In the beginning there was nothing. The vapors that were light gathered together and so did the vabors that were heavy. The former is called Yang and the latter is called Yin. and thus there were two. The Yin and the Yang, which together are the Tao. These are the forces of life.
An early sage, named Fuxi (who some same was an emperor) created the trigrams, which are figures made up up three elmeents that are either Yin or Yang. There are eight trigrams and they symbolize the basic elements of a recognizable universe: Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Water, Mountain, Wind, Fire and Pond.
Millennia passed. Legendary dynasties rose and fell. Some time around 2200 b.c. a great flood covered the earth. It was brought under control by Yu, who worked ceaselessly for nine years. As a reward for his achievement, the emperorgave him the throne. Thus began Xia, the first hereditary dynasty in China. A thousand years later, at the ned of the Shang Dynasty, King Wen of the state of Zhou stacked the trigrams on top of one another, making six-four hexagrams.
The Yin and Yang are the root of all things and together in alternation they are the moving force of our world and its manifestations. Yin is seen as passive, yielding and hurturing while Yang is active, dominatingand creative. Any circumtance, however intricate can be described by a string of Yins and Yangs. The idea that anything can be described in terms of only two basicelements forms the foundation from which the I Ching was constructed.
The Trigram Heaven
The Trigram Earth
The Trigram Thunder
The Trigram Wind
The Trigram Water
The Trigram Fire
The Trigram Pond
The Trigram Mountain
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