Bagua
Bagua (八卦) or Pa Kua, meaning eight symbols, in Eastern mythology is a system to analyze natural and social events for the sake of knowledge. Key points Bagua relate to anatomy, cosmology, geography, personality, and family.
The bagua as a symbol consists of an octagon, divided into eight slices connecting to a center octagon. The slices are referred to as trigrams. In the slices there are a combination little broken and solid lines. Each slice has a different attribute associated with it. The Baguazhang (八卦掌) or eight trigram palm. Pretty heavy stuff, this page will try to help you make sense of it.
Also related is the I Ching book, meaning the Book of Changes which takes the Bagua concept to a whole new level.
Tropes involving Baguazhang and I Ching will be covered below.
- Ambition Is Evil: Subverted with the Trigram relating to the Middle Son, who has Spock-like qualities
- Bears are Bad News: In Baguazhang, the Bear trigram is only worse for you!
- BFS: Baguazhang practitioners are known for using a Bagua Dao, which a normal a Dao, but larger.
- Big Brother Bully: Subverted, The Eldest Brother trigram is associated with the Dragon, the feet, and shaking (as in thunder). Which leaves a crazy image of a roundhouse kick covered in lightning as he beats his younger siblings.
- Jumping off the Big Brother Bully, Psycho Electro is reconstructed as illness associated with this trigram are hysteria, depression, and convulsions.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In fact there is no "evil" in the elemental trigrams. Depending on the Writer, Heaven is either Light or Pure Energy. Earth, being the opposite of Heaven, is Darkness or void. The reason is if heaven is pure energy then the opposite of energy is no energy (void).
- Everything's Better with Chickens: One of the Trigrams in Baguazhang is Rooster or a Pheasant, Depending on the Writer
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: One of the Trigrams in a style of Baguazhang is a monkey.
- Elemental Powers: The Trigrams have an associated element. They go: Heaven, Marsh, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, and Earth.
- Panthera Awesome: The animal associated with Heaven in a style of Baguazhang is the lion.
- The Patriarch: In the Father's Trigram, he determinately brings home the bacon
- Seasonal Baggage: Each trigram is associated with a season plus more, i.e. late Spring and early Autumn.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The Lightning Trigram's color is green. While this looks like an aversion to Western eyes, the trope is actually played straight - see Green Is Blue.