Ataijitu of a particular style that is often named a "yin and yang symbol", the black area representing yin, with the opposite white side representing yang. The dots are representative of one within the other.
Yin and yang (English:/jɪn/,/jæŋ/), alsoyinyang[1][2] oryin-yang,[3][2] is a concept that originated inChinese philosophy, describing an opposite but interconnected, self-perpetuating cycle. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary and at the same time opposing forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts and the parts are important for cohesion of the whole.[4]
InChinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang, form and matter. 'Yin' is retractive, passive and contractive in nature, while 'yang' is repelling, active and expansive in principle; this dichotomy in some form, is seen in all things in nature—patterns of change and difference. For example, biological and seasonal cycles, evolution of the landscape over days, weeks, years and eons (with the original meaning of the words being the north-facing shade and the south-facing brightness of a hill), gender (female and male), as well as the formation of the character of individuals and the grand arc of sociopolitical history in disorder and order.[5]
Taiji is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential, the oneness before duality, from which yin and yang originate. It can be contrasted with the olderwuji (無極; 'without pole'). In the cosmology pertaining to yin and yang, the material energy which this universe was created from is known asqi. It is believed that the organization of qi in this cosmology of yin and yang has formed the 10 thousand things.[6] Included among these forms are humans. Many naturaldualities (such aslight and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality, as aunity of opposites, lies at the origins of many branches of classicalChinese science,technology and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline oftraditional Chinese medicine,[7] and a central principle of different forms ofChinese martial arts and exercise, such asbaguazhang,tai chi,daoyin,kung fu andqigong, as well as appearing in the pages of theI Ching and the famous Taoist medical treatise called theHuangdi Neijing.[8]
Yīnyáng inseal script (top), as well as traditional (middle) and simplified (bottom) character forms
TheChinese characters陰 and陽 are both considered to bephono-semantic compounds, with semantic component阝'mound', 'hill', a graphical variant of阜—with the phonetic components今;jīn (and the added semantic component云;yún; 'cloud') and昜;yáng. In the latter,昜;yáng; 'bright' features日; 'the Sun' +示 +彡; 'sunbeam'.[citation needed]
TheStandard Chinese pronunciation of陰 is usually the level firsttone asyīn with the meaning 'shady', 'cloudy', or sometimes with the falling fourth tone asyìn with the distinct meaning 'to shelter', 'shade'.陽; 'sunny' is always pronounced with the rising second tone asyáng.[citation needed]
Schuessler gives probableSino-Tibetan etymologies for both Chinese words.
yin <*ʔəm compares withBurmeseʔumC 'overcast', 'cloudy',Adimuk-jum 'shade', andLepchaso'yǔm 'shade'; it is probably cognate with Chineseàn <*ʔə̂mʔ黯; 'dim', 'gloomy' andqīn <*khəm衾; 'blanket'.
yang <*laŋ compares with Lepchaa-lóŋ 'reflecting light', BurmeselaŋB 'be bright' andə-laŋB 'light'; and is perhaps cognate with Chinesechāng <*k-hlaŋ昌; 'prosperous', 'bright' (compareareal words likeTaiplaŋA1 'bright' & Proto-Viet-MuonghlaŋB). To this word-family, Unger also includes炳;bǐng <*pl(j)aŋʔ 'bright';[16] however Schuessler reconstructs炳;bǐng's Old Chinese pronunciation as*braŋʔ and includes it in anAustroasiatic word family, besides亮;liàng <*raŋh爽;shuǎng <*sraŋʔ 'twilight of dawn';míng <*mraŋ明 'bright', 'become light', 'enlighten'; owing to "the different OC initial consonant which seems to have no recognizable OC morphological function".[17]
Yin陰 or阴—Noun: ① [philosophy] female/passive/negative principle in nature, ② Surname;Bound morpheme: ① the moon, ② shaded orientation, ③ covert; concealed; hidden, ④ vagina, ⑤ penis, ⑥ of the netherworld, ⑦ negative, ⑧ north side of a hill, ⑨ south bank of a river, ⑩ reverse side of a stele, ⑪ in intaglio;Stative verb: ① overcast, ② sinister; treacherous
Yang陽 or阳—Bound morpheme: ① [Chinese philosophy] male/active/positive principle in nature, ② the sun, ③ male genitals, ④ in relief, ⑤ open; overt, ⑥ belonging to this world, ⑦ [linguistics] masculine, ⑧ south side of a hill, ⑨ north bank of a river
Thecompoundyinyang陰陽 means "yin and yang; opposites; ancient Chinese astronomy; occult arts; astrologer; geomancer; etc."
