The Eight I Ching Trigrams: Lines, Names, and Meanings
A source-bound guide to the eight I Ching trigrams: line forms, Chinese names, natural images, family roles, and use in hexagrams.
Key Takeaways- Eight figures, three lines each.: The eight trigrams are the complete set of three-line figures formed from yang (solid) and yin (broken) lines, and they are the only such figures the received tradition names.
- Read from the bottom up.: Both trigrams and hexagrams are read starting from the lowest line, with solid counted as yang and broken as yin.
- Trigrams frame a hexagram; they do not finish it.: A hexagram is its lower trigram below its upper trigram, but the trigrams' associations are only one layer of a full reading.
The eight I Ching trigrams are three-line figures built from solid and broken lines, named Qian 乾, Kun 坤, Zhen 震, Xun 巽, Kan 坎, Li 離, Gen 艮, and Dui 兌. Every trigram is read from the bottom line upward: a solid line is yang and a broken line is yin. The received Shuo Gua commentary attaches natural images—heaven, earth, thunder, wind and wood, water, fire, mountain, and marsh—and a family scheme, from father and mother to the three sons and three daughters, to these eight figures. A six-line hexagram is formed by pairing a lower trigram (its bottom three lines) with an upper trigram (its top three lines); a single trigram contributes to that reading, but its associations do not by themselves determine the hexagram.
This page is a reference, not an interpretation engine. It identifies the eight line forms, shows how they are read, and states the natural images and family roles found in the received text—while keeping clearly separate the later correlative systems that fall outside this reference.
- Eight figures, three lines each. The eight trigrams are the complete set of three-line figures formed from yang (solid) and yin (broken) lines, and they are the only such figures the received tradition names.
- Read from the bottom up. Both trigrams and hexagrams are read starting from the lowest line, with solid counted as yang and broken as yin.
- Trigrams frame a hexagram; they do not finish it. A hexagram is its lower trigram below its upper trigram, but the trigrams' associations are only one layer of a full reading.
What a trigram is
A trigram is a column of exactly three lines, and each line is either solid or broken. In the reading convention used throughout this page, a solid line is yang and a broken line is yin, and the lines are read from bottom to top: the lowest line is the first, the middle line is the second, and the top line is the third.
Because there are two kinds of line and three positions, the line forms number 2 × 2 × 2, or eight. These eight are precisely the figures the received I Ching tradition names as Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui. Nothing about the system is an accident of drawing: a trigram is defined by its pattern as read from the bottom upward, not by its appearance on the page. The pattern yang–yin–yang is Li, while yang–yang–yin is Dui; the two look similar at a glance but name different figures. If the reading order were reversed, four of the eight would swap names (Zhen with Gen, Xun with Dui), while Qian, Kun, Kan, and Li would be unchanged, which is why the bottom-up rule matters and is stated rather than assumed.
Two common misconceptions disappear once the bottom-up convention is in place. First, the eight trigrams are not one eight-sided symbol with a single fixed meaning; "Bagua" (八卦, the eight trigrams) refers to the eight distinct line patterns as a set, and each pattern is read on its own. Second, the eight trigrams are not the same as the 64 hexagrams: a trigram has three lines, while a hexagram has six. The relationship is structural—each hexagram is assembled from two trigrams—but the two units are different sizes and should not be treated as interchangeable.
