The South Korean Flag

What images and colors are on the South Korean flag?  What do they mean?

South Korea's flag pictures a red and blue Yin-Yang symbol, red (yang) on top, blue (yin) on the bottom, in the center of a white field. Four groups of three long and short black bars (called kwae) surround the central circle. This ratio of the height to the width of the flag is 2:3. South Korea's flag was adopted on January 25, 1950; the flag is called Taegukki (which means, "Great Extremes").
The white in this philosophical flag represents peace and purity. Symbolically, the Yin-Yang symbol represents opposites; it is the belief that all things in the universe have two, opposite aspects that cannot exist without the other. The kwae trigrams are from the I Ching; the broken bars symbolize yin (dark and cold) and the unbroken bars symbolize yang (bright and hot). The four Kwae represent: heaven (three unbroken bars), the Earth (three broken bars), water (one unbroken line between two broken bars), and fire (one broken bar between two unbroken bars). The Kwai trigrams are placed in such a way that they balance one another, heaven is placed opposite Earth, and fire is placed opposite water.

What about before 1950?  What did the flag look like then and why did it change?
Below is a picture timeline of the Korean flag and how it has changed based on the sources I was able to find online [http://flagspot.net/flags/kr_hist.html].

Pre 1905

This is the old flag of Korea before it was occupied by Japan in 1905. Korea ceased to exist until 1947.  The 'old Korean flag' differs in several respects from the present South Korean flag:

1. The 4 I-ching signs are arranged differently
2. They are colored blue in stead of black.
3. The Yin-Yang - sign is much more intricate. 

Flag of the Japanese Resident General of Korea
1905-1910

This flag represents the occupation of Korea by Japan forces.  It was used while Korea was a protectorate of Japan and discontinued in use in 1910 when Japanese Governor General of Korea (Chosen-Sotoku) was established.

The Korean flag was first hoisted August 22, 1882 when the first ambassadors were sent to Japan, and adopted officially January 27, 1883. Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 and annexed on August 22, 1910. After the liberation the country was divided along the 38th degree of latitude. The Republic of Korea was established in the southern (American) zone on 15 August 1948, which readopted the flag in the same year when the colours and shape were established by law. On January 25, 1950 the flag was adopted officially when the kwae were revised slightly. In 1984 the lay-out was again slightly changed.


Below is a collection of previous versions of the flag. Note the eight trigrams instead of the modern four. It is interesting to see the change in number of trigrams, color, and yin-yang alignment. The flag on the bottom right is supposedly what was flown during the filming of M*A*S*H.

Many flags of Korea