Yin and yang ( and ) is a
Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang and formed into objects and lives. Yin is the receptive and yang the active principle, seen in all forms of change and difference such as the annual cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (north-facing shade and south-facing brightness), sexual coupling (female and male), the formation of both men and women as characters and sociopolitical history (disorder and order).
Taiji
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. Ta ...
or Tai chi () 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 compared with the old ''
wuji'' (, "without pole"). In the cosmology pertaining to yin and yang, the material energy, which this universe has created itself out of, is also referred to as
qi. It is believed that the organization of qi in this cosmology of yin and yang has formed many things. Included among these forms are humans. Many natural
dualities (such as
light and dark
The contrast (vision), contrast of white and black (light and darkness, day and night) has a long tradition of metaphorical usage, traceable to the Ancient Near East, and explicitly in the Pythagoreanism, Pythagorean ''Table of Opposites''.
In ...
, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality lies at the origins of many branches of classical
Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of
traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
,
and a central principle of different forms of
Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. Th ...
and exercise, such as
baguazhang
Baguazhang or Pakua chang () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being T'ai chi and Xing Yi Quan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia quan). ''Bāguà zhǎng'' literally m ...
,
taijiquan
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. Ta ...
(tai chi chuan), and
qigong
''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation
used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in ...
(Chi Kung), as well as appearing in the pages of the ''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
''.
The notion of duality can be found in many areas, such as
Communities of Practice
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educati ...
. The term "dualistic-monism" or
dialectical monism
Dialectical monism, also known as dualistic monism or monistic dualism, is an ontological position that holds that reality is ultimately a unified whole, distinguishing itself from monism by asserting that this whole necessarily expresses itself in ...
has been coined in an attempt to express this fruitful
paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
of simultaneous unity and duality. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. According to this philosophy, everything has both yin and yang aspects (for instance, shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. The yin yang (i.e.
taijitu
In Chinese philosophy, a ''taijitu'' () is a symbol or diagram () representing Taiji () in both its monist ('' wuji'') and its dualist (yin and yang) aspects. Such a diagram was first introduced by Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhou Dunyi (; 1017 ...
symbol) shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section.
In
Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...
metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other
dichotomous
A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be
* jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and
* mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultan ...
moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
on the other hand, most notably in the philosophy of
Dong Zhongshu
Dong Zhongshu (; 179–104 BC) was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of the Han Dynasty. He is traditionally associated with the promotion of Confucianism as the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state. He apparently favored ...
( 2nd century BC), a moral dimension is attached to the idea of yin and yang.
Linguistic aspects
These
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
terms ''yīn'' "dark side" and ''yáng'' "white side" are linguistically analyzable in terms of
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
,
pronunciations
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
and
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
,
meanings,
topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
, and
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s.
Characters
![Yin yang (Chinese characters)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Yin_yang_%28Chinese_characters%29.svg)
The
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
and for the words ''yīn'' and ''yáng'' are both classified as
Phono-semantic characters, combining the semantic component
"mound; hill" radical (graphical variant of ) with the phonetic components ''jīn'' (and the added semantic component ''yún'' "pictographic: cloud") and ''yáng'' . In the latter, ''yáng'' "bright" features "sun" + + "The rays of the sun".
Pronunciations and etymologies
The
Modern Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
pronunciation of is usually the level first
tone ''yīn'' "shady; cloudy" or sometimes the falling fourth tone ''yìn'' "to shelter; shade" while "sunny" is always pronounced with rising second tone ''yáng''.
Sinologists and historical linguists have reconstructed
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
pronunciations from data in the (7th century CE) ''
Qieyun
The ''Qieyun'' () is a Chinese language, Chinese rhyme dictionary, published in 601 during the Sui dynasty. The book was a guide to proper reading of classical texts, using the ''fanqie'' method to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters ...
