With more meanings and understandings created over time, the yin yang symbol remains prevalent.Ī yin-yang symbol. Yin, yang, and yin-yang are still being pondered and discussed the world over by Taoists, Buddhists, Vedantists, Yogis, and students of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The absolute works together with the relative,Įssentially, yin-yang conveys the complicated dualities of life and the paramount need for balance and moderation. Ordinary life fits the absolute as a box and its lid. Like the foot before and the foot behind in walking.Īnd is related to everything else in function and position. Shih-tou's poem demonstrates some of these ideas:īut do not try to understand that darkness. They are two sides to a coin, they are birth and death, night and day, friends and enemies, light and dark, fire and water, positive and negative… where both aspects are necessary and an equilibrium is sought. The cyclical form of the yin yang symbol reflects the ever-changing complimentary movement of the two sides. Could the Egyptian Ankh Symbol Be Spawned of the Viscera of Bulls?.Lao Tzu: The Founder of One of the Three Pillars of Traditional Chinese Thought.The Lasting Legacy of Wiseman Confucius.In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says the following about yin and yang: In general, the Confucians preferred the fiery yang while the Taoists preferred the serene Yin aspects of the yin yang symbol.Ĭonfucius Lao-tzu and Buddhist Arhat. Seizing on this new metaphysical worldview, Chinese philosophers, such as Confucius and Lao Tzu, expounded on the various attributes of yin and yang. The philosophical yin-yang first appeared during the Han Dynasty but it really came into its own during the Zhou Dynasty when it became associated with the concept of qi (vital energy). This effect of the sun exists at the same time over the hill.” (Wang, 2017) While in hindsight this verse may seem filled with philosophical meaning, at the time it most likely was just a poetic turn of phrase. This indicates that yang is the sunny side and yin is the shady side of the hill. The earliest known instance of yin-yang is in the Shijing (Book of Songs), a collection of Chinese poetry compiled between the 11th and 7th centuries BC: “Viewing the scenery at a hill, looking for yin-yang. In another example, the sun is hot and so yang becomes associated with fire. For example, in a peasant community, when the sun went down, the people rested - so yin became associated with rest and passivity. These ordinary definitions lend themselves to conceptual extrapolation. Replica of an ancient Chinese oracle bone. According to the earliest dictionary of Chinese characters, dating to 100 AD, “yin refers to ‘a closed door, darkness and the south bank of a river and the north side of a mountain.’ Yang refers to ‘height, brightness and the south side of a mountain.’ (Wang, 2017) Yin represented night, or lack of sunlight yang represented day, or lack of darkness.
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These oracle bones have been used at least as early as the 14th century BC, but the earliest evidence we have today of yin and yang dates to the 3rd century BC.įor divination purposes, yin and yang served as simple indications of natural phenomena. The earliest evidence of the yin yang symbol appears on various animal skeletal remains used in China for divination. Historically, the origins of yin and yang are more mundane.
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The ancient symbol has been a foundational aspect of Chinese philosophy since at least the third century BC, perhaps even longer. Yet, the philosophy behind the concept can apply to many things.
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The complementary nature of Yin and Yang are perhaps best illustrated by the iconic black-and-white yin-yang symbol.