The movements in the Tai Chi form have a variety of names. Some describe the function of a movement, such as Brush Knee and Push, Press, and Rollback. Others are more poetic, such as White Crane Spreads Its Wings or Spread Arms Like a Fan.

In our Beginning Tai Chi class, we recently introduced a movement called Holding the Bagua Fish. The name combines the Chinese words ba and gua with the English word fish. To understand the meaning behind the name, we need to explore a little Chinese language, philosophy, and history.

What do the words mean?

The word fish refers to the familiar black-and-white symbol known as the Taiji diagram, often called the Yin-Yang symbol. Its two interlocking halves are commonly described as fish, with each containing a small circle of the opposite color. The Chinese word taiji (太极) refers to the Supreme Ultimate, a concept in Chinese philosophy associated with the interplay of yin and yang. The name of the martial art, Tai Chi Chuan, is derived from this same term.

The other two words are ba (八), meaning eight, and gua (卦), referring to a trigram. Together, Bagua (八卦) means the Eight Trigrams, an important concept in traditional Chinese philosophy.

The Eight Trigrams and the Yijing

The Eight Trigrams are associated with the Yijing (易經), commonly known in English as the I Ching or Book of Changes. The text’s earliest layers date to approximately 1000 BCE, during the early Zhou dynasty, although its origins are traditionally traced further back to the legendary sage Fuxi. The book developed over centuries, with additional philosophical commentaries written later, particularly during the first millennium BCE.

According to Chinese tradition, Fuxi discovered the patterns of the trigrams by observing nature, including markings on the back of a tortoise. Although this story belongs to legend rather than verifiable history, it illustrates the traditional belief that the patterns of the natural world can reveal deeper principles.

Each trigram consists of three horizontal lines. A line can be solid, representing yang, or broken, representing yin. With two possible forms for each of the three lines, there are eight possible combinations. For example, a trigram may have three solid lines, three broken lines, or a combination of the two.

By combining two trigrams, one above the other, we obtain a six-line figure called a hexagram. There are 64 possible hexagrams, which form the basis of the Yijing. These figures are traditionally used to explore change and its patterns in human life and the natural world.

An unexpected connection: The Yijing and modern computers

Here is a particularly interesting historical connection. In the late seventeenth century, the German philosopher, mathematician, and polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) developed a system of arithmetic using only two digits: 0 and 1. This is known as the binary number system, and it is fundamental to the way modern computers represent and process information.

Leibniz had been working on binary arithmetic by 1679, long before he studied the Chinese hexagrams. In 1701, he exchanged ideas with the French Jesuit missionary Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730), who was living in China. Bouvet sent Leibniz a diagram showing an arrangement of the 64 hexagrams traditionally attributed to Fuxi. When Leibniz received it in 1703, he recognized a correspondence between the broken and solid lines and the two digits of his binary system.

In 1703, Leibniz presented his work on binary arithmetic, including his discussion of the Chinese figures, in a paper titled Explication de l’Arithmétique Binaire. The paper was subsequently published in the Academy’s volume for 1703, which appeared in print in 1705.

There is an important distinction here: Leibniz did not derive binary arithmetic from the Yijing. Rather, he had developed the system independently and subsequently recognized a mathematical correspondence between his binary numbers and the Chinese hexagrams. Nevertheless, the connection is remarkable. A system of lines developed in ancient China could be interpreted in terms of the same two-symbol principle that underlies modern digital computing.

Returning to the Tai Chi movement

Although we do not need to know all this history to practice Holding the Bagua Fish, it adds another dimension to our understanding of the movement. It offers a glimpse into the rich cultural and philosophical traditions from which Tai Chi emerged.

Interestingly, this movement is rarely seen in many contemporary Tai Chi forms. In the sequence we are learning, it appears in the transition between Push, the final movement of the Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail sequence, and Single Whip. It is a movement that can easily be overlooked or lost as forms are passed from one generation to the next.

Below is a link to a video demonstrating Holding the Bagua Fish and showing how the movement is performed.

If you would like to learn this movement, watch the video below or join us in class to experience Holding the Bagua Fish for yourself.