Fú Xī 伏羲
Legendary culture hero of high antiquity, conventionally counted among the Sān huáng 三皇 (“Three Sovereigns”). In the standard Yì attribution (recorded already in the Xìcí xià 繫辭下 of the Zhōuyì itself) Fú Xī is credited with the creation of the eight trigrams (bāguà 八卦), by observing the patterns of Heaven above and Earth below and the markings of birds and beasts. Subsequent layers of attribution gave him also the doubling of the trigrams into the sixty-four hexagrams (more commonly assigned to 周文王 King Wén) and the institution of marriage, fishing nets, and other foundations of civilised life. No historical figure underlies the tradition.