Where can I find information about Chinese strategy, such as Eight Trigrams?

Question

It was usually used in kungfu and architecture, etc.

Answer 1

The Eight Trigrams come from the I Ching, which was sort of like a Chinese fortune telling (much like tarot cards). Its concepts are also used for meditation and Feng-Shue (sp?).

The I Ching combines trigrams into hexagrams for a total of 64 characters (achieved by flipping coins). The trigrams are often seen arranged in an octagon surrounding the Ying (Um) Yang. The trigrams themselves represent elemental forces such as Earth (three broken lines), Heaven (three solid lines), Fire, Water, Wood, Metal etc. They are arranged opposed to each other to represent opposing and complementary forces (you can see earth air fire and water on the Korean flag) much like the Ying Yang itself.

This is central to the themes of Taoism.

If you are interested in the philosophical and spiritual aspects I would recommend:

Tao Te Ching
I Ching
The Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet

If you are interested more in the military, strategy, and political aspects of Chinese culture I would recommend:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (2400 pages long and the most widely read book in the world next to the Christian Bible)
36 Strategies
The Art of War
Mastering the Art of War by Zhuge Liang

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is useful because it quotes Sun Tzu so many times and you get to see the Master's martial-arts concepts utilized on the battle-field. The character Zhuge Liang, styled Konming, wrote a treatise inspired by Maters Tzu's work.