The earliest written reference found on Bagua was from Xia period, about 2100-1600 B.C. However, the actual formation of Gua was believed to exist before that. Although it is popularly referred as 'Xia dynasty', in the period of Xia, people were live in tribes, not kingdoms or countries. During Xia period, there were the formation of structure in a matriarchy society. Thus, came the need for order.
The ancient wise people used the most original and basic binary form of "Yin" and "Yang" to record the events of the world around them. There are many theories about the reason Yin, the female symbol is written like and Yang, the male symbol, is written like . It was generally believed that the three Yao (either Yin or Yang) formation of one Gua is the earliest indication that the ancient Chinese people realized the difference of the celestial objects, earth and human.
The Yin, Yang and their combination existed for thousands of years before there was a wisest of all called FuXi (It can be pronounced as 'ph-she'. If you are not a perfectionist just say 'who? she?') introduced Bagua. Each Gua consists of three Yao symbol. The Yao symbol can be either Yin or Yang. (read about what is Bagua ) Although the legend uses "he, him, his ' when they refer to FuXi (ph-she) or as 'father of...', 'king of....' , the archaeologists and historians believe FuXi (ph-she) is a group of women. This group of women were advisers to the chief of the ancient matriarchy tribe lived in today's northwest China called FuXi (ph-she).
The significance of the creation of Bagua is that each Gua is assigned a specific direction. It also recognize the character of the individual direction as the ancient people saw them. It is associated with the world around us in a more tangible and practical way. However, the directions in FuXi Bagua is not the same Bagua we are using today.