ThesinologistRolf Stein etymologically translates Chineseyin陰 "shady side (of a mountain)" andyang陽 "sunny side (of a mountain)" with the uncommon English geographic termsubac "shady side of a mountain" andadret "sunny side of a mountain" (which are ofFrench origin).[19]
Many Chinese place names ortoponyms contain the wordyang "sunny side" and a few containyin "shady side". InChina, as elsewhere in theNorthern Hemisphere, sunlight comes predominantly from the south, and thus the south face of a mountain or the north bank of a river will receive more direct sunlight than the opposite side.
Yang refers to the "south side of a hill" inHengyang衡陽, which is south ofMount Heng衡山 inHunan province, and to the "north bank of a river" inLuoyang洛陽, which is located north of theLuo River洛河 inHenan.
Similarly,yin refers to "north side of a hill" inHuayin華陰, which is north ofMount Hua華山 inShaanxi province.
yin (jɪn) AlsoYin,Yn. [Chineseyīn shade, feminine; the moon.]
a. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine or negative principle (characterized by dark, wetness, cold, passivity, disintegration, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being. Alsoattrib. or asadj., andtransf. Cf.yang.
b.Comb., asyin-yang, the combination or fusion of the two cosmic forces; freq. attrib., esp. asyin-yang symbol, a circle divided by an S-shaped line into a dark and a light segment, representing respectivelyyin andyang, each containing a 'seed' of the other.
yang (jæŋ) AlsoYang. [Chineseyáng yang, sun, positive, male genitals.]
a. In Chinese philosophy, the masculine or positive principle (characterized by light, warmth, dryness, activity, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being. Alsoattrib. or asadj. Cf.yin.
b.Comb.:yang-yin =yin-yang s.v.yin b.
For the earliest recorded "yin and yang" usages, theOED cites 1671 foryin andyang,[20] 1850 foryin-yang,[21] and 1959 foryang-yin.[22]
In English,yang-yin (likeying-yang) occasionally occurs as a mistake or typographical error for the Chinese loanwordyin-yang—yet they are not equivalents. Chinese does have someyangyincollocations, such as洋銀lit.'foreign silver' "silver coin/dollar", but not even the most comprehensive dictionaries (e.g., theHanyu Da Cidian) enteryangyin *陽陰. Whileyang andyin can occur together in context,[23]yangyin is not synonymous withyinyang. The linguistic term "irreversible binomial" refers to a collocation of two words A–B that cannot be idiomatically reversed as B–A, for example, Englishcat and mouse (not *mouse and cat) andfriend or foe (not *foe or friend).[24]
Similarly, the usual pattern among Chinese binomial compounds is for positive A and negative B, where the A word is dominant or privileged over B. For example,tiandi天地 "heaven and earth" andnannü男女 "men and women".Yinyang meaning "dark and light; female and male; moon and sun", is an exception. Scholars have proposed various explanations for whyyinyang violates this pattern, including "linguistic convenience" (it is easier to sayyinyang thanyangyin), the idea that "proto-Chinese society was matriarchal", or perhaps, sinceyinyang first became prominent during the late Warring States period, this term was "purposely directed at challenging persistent cultural assumptions".[24]
Joseph Needham discusses yin and yang together withFive Elements as part of theSchool of Naturalists. He says that it would be proper to begin with yin and yang before Five Elements because the former: "lay, as it were, at a deeper level in Nature, and were the most ultimate principles of which the ancient Chinese could conceive. But it so happens that we know a good deal more about the historical origin of the Five-Element theory than about that of the yin and the yang, and it will therefore be more convenient to deal with it first."[25]
He then discussesZou Yan (鄒衍; 305–240 BC) who is most associated with these theories. Although yin and yang are not mentioned in any of the surviving documents of Zou Yan, his school was known as the Yin Yang Jia (Yin and Yang School). Needham concludes "There can be very little doubt that the philosophical use of the terms began about the beginning of the 4th century, and that the passages in older texts which mention this use are interpolations made later than that time."[25]
Yin and yang are a concept that originated in ancientChinese philosophy that describes how opposite or contrary forces may create each other by their comparison and are to be seen as actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.[26][27]
InDaoist philosophy, dark and light, yin and yang, arrive in theTao Te Ching at chapter 42.[28] It becomes sensible from an initialquiescence or emptiness (wuji, sometimes symbolized by an empty circle), and continues moving untilquiescence is reached again. For instance, dropping a stone in a calm pool of water will simultaneously raise waves and lower troughs between them, and this alternation of high and low points in the water will radiate outward until the movement dissipates and the pool is calm once more.[citation needed]
