Eight Trigrams of Divination
1,800 years ago, Daoism was founded by Lao Zi and his message was preached to the world by his disciple by the name of Mencius. It says that everything exists through the interplay of two opposite forces: male-female; positive; hot-cold; light-dark; heaven-earth; yin-yang, etc.
In the center of the dual Yin-Yang, the principles of being, surrounded by the eight trigrams of divination. The Eight trigrams represent eight animals and eight directions. At 12 o’clock are the three unbroken lines of heaven; then clockwise, clouds, thunder, mountains, water, fire, earth, and wind. These are used in fortune-telling. Daoists try to achieve harmony out of the conflict of these forces through the Dao or the Way.
Daoism was most popular in the Tang and Song, but declined in the Ming. Its most famous monasteries are in Beijing, Chengdu, Shenyang, and Suzhou.
