Bigua 辟卦 (Sovereign hexagrams)
This page is excerpted from F. Pregadio, Dictionary of Taoist Internal Alchemy (Brill, 2025).
Translation
Sovereign hexagrams. Also known as shi’er bigua 十二辟卦 “twelve sovereign hexagrams.”
Definition(s)
▣ A series of twelve hexagrams of the Yijing (Book of Changes) that represent a complete cycle of increase and decrease of Yin and Yang. Their names are: [1] fu 復 ䷗; [2] lin 臨 ䷒; [3] tai 泰 ䷊; [4] dazhuang 大壯 ䷡; [5] guai 夬 ䷪; [6] qian 乾 ䷀; [7] gou 姤 ䷫; [8] dun 遯 ䷠; [9] pi 否 ䷋; [10] guan 觀 ䷓; [11] bo 剝 ䷖; [12] kun 坤 ䷁. See the respective entries and the table below. In Neidan, the “sovereign hexagrams” are one of the sets of emblems that represent the stages of the Fire phases (huohou), with each hexagram corresponding to one station in the Lesser Celestial Circuit (xiao zhoutian).
Related Terms
☞ gua 卦
Pages that mention this term
Ignore any "redirect page", which simply links to the present page.