Have you ever wondered what the meaning of the Korean flag is? To be honest I have never really thought about any meaning of any flag until I came to Korea. Because this flag looks like there must be a deeper thought behind. So dive into the behind the flag story with me.

In this post you will read about

• the history of the flag
• what the Korean flag means
• about the trigrams

The history of the Korean flag

Officially the flag was introduced after the country was divided into North and South Korea. But the colors existed already a lot earlier in the 19th century.

Some elements out of the flag, we can probably guess the meaning out of it. In the middle, the two colored circle shows the pattern of the Yin-Yang symbol known from the Chinese philosophy. In Korea they call the symbol Um and Yan. Um is the blue part, it is always on the bottom, and it manifests the negativity and Yang comes in the red color which represents all the positivity. I think it is important to mention, that the blue color, the negativity is not negative in the sense we would think of it, it is just a contrariety. The two-colored circle stands for the universe and the contrasts like light and dark, heaven and earth, warm and cold. It means, that there is a need for a balance in everything – For one to exist, there must also exist the opposite to one. The white background explains the Korean folk and their purity and peace. Important to say, that the south Koreans never started any war, they stand for peace.

Trigrams

Did you ever observe the four symbols on the outside more accurate? Then you must realize that there is not only four similar characters. They look different and there is a meaning for every single one. The way they are located is crucial because it symbolizes the cardinal directions, – but not only.

Himmel = Heaven, it means power, but also spring, east, metal, virtue
Wasser = Water, which says canyon, but also winter, north, moon and wisdom
Feuer = Fire, also gloss and autumn, south, sun and decency
Earth = the meaning of field and summer, west and justice

What is the meaning of the flag of your home country? I’m curious to read it in the comments.