The eight trigrams at a glance
The table lists the eight trigrams with the Chinese character, tone-marked pinyin, the Unicode glyph, the line pattern written out from bottom to top, and the natural image and family role stated in the received Shuo Gua. Solid means yang and broken means yin, and every row is read from the bottom line upward. The rows are ordered in pairs whose line patterns are the exact inverse of each other (yang ↔ yin); this pairing is a study convenience, not a canonical sequence of the eight trigrams.
| Chinese | Pinyin | Glyph | Lines (bottom to top) | Natural image | Family role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 乾 | qián | ☰ | yang – yang – yang | heaven | father |
| 坤 | kūn | ☷ | yin – yin – yin | earth | mother |
| 震 | zhèn | ☳ | yang – yin – yin | thunder | eldest son |
| 巽 | xùn | ☴ | yin – yang – yang | wind and wood | eldest daughter |
| 坎 | kǎn | ☵ | yin – yang – yin | water | middle son |
| 離 | lí | ☲ | yang – yin – yang | fire | middle daughter |
| 艮 | gèn | ☶ | yin – yin – yang | mountain | youngest son |
| 兌 | duì | ☱ | yang – yang – yin | marsh (often rendered lake) | youngest daughter |
The table gives one English rendering per association. The Chinese characters are the stable identifiers; pinyin is a pronunciation aid, and the English words for figures, images, and roles vary across translations and editions.
Natural images and family associations
The natural images and family roles come from the Shuo Gua, one of the received commentary wings (the so-called Ten Wings) of the Book of Changes. The Shuo Gua states that Qian is heaven, Kun is earth, Zhen is thunder, Xun is wood and also wind, Kan is water, Li is fire, Gen is mountain, and Dui is marsh—an association often rendered as "lake" in modern English labels. The same text gives the family scheme: Qian is the father, Kun the mother, Zhen the eldest son, Xun the eldest daughter, Kan the middle son, Li the middle daughter, Gen the youngest son, and Dui the youngest daughter.
It is important to be precise about what these associations are. They are a layer of the received textual tradition, and this page presents them as such—not as a universal natural-science taxonomy of the physical world. Their function in the tradition is mnemonically rich: the natural image gives a way of picturing the figure, and the family role gives a way of locating its position and relationship within the set. These are conventions of the commentary, useful for study and memorization, not measurements of the world.
The same Shuo Gua chapter also contains longer lists of further associations for the trigrams. Those lists carry their own interpretive claims, require separate sourcing and study, and are deliberately not reproduced on this page. Directional, seasonal, medical, martial, and feng-shui arrangements of the trigrams are separate systems with separate sources; they are outside this reference and none of them is claimed or endorsed here.
Upper and lower trigrams
Every hexagram has six lines, and it is split exactly at the middle: the lowest three lines form the lower trigram, and the top three lines form the upper trigram. A hexagram is conventionally written with the lower trigram below and the upper trigram above, and the whole figure is still read from the bottom upward.
A structural example shows how the split works. Take a six-line figure whose bottom three lines are yang–yin–yang: that is Li below. Give it an upper three lines of yin–yang–yin: that is Kan above. The two trigrams together form one of the 64 possible combinations of a lower and an upper trigram. To find which name and number the received sequence attaches to a given combination, use the 64-hexagram crosswalk, which also links each hexagram to an Oriens card.
This is the point at which a trigram stops being a standalone reference and becomes a component of a reading. A trigram's associations—its image and family role—are real parts of the tradition, but they do not by themselves supply a complete reading of a six-line hexagram. The hexagram is read as a whole: the two trigrams interact with each other, each of the six positions occupies its own place in the figure, and the hexagram's text (judgment, image, and line statements) is the material a reader actually interprets. Knowing that Li is fire tells you something about the figure it appears in, but it does not tell you the hexagram's meaning. For a worked reading method that keeps these layers separate, see How to Read the I Ching.
What this chart does not establish
Because the eight trigrams are heavily recycled in popular materials, it helps to be explicit about what a source-bound reference does not claim.
- It is not a fortune system. The line forms, natural images, and family roles are reference facts about a received text. They do not predict events, guarantee outcomes, or tell anyone what will happen.
- It is not universal natural science. The Shuo Gua associations are a textual layer of the Changes tradition, not a description of how the physical world is actually constituted.
- It does not settle authorship or ordering. This page does not claim that any one arrangement of the eight trigrams is timeless or universally primary, and it does not assert settled historical authorship of the figures; attributions to legendary figures are treated here as tradition, not as established history.
