Originating in ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, , ) or yin-yang is the concept that there exist cosmic principles or forces that are opposite but complementary, which interact, interconnect, support and perpetuate each other. Together they form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the interdependent components, and both parts are essential for the cohesion of the whole.
In Chinese mythology, the universe develops out of a primary chaos of primordial qi or material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang, force and motion leading to form and matter. "Yin" is retractive, passive, contractive and receptive in nature in a contrasting relationship to "yang", which is repelling, active, expansive and repulsive in principle. This dichotomy in some form is seen in all things in nature and their patterns of change, difference and transformations. For example, biological, psychological and cosmological seasonal cycles, the historical evolution of landscapes over days, weeks, years to eons. The original meaning of yin was depicted as the northerly shaded side of a hill and yang being the bright southerly aspect. When pertaining to traditional human gender, yin is associated with more rounded feminine characteristics and yang as sharp and masculine traits.
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 older wuji (). In the cosmology pertaining to yin and yang, the material energy which this universe was created from is known as qi. It is believed that the organization of qi in this cosmology of yin and yang is the formation of the 10 thousand things between Heaven and Earth.
Included among these forms are humans. Many natural dualities (such as light 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 a unity of opposites, lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science, technology and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine, and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise, such as baguazhang, tai chi, daoyin, kung fu and qigong, as well as appearing in the pages of the I Ching and the famous Taoist medical treatise called the Huangdi Neijing.
In Taoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of Confucianism on the other hand, most notably in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu ( 2nd century BC), a moral dimension is attached to the idea of yin and yang. The Ahom philosophy of duality of the individual self han and pu is based on the concept of the hun 魂 and po 魄 that are the yin and yang of the mind in the philosophy of Taoism. The tradition was originated in Yunnan, China and followed by some Ahom, descendants of the Dai ethnic minority.
Linguistic aspects Characters
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 + + .
Pronunciations and etymologies The Standard Chinese pronunciation of is the level first tone as with the meaning . is pronounced with the rising second tone as .陰陽 - Chinese Character Detail PageYin and Yang in Chinese: Meaning, pronounce and Symbols
Compare these Middle Chinese and Old Chinese reconstructions of and : < and < (Bernhard Karlgren)Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1957, 173, 188. and (Li Fang-Kuei) and (William H. Baxter) < and < (Axel Schuessler)Schuessler, Axel, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, University of Hawaii Press, 2007, 558, 572. < and < (William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart)
Schuessler gives probable Sino-Tibetan etymologies for both Chinese words.
< compares with Burmese 'overcast', 'cloudy', Adi 'shade', and Lepcha 'shade'; it is probably cognate with Chinese < and < .
< compares with Lepcha a-lóŋ 'reflecting light', Burmese laŋB 'be bright' and ə-laŋB 'light'; and is perhaps cognate with Chinese < (compare areal words like Tai plaŋA1 'bright' & Proto-Viet-Muong hlaŋB). To this word-family, Unger also includes < 'bright';Ulrich Unger, Hao-ku : Sinologische Rundbriefe, 1986:34 however Schuessler reconstructs 's Old Chinese pronunciation as and includes it in an Austroasiatic word family, besides < < 'twilight of dawn'; < 'bright', 'become light', 'enlighten'; owing to "the different OC initial consonant which seems to have no recognizable OC morphological function".Schuessler, Axel, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, University of Hawaii Press, 2007. pp. 168, 180, 558.
Meanings Yin and yang are semantically complex words.
John DeFrancis's ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary gives the following translation equivalents.John DeFrancis, ed., ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 1147, 1108. 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,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." 1850 for yin-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." 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,For instance, the Huainanzi 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, ; tr. Major et al. 2010, 442). 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 The oldest iconography has been found on an urn-shaped coffin in Ruzhou from the Yangshao culture period, around 4500 BCE. The images appear to be of two black male genitalia rotating in opposite directions in a circular pattern on a white background, with the image suggesting that the worship of male reproduction was present in the area. While it's theorised that the concept of mythological duality and regeneration must have been already present, the use of it on a coffin suggests it might have an unknown afterlife mythological connotation. Further more, the use of black for male genitalia instead of assumed white, two penises but no female genitalia, and the decorative use of purely male icons on a coffin (death and netherworld association), suggests a similar but alternative framework.