''
rhyme dictionary
A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book () is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary that collates characters by tone and rhyme, instead of by radical. The most important rime dictionary tradition began with the '' Qieyun'' (601), whi ...
and later
rhyme tables A rime table or rhyme table () is a Chinese phonology, phonological model, tabulating the syllables of the series of rime dictionaries beginning with the ''Qieyun'' (601) by their syllable onset, onsets, rhyme groups, tone (linguistics), tones and o ...
, which was subsequently used to reconstruct
Old Chinese phonology
Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the phonology of Old Chinese from documentary evidence. Although the writing system does not describe sounds directly, shared phono-semantic, phonetic components of the most ancient Chinese characters are b ...
from rhymes in the (11th–7th centuries BCE) ''
Shijing
The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
'' and phonological components of Chinese characters.
Reconstructions of Old Chinese Although Old Chinese is known from written records beginning around 1200 BC, the logographic script provides much more indirect and partial information about the pronunciation of the language than alphabetic systems used elsewhere.
Several authors h ...
have illuminated the etymology of modern Chinese words.
Compare these Middle Chinese and Old Chinese (with asterisk) reconstructions of ''yīn'' and ''yáng'' :
* ''ˑiəm'' < *''ˑiəm'' and ''iang'' < *''diang'' (
Bernhard Karlgren
Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren (; 15 October 1889 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods. In the early 20th century, Karlgren conducte ...
)
** ''ʔjəm'' and *''raŋ'' (
Li Fang-Kuei
Li Fang-Kuei (Chinese: 李方桂, Cantonese: Lei5 Fong1 Gwai3 ej˩˨ fɔŋ˦ gʷaj˧, Mandarin: Lǐ Fāngguì i˨ faŋ˦ gʷej˥˩ 20 August 190221 August 1987) was a Chinese linguist known for his studies of the varieties of Chinese, his rec ...
)
* ''ʔ(r)jum'' and *''ljang'' (
William H. Baxter
William Hubbard Baxter III (born March 3, 1949) is an American linguist specializing in the history of the Chinese language and best known for his work on the reconstruction on Old Chinese.
Biography
Baxter earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 19 ...
)
* ''ʔjəm'' < *''ʔəm'' and ''jiaŋ'' < *''laŋ'' (Axel Schuessler)
* im'' < *''qrum'' and ''yang'' < *''laŋ'' (
William H. Baxter
William Hubbard Baxter III (born March 3, 1949) is an American linguist specializing in the history of the Chinese language and best known for his work on the reconstruction on Old Chinese.
Biography
Baxter earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 19 ...
and
Laurent Sagart
Laurent Sagart (; born 1951) is a senior researcher at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO – UMR 8563) unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Biography
Born in Paris in 1951, he earned hi ...
)
Schuessler gives probable
Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
etymologies for both Chinese words.
''Yin'' < *''ʔəm'' compares with
Burmese ''ʔum
C'' "overcast; cloudy",
Adi Adi or ADI may refer to:
Names and titles
* Adi (mythology), an Asura in Hindu faith who appears in the Matsya Purāṇa
* Adi (name), a given name in Hebrew and a nickname in other languages
* Adi (title), a Fijian title used by females of chie ...
''muk-jum'' "shade", and
Lepcha ''so'yǔm'' "shade"; and is probably cognate with Chinese ''àn'' < *''ʔə̂mʔ'' "dim; gloomy" and ''qīn'' < *''khəm'' "blanket".
''Yang'' < *''laŋ'' compares with Lepcha ''a-lóŋ'' "reflecting light", Burmese ''laŋ
B'' "be bright" and ''ə-laŋ
B'' "light"; and is perhaps cognate with Chinese ''chāng'' < *''k-hlaŋ'' "prosperous; bright" (compare
areal words like
Tai
Tai or TAI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain
*Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless''
*Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon''
Businesses and organisations ...
''plaŋ
A1'' "bright" & Proto-
Viet-Muong
The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by the Vietic peoples in Laos and Vietnam. The branch was once referred to by the terms ''Việt–Mường'', ''Annamese–Muong'', and ''Vietnamuong''; the term ''V ...
