigrams. A trigram is made up of three broken or straight lines. A trigram is a Guà, a situation and there are eight Guà:

☰ Qián 乾, ☱ Duì 兌, ☲ Lí 離, ☳ Zhèn震, ☴ Xùn 巽, ☵ Kǎn 坎, ☶ Gěn 艮, ☷ Kūn 坤

The ancient Chinese master connected them to Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain and Earth.