The art and science of Feng Shui is intimately connected with the eight tri-grams. The creations of the eight tri-grams is attributed to the legendary king Fu Hsi as early as 2860 B.C.

Ruler Fu Hsi devised the eight tri-grams through Taoist observation of the natural world as seen on the patterns on the back of a tortoise's shell as the animal emerged from the Yellow River.

The eight tortoise shell markings symbolized the natural world as heaven, earth, fire, water, mountain, lake, wind, and thunder. Fu Hsi laid out these eight symbols in an eight-sided map, similar to a tortoise shell shape, to create the first Pa Kua map. This arrangement is referred to as the early heaven sequence.