''hlaŋ
B''). To this word-family,
Unger Unger may refer to:
* Unger (Bishop of Poland) (died 1012), bishop of Poznań starting in 1000
* Unger, West Virginia
* Unger Island, a small, ice-free island of Antarctica
People
* Unger (Bishop of Poland) (died 1012), bishop of Poznań
* Andrew ...
(Hao-ku, 1986:34) also includes ''bǐng'' < ''*pl(j)aŋʔ'' "bright"; however Schuessler reconstructs ''bǐngs Old Chinese pronunciation as *''braŋʔ'' and includes it in an
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
word family, besides ''liàng'' < *''raŋh'' ''shuǎng'' < *''sraŋʔ'' "twilight (of dawn)"; ''míng'' < *''mraŋ'' "bright, become light, enlighten"; owing to "the different OC initial consonant which seems to have no recognizable OC morphological function".
Meanings
''Yin'' and ''yang'' are semantically complex words.
John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis (August 31, 1911January 2, 2009) was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.
B ...
's ''
ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
'' gives the following translation equivalents.
Yin 陰 or 阴 — Noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
: ① hilosophyfemale/passive/negative principle in nature, ② Surname; Bound morpheme
In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...
: 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
According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
: ① overcast, ② sinister; treacherous
Yang 陽 or 阳 — Bound morpheme
In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...
: ① hinese philosophymale/active/positive principle in nature, ② the sun, ③ male genitals, ④ in relief, ⑤ open; overt, ⑥ belonging to this world, ⑦ inguisticsmasculine, ⑧ south side of a hill, ⑨ north bank of a river
The
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...
''yinyang'' means "yin and yang; opposites; ancient Chinese astronomy; occult arts; astrologer; geomancer; etc."
The
sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
Rolf Stein Rolf Alfred Stein (13 June 1911 – 9 October 1999) was a German-born French Sinologist and Tibetologist. He contributed in particular to the study of the ''Epic of King Gesar'', on which he wrote two books, and the use of Chinese sources in Tibeta ...
etymologically translates Chinese ''yin'' "shady side (of a mountain)" and ''yang'' "sunny side (of a mountain)" with the uncommon English geographic terms ''
ubac'' "shady side of a mountain" and ''
adret'' "sunny side of a mountain" (which are of
French origin).
Toponymy
Many Chinese place names or
toponyms
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
contain the word ''yang'' "sunny side" and a few contain ''yin'' "shady side". In
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, as elsewhere in the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
, 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" in
Hengyang
Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 ...
, which is south of
Mount Heng in
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
province, and to the "north bank of a river" in
Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
, which is located north of the
Luo River in
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
.
Similarly, ''yin'' refers to "north side of a hill" in
Huayin
Huayin is a county-level city in Weinan, Shaanxi province, China. Prior to 1990, Huayin was regarded as a county. Huayin literally means 'to the north of Mount Hua
Mount Hua () is a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi Pro ...
, which is north of
Mount Hua
Mount Hua () is a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi Province, about east of Xi'an. It is the "Western Mountain" of the Five Great Mountains of China and has a long history of religious significance. Originally classified as ...
in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
province.
In
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, the characters are used in western
Honshu
, historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...
to delineate the north-side
San'in region
The is an area in the southwest of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the northern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Sea of Japan.
Etymology
The name San'in in the Japanese language is formed from two kanji characters. The ...
from the south-side
San'yō region
The San'yō Region (山陽地方 ''San'yō-chihō'') is an area in the south of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the southern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Seto Inland Sea
The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea ...
, separated by the
Chūgoku Mountains
is a mountain range in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. It runs in an east–west direction and stretches approximately from Hyōgo Prefecture in the east to the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The range also reaches under the Pacific Ocean ...
.
Loanwords
English ''
yin
Yin may refer to:
*the dark force in the yin and yang from traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine
*Yīn (surname) (), a Chinese surname
*Yǐn (surname) (), a Chinese surname
*Shang dynasty, also known as the Yin dynasty
**Yinxu or Yin, the S ...
'', ''
yang
Yang may refer to:
* Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy
* Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902
* YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration pr ...
'', and ''
yin-yang
Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and ya ...
