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The South Korean Flag 태극기 has four bold, black markings on each corner surrounding the red and blue, circular symbol in the middle.

South Korean Flag

I find the explanation of the red and blue, circular symbol to be simple enough for my mind to grasp. It's yin-yang, the equality/balance of good and evil.

So my question surrounds the bold, black markings in the corners.

Wikipedia has a table that shows meanings related to 건/乾 (top left), 리/離 (bottom left), 감/坎 (top right), 곤/坤 (bottom right).

This table, in of itself, is easy to read. Where I get lost is that there are so many meanings.

Table of meanings for South Korean Flag Trigrams

Is it as easy as each trigram (괘/卦) means each of those things, or is there a better, more full explanation on how to interpret the great number of meanings that are represented?

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http://theme.archives.go.kr/next/symbolKorea/meaningFlag.do

This site gave a more detailed explanation on the meanings implied by 쾌(卦).

It is related to harmony.

I think the table in this link is similar to the one you provided:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua

for the win

The trigrams are related to the five elements of Wu Xing, used by Feng Shui practitioners and in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Those five elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. The Water (Kan) and Fire (Li) trigrams correspond directly with the Water and Fire elements.

But I think the Chinese version actually gives us more inspiration.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6

Bare in mind that the trigram does not MEAN those meanings, but only REPRESENTS it.

The number of bars have meanings, but since I don't bother to study it, giving a link instead may be more helpful.

Anyway the concept of Bagua is originated from China, and can be said as a philosophy in China.

五行 is similar to it, except that the elements are different.

I don't know how these concepts are to be applied in real life, but one of the example will be Chinese medicine. The "contradiction" and other concepts of different elements help the field.

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  • the operative sentence pertaining to my question would be 그 가운데 건괘(乾卦)는 우주 만물 중에서 하늘을, 곤괘(坤卦)는 땅을, 감괘(坎卦)는 물을, 이괘(離卦)는 불을 각각 상징한다. however, that leaves us with a lot less explanation watering it down to = heaven, = earth, = water, and = fire. but that doesn't really explain the number of bars (3, 4, 5, 6) or any of the other things that table says are represented. thanks for the answer; it's an interesting link. Feb 16, 2017 at 0:01
  • the only thing i know for sure from the link to the chinese wiki is that the dharma initiative ripped off their logo Feb 17, 2017 at 6:56

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