The Bagua (also called Pa Kua) is an 8-sided shape that is made of 8 trigrams. It has the taiji or yin and yang symbol at the center and the eight trigrams are arranged around it to complete the octagonal figure.
‘Ba’ means eight and ‘gua’ means areas or sections; collectively Bagua refers to a group of eight symbols that have specific meaning in the Chinese philosophy. The eight symbols or trigrams are each made of a combination of three lines that are either unbroken or broken. The unbroken line represents the male ‘yang’, the creative force of nature, while the broken line denotes the female ‘yin’, which is the receptive force of nature. These trigrams are symbolic of naturally occurring processes and the inter-related basic principles of reality. Each one of these is associated with a particular family member, season, direction, personality trait, animal, etc.