'' are familiar
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
of
Chinese origin.
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' defines:
yin (jɪn) Also Yin, Yn. hinese ''yīn'' 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. Also ''attrib''. or as ''adj''., and ''transf''. Cf. yang.
b. ''Comb''., as yin-yang, the combination or fusion of the two cosmic forces; freq. attrib., esp. as yin-yang symbol, a circle divided by an S-shaped line into a dark and a light segment, representing respectively ''yin'' and ''yang'', each containing a 'seed' of the other.
yang (jæŋ) Also Yang. hinese ''yáng'' 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. Also ''attrib.'' or as ''adj.'' Cf. yin.
b. ''Comb.'': yang-yin = ''yin-yang'' s.v. yin b.
For the earliest recorded "yin and yang" usages, the ''OED'' cites 1671 for ''yin'' and ''yang'', 1850 for ''yin-yang'', and 1959 for ''yang-yin''.
In English, ''yang-yin'' (like ''ying-yang'') occasionally occurs as a mistake or typographical error for the Chinese loanword ''yin-yang''— yet they are not equivalents. Chinese does have some ''yangyin''
collocation
In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words th ...
s, such as (lit. "foreign silver") "silver coin/dollar", but not even the most comprehensive dictionaries (e.g., the ''
Hanyu Da Cidian
The ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' () is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', it has diachronic coverage of the Chinese language, and traces usage over three millennia from Chi ...
'') enter ''yangyin'' *. While ''yang'' and ''yin'' can occur together in context, ''yangyin'' is not synonymous with ''yinyang''. The linguistic term "
irreversible binomial
In linguistics and stylistics, an irreversible binomial, frozen binomial, binomial freeze, binomial expression, binomial pair, or nonreversible word pair is a pair or group of words used together in fixed order as an idiomatic expression or co ...
" refers to a collocation of two words A–B that cannot be idiomatically reversed as B–A, for example, English ''cat and mouse'' (not *''mouse and cat'') and ''friend or foe'' (not *''foe or friend'').
[Roger T. Ames, "''Yin'' and ''Yang''", in ''Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy'', ed. by Antonio S. Cua, Routledge, 2002, 847.]
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'' "heaven and earth" and ''nannü'' "men and women". ''Yinyang'' meaning "dark and light; female and male; moon and sun", however, is an exception. Scholars have proposed various explanations for why ''yinyang'' violates this pattern, including "linguistic convenience" (it is easier to say ''yinyang'' than ''yangyin''), the idea that "proto-Chinese society was matriarchal", or perhaps, since ''yinyang'' first became prominent during the late Warring States period, this term was "purposely directed at challenging persistent cultural assumptions".
History
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, in ...
discusses yin and yang together with
Five Elements as part of the
School of Naturalists
The School of Naturalists or the School of Yin-Yang () was a Warring States-era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements.
Overview
Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. His theory attempted to explai ...
. 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."
[Needham, Joseph; Science and Civilization in China Vol.2: History of Scientific Thought; ]Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
; 1956 He then discusses
Zou Yan
Zou Yan (; ; 305 BC240 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and spiritual writer best known as the representative thinker of the Yin and Yang School (or School of Naturalists) during the Hundred Schools of Thought era in Chinese philosophy.
Biography
Z ...
(; 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."
Nature
Yin and yang is a concept originated in ancient
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developmen ...
that describes how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.
In
Daoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...
philosophy, dark and light, yin and yang, arrive in the ''
Tao Te Ching
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
'' at chapter 42. It becomes sensible from an initial
quiescence
Quiescence (/kwiˈɛsəns/) is a state of quietness or inactivity. It may refer to:
* Quiescence search, in game tree searching (adversarial search) in artificial intelligence, a quiescent state is one in which a game is considered stable and unl ...
or emptiness (
wuji, sometimes symbolized by an empty circle), and continues moving until
quiescence
Quiescence (/kwiˈɛsəns/) is a state of quietness or inactivity. It may refer to:
* Quiescence search, in game tree searching (adversarial search) in artificial intelligence, a quiescent state is one in which a game is considered stable and unl ...