- It does not cover the later correlative systems. Directional, seasonal, color, bodily, martial, medical, and feng-shui arrangements of the trigrams are separate systems with separate sources; they are outside this reference and must not be imported into the chart without their own sourcing.
In short: the eight trigrams are a complete and clearly defined set of three-line figures, they are read from the bottom upward, and the received text gives them natural images and family roles. That is what this reference establishes, and the exclusions above are what it deliberately does not.
FAQ
How many trigrams are in the I Ching?
There are eight. They are Qian 乾, Kun 坤, Zhen 震, Xun 巽, Kan 坎, Li 離, Gen 艮, and Dui 兌, the complete set of three-line figures formed from yang and yin lines.
How many lines are in a trigram?
A trigram has exactly three lines. Each line is either solid (yang) or broken (yin), and the figure is read from the bottom line upward.
What is the difference between a trigram and a hexagram?
A trigram has three lines; a hexagram has six. A hexagram is composed of a lower trigram (its bottom three lines) and an upper trigram (its top three lines), which together form one of the 64 combinations.
Are I Ching lines read from top or bottom?
From the bottom upward. In a trigram the lowest line is read first; in a hexagram the lower three lines form the lower trigram and the top three form the upper trigram, and the whole figure is still read from bottom to top.
What do Qian and Kun represent?
Qian 乾 and Kun 坤 are the two trigrams whose lines are all yang and all yin, respectively. In the received Shuo Gua, Qian is associated with heaven and the father, and Kun with earth and the mother.
Why do trigrams have family roles?
The family scheme—father, mother, three sons, and three daughters—is stated in the received Shuo Gua commentary as a way of naming the eight figures and their relationships within the set. It is a layer of the textual tradition, not a claim about actual families.
Does a trigram determine a prediction?
No. A trigram is a three-line figure whose associations come from a received textual layer. It can be a useful component of a reading, but it does not by itself determine a hexagram's meaning, and this reference makes no prediction claims.
References and scope
This page is a source-bound reference for the eight trigram line forms and for the natural images and family roles stated in the received Shuo Gua. Every claim below traces to the approved source pack for SEO-108.
- Chinese Text Project, Book of Changes, Shuo Gua — the eight named trigrams: https://ctext.org/book-of-changes/shuo-gua
- Chinese Text Project, Book of Changes, Shuo Gua — natural images (乾為天, 坤為地, 震為雷, 巽為木/風, 坎為水, 離為火, 艮為山, 兌為澤): https://ctext.org/book-of-changes/shuo-gua
- Chinese Text Project, Book of Changes, Shuo Gua — family roles (乾天也故稱乎父 … 兌三索而得女): https://ctext.org/book-of-changes/shuo-gua
- Oriens, I Ching 64 Hexagrams Crosswalk — six-line structure and upper/lower trigrams: https://oriens.top/guides/iching-64-crosswalk/
- Oriens, I Ching 64 Hexagrams Crosswalk — scope boundary (a trigram does not determine a hexagram reading): https://oriens.top/guides/iching-64-crosswalk/
- Oriens local page inventory audit, 2026-08-10 — no dedicated trigram/Bagua route existed at drafting time.
- Unicode Standard 17.0, Yijing trigram symbols U+2630–U+2637, decoded bottom-to-top (solid = yang, broken = yin): https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2600.pdf
- Unicode Standard 17.0, Yijing trigram symbols — numeric-tone pinyin rendered with tone marks: https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2600.pdf
Scope boundaries: this page does not reproduce the Shuo Gua at length; it does not treat its English renderings as canonical translations; it does not claim settled authorship or a primary ordering of the eight trigrams; it does not cover Earlier/Later Heaven schemes, directions, seasons, colors, organs, or martial, medical, or feng-shui systems; and it makes no prediction claims.