Inner and outer trigram

As a concept, the 3 lines making up the Upper trigram are called the lines lying in the outer trigram, and the 3 lines making up the Lower trigram are called the lines lying in the inner trigram.

How inner and outer are arranged

This division into inner and outer gives us a good deal of information in reading, namely:

• With the inner trigram, it is matters happening near home, or close relationships such as friends, relatives, acquaintances, or people one has met before (for matters on a scale large enough to identify people)
• With the outer trigram, it is matters happening outside, or distant relationships, or people one has never met (for matters on a scale large enough to identify people)

Three frames of space

So as to space as a notion, for the time being we have 3 spaces, so that later, when we speak of position in a career, or of inner and outer position, or of the characteristics of a person, we can easily refer to the table above.

See also

• Principles of reading a hexagram — the main entry
• Reading space (the position of the lines), Reading people
• Near and distant matters — inner is the near space, outer the far space
• The 64 hexagrams and how they are named — the Upper and the Lower trigram