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. Yin and yang thus are always opposite and equal qualities. Further, whenever one quality reaches its peak, it will naturally begin to transform into the opposite quality: for example, grain that reaches its full height in summer (fully yang) will produce seeds and die back in winter (fully yin) in an endless cycle.
It is impossible to talk about yin or yang without some reference to the opposite, since yin and yang are bound together as parts of a
mutual whole (for example, there cannot be the bottom of the foot without the top). A way to illustrate this idea is 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 gives birth to things, like manhood. Yin and yang transform each other: like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall. Thus, a seed will sprout from the earth and grow upwards towards the skyan intrinsically yang movement. Then, when it reaches its full potential height, it will fall. Also, the growth of the top seeks light, while roots grow in darkness. The cycles of the seasons and of plants that progresses or entropies depending on the season until summer where it seeks to procure even healthier leaves, the whittling (entropy) of the plant is in autumn, the degrown plants (destruction) is in winter, the growth (creating) of the plant or tree during spring is where it's gaining or progressing, fully progressed occurs during summer, summer seeks stability as it seeks to keep (progress) the leaves and branches that are healthy, growth and progress reaching its end point of a cycle. And creation as part of yang, and destruction as part of yin, progress on one side (yang) and entropy on the other side (yin), is represented in the cycles.
Certain catchphrases have been used to express yin and yang complementarity:
* The bigger the front, the bigger the back.
* Illness is the doorway to health.
* Tragedy turns to comedy.
* Disasters turn out to be blessings.
Modern usage
Yin is the black side, and yang is the white side. The relationship between yin and yang is often described in terms of sunlight playing over a mountain and a valley. Yin (literally the 'shady place' or 'north slope') is the dark area occluded by the mountain's bulk, while yang (literally the "sunny place' or "south slope") is the brightly lit portion. As the sun moves across the sky, yin and yang gradually trade places with each other, revealing what was obscured and obscuring what was revealed.
Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, negativity,
femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
, shadows/darkness, destruction, and night time.
Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot/warm, dry, and active; and is associated with fire, sky/air, the sun, positivity,
masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
, glowing/light, creation, and daytime.
Yin and yang also applies to the human body. In traditional Chinese medicine good health is directly related to the balance between yin and yang qualities within oneself. If yin and yang become unbalanced, one of the qualities is considered deficient or has
vacuity.
''I Ching''
![BatQuaiDo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/BatQuaiDo.svg)
In the ''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
'', originally a divination manual of the
Western Zhou
The Western Zhou ( zh, c=, p=Xīzhōu; c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when the Quanrong noma ...
period (c. 1000–750 BC) based on Chinese Astronomy, yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken () and yang is solid (). These are then combined into
trigrams
Trigrams are a special case of the ''n''-gram, where ''n'' is 3. They are often used in natural language processing for performing statistical analysis of texts and in cryptography for control and use of ciphers and codes.
Frequency
Context is ...
, which are more yang (''e.g.'' ) or more yin (''e.g.'' ) depending on the number of broken and solid lines (''e.g.'', is heavily yang, while is heavily yin), and trigrams are combined into hexagrams (''e.g.'' and ). The relative positions and numbers of yin and yang lines within the trigrams determines the meaning of a trigram, and in hexagrams the upper trigram is considered yang with respect to the lower trigram, yin, which allows for complex depictions of interrelations.
''Taijitu''
![Yin and Yang symbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Yin_and_Yang_symbol.svg)
The principle of yin and yang is represented by the ''Taijitu'' (literally "Diagram of the
Supreme Ultimate
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. Ta ...
"). 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 the
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
, common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Similar symbols have also appeared in other cultures, such as in
Celtic art
Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and styli ...
and
Roman shield markings.
[Giovanni Monastra:]
The "Yin–Yang" among the Insignia of the Roman Empire?
," "Sophia," Vol. 6, No. 2 (2000)[Helmut Nickel: "The Dragon and the Pearl," ''Metropolitan Museum Journal,'' Vol. 26 (1991), p. 146, fn. 5]
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.
