Yin and yang

Characters (top), as well as traditional (middle) and simplified (bottom) character forms The Chinese characters and are both phono-semantic compounds, with semantic component 'mound', 'hill', a graphical variant of —with the phonetic components (and the added semantic component ) and . In the latter, features + + . • and (Li Fang-Kuei) • and (William H. Baxter) • B'' 'be bright' and ə-laŋB 'light'; and is perhaps cognate with Chinese A1'' 'bright' & Proto-Viet-Muong hlaŋB). To this word-family, Unger also includes Yin or —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 or —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 The compound yinyang means "yin and yang; opposites; ancient Chinese astronomy; occult arts; astrologer; geomancer; etc." The sinologist Rolf Stein glosses Chinese yin as "shady side (of a mountain)" and yang as "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 contain the word yang 'sunny side', and a few contain yin 'shady side'. In China, as elsewhere in the Northern 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. For example, Yang refers to the "south side of a hill" in Hengyang , which is south of Mount Heng in Hunan, and to the "north bank of a river" in Luoyang , which is located north of the Luo River in Henan. Similarly, yin refers to "north side of a hill" in Huayin , which is north of Mount Hua in Shaanxi province. In Japan, the characters are used in western Honshu to delineate the north-side San'in region from the south-side San'yō region , separated by the Chūgoku Mountains . Loanwords English yin, yang, and yin-yang are familiar loanwords of Chinese origin. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines: yin (jɪn) Also Yin, Yn. [Chinese 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. [Chinese 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 collocations, such as () "silver coin/dollar", but not even the most comprehensive dictionaries (e.g., the Hanyu Da Cidian) enter yangyin *. While yang and yin can occur together in context, yangyin is not synonymous with yinyang. The linguistic term "irreversible binomial" 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). 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", 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 discusses yin and yang together with Five Elements as part of the School 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." He then discusses Zou Yan (; 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 BC, and that the passages in older texts which mention this use are interpolations made later than that time." == Nature ==

Yin and yang are a concept that originated in ancient Chinese 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. In Daoist philosophy, dark and light, yin and yang, arrive in the Tao Te Ching at chapter 42. 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 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 thrive or survive. The interaction of the two gives birth to humans, as does the interaction of heaven and earth establishes harmony (he), giving birth to things. == Modern usage ==

Yin is the black side, and yang is the white side. Other color arrangements have included the white of yang being replaced by red. The taijitu is sometimes accompanied by other shapes, such as bagua. The technology of yin and yang is the foundation of critical and deductive reasoning for effective differential diagnosis of disease and illnesses within Taoist influenced traditional Chinese medicine. Taijitu '' The principle of yin and yang is represented by the taijitu (literally "diagram of the Supreme 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 the swastika, common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Similar symbols have also appeared in other cultures, such as in Celtic art and Roman shield markings. In this symbol the two water droplets swirl and mixing to represent its two intertransformative forms moving from turbid murky yin to the pure clear yang and back again. The two droplets are opposite in direction to each other to show that as one increases the other decreases but at the same time are equal in volume and substance denoting a state of dynamic tension. The dot of the opposite field in the droplets shows that they are infinitely divisible depicting there is always yin within yang and always yang within yin and the S- curve through the centre representative of the amount of yin or yang that is present when night turns to day. By drawing a horizontal and vertical line forming a cross directly through its centre will give the observation of the quantities of yin and yang that are present in all four seasons of the year on this planet. Tai chi 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 famous Chinese martial arts teacher, described tai chi (taijiquan) as follows: == See also ==