An Ancient Chinese Village Built in Eight Trigrams Military Formation

This is Village of Eight Trigrams located in Lanxi, Zhejiang Province in China’s east coastal region.

In the centre, there is a Taichi-shaped pond surrounded by village houses arranged in eight groups as Inner Eight Trigrams.

Around the village in a short distance, eight hills form an Outer Eight Trigrams.

A Taichi core together with the inner and the outer Eight Trigrams have shaped a mysterious Eight Trigrams Military Formation (八卦阵) allegedly created and utilized by legendary Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms Period in the 3rd century.

The paving footpath and the houses around the Taichi pond in Eight Trigrams village.

A modern city constructed according to the Eight Trigram’s principles.

The entire city Tekesi (or Tekes) in China’s northwest Xinjiang Province has been grouped into eight zones separated by eight artery roads that are converged at a Taichi altar in the city centre.

For decades, there wasn’t a need for traffic lights to regulate the traffic.

The Eight Trigrams

Eight Trigrams Formation is the military application of I Ching, the theoretical foundation of Chinese culture that explains the cause, the structure and the development of the universe and the relationship between the people and the universe.

I Ching is expressed by eight groups of three lines, either broken (yin) or non-broken (yang), and eight groups can have 64 different configurations, representing 64 principle situations in reality.

The core concept of Eight Trigrams Military Formation is the eight pathways to eight gates, standing for Life, Death, Injury, Recover, Opening, Blockage, Spectacle and Shocking. And the key to winning a battle with this formation is to be able to assign correct traits to the gates in the right direction at the right time.