八卦 - Gossipy

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八卦 - The Eight Trigrams. As you can see, the 八卦 is this octagonal symbol composed of eight trigrams and the symbol for 阴阳 - yin and yang in the centre. This has a lot to do with divination, spirituality and geomancy, and has applications in 太极拳 - Tai Chi, and 风水 - Feng Shui.

But these days, not so many people still follow this kind of tradition, and the word 八卦 has taken on a new meaning, it is used to describe someone who loves to gossip! You probably know that 阴 and 阳 have a lot to do with the complementary nature of male and female, so the word 八卦 has come to be an adjective associated with the discussion of male and female interaction, or gossip!

e.g. 这个人真八卦 - this guy loves to gossip

Tags: Chinese, Mandarin, Language, CSL