What is Yin-Yang?

Yin and yang are the most familiar Chinese philosophical terms to the Western mind, being equal, or even better known than Tao-te ching or Lao-tzu. This is explained by the reduction of them to the polarity which is a very common term in the west.

Yin and Yang as cosmic symbols. Three ancient representations of T'ai-chi or the Supreme Ultimate. Figure A stress the complementary relation between yin and yang, figures B and C stress the dynamic interaction between the two poles.

In the Shambhala Dictionary of Taoism we read that yin and yang are "two polar energies that, by they fluctuation and interaction, are the cause of the universe". (p. 216).

In fact, yin and yang are very old as they appear in the commentaries on I-ching and the Spring and Autumn Annals, that is, over 2000 years ago in China. "A yin and a yang is Tao", we read their definition in the comments on I-ching.

In Annals we find that yin and yang "separate and merge again, When they are separate they merge, when they are merged they separate..." This is what we call interaction.

Furthermore, yin and yang are features of things and cosmic phenomena, or people and different kinds of action, or human attitudes, or mere energies. Concerning the natural phenomena, we find them in lists of polar characteristics such as the following:

In short, everything in the Universe may be ranged in this list under the yang or yin category. Or, everything is regulated by the ever lasting interaction of yin and yang.

In the Chinese classic medicine yin and yang refer to energies and functioning modes of organs and body. It is said that the healthy state is brought by the right balance between yin and yang. Thus, man must choose the right food and nurture a psychic equilibrium in order to acquire health and longevity.

To conclude, Alan Watts states that yin and yang are two poles of the cosmic energies. As for their ideograms:

[they] indicate the sunny and shady sides of a hill, and they are associated with the masculine and the feminine, the firm and the yielding, the strong and the weak, the light and the dark, the rising and the falling, heaven and earth... (Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way, Pantheon Books, 1975, p. 21).

There's also another facet of yin and yang as features of the Tao of Heaven. About this facet we talk a lot in our courses such as Yin-Yang Philosophy, Initiation into Taoism and Lao-tzu and Tao-te ching Revealed. If you are interested in these discussions please access our course page (click the link from the bottom menu of this page).

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