The pa-kua
or Eight Trigrams, supported by dragons or by waves and flames.
These are eight combinations of triple lines. In the first the lines are unbroken, and in the last they are all divided at the centre, the intermediate figures consisting of different permutations of broken and unbroken lines (see p. [290]). These eight diagrams, by which certain Chinese philosophers explained all the phenomena of Nature, are supposed to have been constructed by the legendary Emperor Fu Hsi (B.C. 2852) from a plan revealed to him on the back of the “dragon horse” (lung ma) which rose from the Yellow River.[131] Among other things, they are used to designate the points of the compass, one arrangement making the first figure represent the South (also designated ch’ien
or Heaven), and the last figure the North (also designated k’un
or Earth), the remaining figures representing South-West, West, North-West, North-East, East, and South-East.