Trigrams

When you look at a hexagram you can see that it is composed of two sets of three lines. We refer to a set of three lines as a trigram. Mechanically a hexagram, while it functions as a whole, is simply another larger binary. In the Ancient I Ching, these trigrams have names, such as Mountain, Lake, Wood, Fire, etc. and it is the interaction of the two trigrams that gives us the hexagram. The trigram Wood above the trigram Lake, for example, present a much different image than the trigram Wood above the trigram Fire. There is countless writing on this subject but for this purpose you should just understand that there are two trigrams in the hexagram.

Harmony

There is also a relationship of harmony between the lines of the 1st trigram and the 2nd trigram. An intrinsic harmony exists between the 1st line of the 1st trigram and the 1st line of the 2nd trigram. Within a hexagram there is a harmony between Line 1 and Line 4, between Line 2 and Line 5 and also between Line 3 and line 6. This harmonious relationship is similar to what we find in music, when you have 2 notes an octave apart. They sound different, but their position in the musical scale is the same. Another way of looking at it is points in a helix. If you look at the helix from above the points appear to be on top of each other on a circle, but really they are at different points in a spiral - similar but different.

	The first line of the lower trigram is in harmony with the first line of the upper trigram. In other words, line 1 with line 4.
	The second line of the lower trigram is in harmony with the second line of the upper trigram. In other words, line 2 with line 5.
	The third line of the lower trigram is in harmony with the third line of the upper trigram. In other words, line 3 with line 6.