It is impossible to talk about yin or yang without some reference to the opposite, traditionally it is said that Yin and Yang are known by the comparison of each other, since yin and yang are bound together as parts of amutual whole (for example, there cannot be the bottom of the foot without the top). A way to illustrate this idea is[citation needed] to postulate the notion of a race with only women or only men; this race would disappear in a single generation. Yet, women and men together create new generations that allow the race they mutually create (and mutually come from) to survive. The interaction of the two (Heaven and Earth) gives birth to humans and therefore the ten thousand things.[29]
Yin is the black side, and yang is the white side. Other color arrangements have included the white of yang being replaced by red.[30] The taijitu is sometimes accompanied by other shapes,[31] such asbagua.[30][31]
In turn, the concepts are also applied to the human body. In traditional Chinese medicine, one's health is directly related to the balance between yin and yang qualities within them.[32] The technology of yin and yang is the foundation ofcritical anddeductive reasoning for effective differential diagnosis of disease and illnesses within Taoist influencedtraditional Chinese medicine.[33][34][35][36]
The principle of yin and yang is represented by theTaijitu (literally "Diagram of theSupreme Ultimate"). The term is commonly used to mean the simple "divided circle" form, but may refer to any of several schematic diagrams representing these principles, such as theswastika, common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Similar symbols have also appeared in other cultures, such as inCeltic art andRoman shield markings.[37][38][39]
In this symbol the two teardrops swirl to represent the conversion of yin to yang and yang to yin. This is seen when a ball is thrown into the air with a yang velocity then converts to a yin velocity to fall back to earth. The two teardrops are opposite in direction to each other to show that as one increases the other decreases. The dot of the opposite field in the tear drop shows that there is always yin within yang and always yang within yin.[40]
Tai chi, a form of martial art, is often described as the principles of yin and yang applied to the human body and an animal body.Wu Jianquan, a famousChinese martial arts teacher, described tai chi (Taijiquan) as follows:
Various people have offered different explanations for the nameTaijiquan. Some have said: – 'In terms ofself-cultivation, one must train from a state of movement towards a state of stillness.Taiji comes about through the balance ofyin andyang. In terms of the art of attack and defense then, in the context of thechanges of full and empty, one is constantly internally latent, to not outwardly expressive, as if theyin andyang ofTaiji have not yet divided apart.' Others say: 'Every movement ofTaijiquan is based on circles, just like the shape of aTaijitu. Therefore, it is calledTaijiquan.
— Wu Jianquan, The International Magazine of Tʻai Chi Chʻüan[41]
^Taylor Latener, Rodney Leon (2005).The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism. Vol. 2. New York: Rosen Publishing Group. p. 869.ISBN978-0-8239-4079-0.
^Schuessler, Axel,ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese,University of Hawaii Press, 2007. pp. 168, 180, 558.
^John DeFrancis, ed.,ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 1147, 1108.
^Rolf Stein (2010),Rolf Stein's Tibetica Antiqua: With Additional Materials, Brill, p. 63.
^Arnoldus Montanus,Atlas Chinensis: Being a relation of remarkable passages in two embassies from the East-India Company of the United Provinces to the Vice-Roy Singlamong, General Taising Lipovi, and Konchi, Emperor, Thomas Johnson, tr. by J. Ogilby, 1671, 549: "The Chineses by these Strokes ‥ declare ‥ how much each Form or Sign receives from the two fore-mention'd Beginnings of Yn or Yang."
^William Jones Boone, "Defense of an Essay on the proper renderings of the words Elohim and θεός into the Chinese Language,"Chinese Repository XIX, 1850, 375: "... when in the Yih King (or Book of Diagrams) we read of the Great Extreme, it means that the Great Extreme is in the midst of the active-passive primordial substance (Yin-yáng); and that it is not exterior to, or separate from the Yin-yáng."
^Carl Jung, "Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self", inThe Collected Works of C. G. Jung, tr. by R. F. C. Hull, Volume 9, Part 2, p. 58" "[The vision of "Ascension of Isaiah"] might easily be a description of a genuine yang-yin relationship, a picture that comes closer to the actual truth than theprivatio boni. Moreover, it does not damage monotheism in any way, since it unites the opposites just and yang and yin are united in Tao (which the Jesuits quite logically translated as "God")."
^For instance, theHuainanzi says" "Now, the lumber is not so important as the forest; the forest is not so important as the rain; the rain is not so important as yin and yang; yin and yang are not so important as harmony; and harmony is not so important as the Way. (12,材不及林，林不及雨，雨不及陰陽，陰陽不及和，和不及道; tr. Major et al. 2010, 442).
^abRoger T. Ames, "Yin andYang", inEncyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, ed. by Antonio S. Cua, Routledge, 2002, 847.
^abNeedham, Joseph; Science and Civilization in China Vol.2: History of Scientific Thought;Cambridge University Press; 1956
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