''T'ai chi ch'uan''
T'ai chi ch'uan or Taijiquan (), 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
Wu Chien-ch'uan or Wu Jianquan (1870–1942) was a famous teacher and founder of the neijia martial art of Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan in late Imperial and early Republican China.
Biography
Wu Chien-ch'uan was taught martial arts by his father, ...
, a famous
Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. Th ...
teacher, described Taijiquan as follows:
See also
*
Dualistic cosmology
Dualism in cosmology or dualistic cosmology is the moral or spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditi ...
**
Shatkona
Shatkona ( षट्कोण) is a symbol used in Hindu yantra; a “six-pointed star” is made from two interlocking triangles; the upper stands for Shiva, Purusha, the lower for Shakti, Prakriti. Their union gives birth to Sanat Kumara, wh ...
*
Dialectic
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...
*
Ayin and Yesh
''Ayin'' ( he, אַיִן, lit=nothingness, related to ', ) is an important concept in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. It is contrasted with the term Yesh ( he, יֵשׁ, link=no, ). According to kabbalistic teachings, before the universe was c ...
*
Enantiodromia Enantiodromia ( grc, ἐνάντιος, enantios – "opposite" and δρόμος, ''dromos'' – "running course") is a principle introduced in the West by psychiatrist Carl Jung. In '' Psychological Types'', Jung defines enantiodromia as "the emerg ...
*
Flag of Mongolia
The national flag of Mongolia ( mn, Монгол улсын төрийн далбаа, Mongol ulsiin töriin dalbaa, ) is a vertical triband with a red stripe at each side and a blue stripe in the middle, with the Mongolian Soyombo symbol cent ...
*
Flag of South Korea
The national flag of South Korea, also known as the Taegukgi (also spelled as ''Taegeukgi'', ) and colloquially known as the flag of Korea, has three parts: a white rectangular background, a red and blue Taegeuk in its center, accompanied by fo ...
*
Flag of Tibet
Tibet is a region in East Asia covering much of the Tibetan Plateau that is currently administered by People's Republic of China as the Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by the Republic of China as the Tibet Area and the Central Tibetan Admi ...
*
Fu Xi
Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well ...
*
Gankyil
The Gankyil (, Lhasa ) or "wheel of joy" ( sa, ānanda- cakra) is a symbol and ritual tool used in Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism. It is composed of three (sometimes two or four) swirling and interconnected blades. The traditional spinning dir ...
* ''
Huangdi Neijing
''Huangdi Neijing'' (), literally the ''Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor'' or ''Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor'', is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chines ...
''
*
Ometeotl
*
Onmyōdō
is a system of natural science, astronomy, almanac, divination and Magic (supernatural), magic that developed independently in Japan based on the Chinese philosophies of yin and yang and Wuxing (Chinese philosophy), wuxing (five elements). The p ...
*
T'ai chi ch'uan
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an neijia, internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and medita ...
*
Taegeuk
''Taegeuk'' (, ) is a Korean term cognate with the Chinese term ''Taiji'' ( Wade-Giles spelling: ''T'ai-chi''), meaning "supreme ultimate", although it can also be translated as "great polarity / duality". The symbol was chosen for the design ...
*
Tomoe
, commonly translated as "comma", is a comma-like swirl symbol used in Japanese (roughly equivalent to a heraldic badge or charge in European heraldry). It closely resembles the usual form of a .
The appears in many designs with various us ...
* ''
Zhuangzi Zhuangzi may refer to:
* ''Zhuangzi'' (book) (莊子), an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes and fables, one of the foundational texts of Daoism
**Zhuang Zhou
Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; als ...
''
References
Footnotes
Works cited
*
External links
*
Yin Yang meaning in Chineseeducational video.
goldenelixir.com
by Liu Yiming (1734–1821)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yin And Yang
Chinese martial arts terminology
Chinese philosophy
Chinese words and phrases
Dichotomies
Dualism in cosmology
Religious symbols
Symbols
Tai chi
Taoist cosmology
Traditional Chinese medicine