Menu
Home Explore People Places Arts History Plants & Animals Science Life & Culture Technology
On this page
Yin and yang
Philosophical concept of dualistic-monism or dynamic-monism in ancient Chinese philosophy

Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent complementary yet opposing cosmic forces that interact to form a dynamic and unified whole. In Chinese cosmology, these principles organize primordial qi into cycles of force and motion, influencing natural patterns like seasons, biological rhythms, and human characteristics. The concept traces back to Taiji, the "Supreme Ultimate," from which yin and yang emerge. This duality underpins many traditional Chinese fields, including medicine, martial arts like tai chi, and classic texts such as the I Ching. Yin and yang embody the unity of opposites essential to understanding nature and human existence.

Related Image Collections Add Image
Profiles
1 Image
We don't have any YouTube videos related to Yin and yang yet.
We don't have any PDF documents related to Yin and yang yet.
We don't have any Books related to Yin and yang yet.
We don't have any archived web articles related to Yin and yang yet.

Linguistic aspects

Characters

The Chinese characters 陰 and 陽 are both phono-semantic compounds, with semantic component 阝 'mound', 'hill', a graphical variant of 阜—with the phonetic components 今; jīn (and the added semantic component 云; yún; 'cloud') and 昜; yáng.14: 4138, 4114  In the latter, 昜; yáng; 'bright' features 日; 'the Sun' + 示 + 彡; 'sunbeam'.15: 4144, 1499 

Pronunciations and etymologies

The Standard Chinese pronunciation of 陰 is usually the level first tone as yīn with the meaning 'shady', 'cloudy', or sometimes with the falling fourth tone as yìn with the distinct meaning 'to shelter', 'shade'. 陽; 'sunny' is always pronounced with the rising second tone as yáng.

Sinologists and historical linguists have reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations from data in the (7th century CE) Qieyun rhyme dictionary and later rhyme tables, which was subsequently used to reconstruct Old Chinese phonology from rhymes in the (11th–7th centuries BCE) Shijing and phonological components of Chinese characters. Reconstructions of Old Chinese have illuminated the etymology of modern Chinese words.

Compare these Middle Chinese and Old Chinese16 reconstructions of 陰; yīn and 陽; yáng:

Schuessler gives probable Sino-Tibetan etymologies for both Chinese words.

yin < *ʔəm compares with Burmese ʔumC 'overcast', 'cloudy', Adi muk-jum 'shade', and Lepcha so'yǔm 'shade'; it is probably cognate with Chinese àn < *ʔə̂mʔ 黯; 'dim', 'gloomy' and qīn < *khəm 衾; 'blanket'.

yang < *laŋ compares with Lepcha a-lóŋ 'reflecting light', Burmese laŋB 'be bright' and ə-laŋB 'light'; and is perhaps cognate with Chinese chāng < *k-hlaŋ 昌; 'prosperous', 'bright' (compare areal words like Tai plaŋA1 'bright' & Proto-Viet-Muong hlaŋB). To this word-family, Unger also includes 炳; bǐng < *pl(j)aŋʔ 'bright';22 however Schuessler reconstructs 炳; bǐng's Old Chinese pronunciation as *braŋʔ and includes it in an Austroasiatic word family, besides 亮; liàng < *raŋh 爽; shuǎng < *sraŋʔ 'twilight of dawn'; míng < *mraŋ 明 'bright', 'become light', 'enlighten'; owing to "the different OC initial consonant which seems to have no recognizable OC morphological function".23

Meanings

Yin and yang are semantically complex words.

John DeFrancis's ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary gives the following translation equivalents.24

Yin 陰 or 阴—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 陽 or 阳—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 陰陽 means "yin and yang; opposites; ancient Chinese astronomy; occult arts; astrologer; geomancer; etc."

The sinologist Rolf Stein glosses Chinese yin 陰 as "shady side (of a mountain)" and yang 陽 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).25

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.26 For example, Yang refers to the "south side of a hill" in Hengyang 衡陽, which is south of Mount Heng 衡山 in Hunan,27 and to the "north bank of a river" in Luoyang 洛陽, which is located north of the Luo River 洛河 in Henan.28 Similarly, yin refers to "north side of a hill" in Huayin 華陰, which is north of Mount Hua 華山 in Shaanxi province.29

In Japan, the characters are used in western Honshu to delineate the north-side San'in region 山陰 from the south-side San'yō region 山陽, separated by the Chūgoku Mountains 中国山地.

Loanwords

English yin, yang, and yin-yang are familiar loanwords of Chinese origin.

The Oxford English Dictionary 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,30 1850 for yin-yang,31 and 1959 for yang-yin.32

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 洋銀 (lit. 'foreign silver') "silver coin/dollar", but not even the most comprehensive dictionaries (e.g., the Hanyu Da Cidian) enter yangyin *陽陰. While yang and yin can occur together in context,33 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).34

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 天地 "heaven and earth" and nannü 男女 "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".35

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."36

He then discusses Zou Yan (鄒衍; 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."37

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.3839

In Daoist philosophy, dark and light, yin and yang, arrive in the Tao Te Ching at chapter 42.40

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 survive. The interaction of the two gives birth to humans, as the interaction of heaven and earth establishes harmony (he), giving birth to things.41

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.42 The taijitu is sometimes accompanied by other shapes,43 such as bagua.4445

In turn, the concepts are also applied to the human body. In traditional Chinese medicine, one's health is directly related to the balance between yin and yang qualities within them.46 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.47484950

Taijitu

Main article: 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.515253

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.54

Tai chi

Main article: 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:

Various people have offered different explanations for the name Taijiquan. Some have said: – 'In terms of self-cultivation, one must train from a state of movement towards a state of stillness. Taiji comes about through the balance of yin and yang. In terms of the art of attack and defense then, in the context of the changes of full and empty, one is constantly internally latent, to not outwardly expressive, as if the yin and yang of Taiji have not yet divided apart.' Others say: 'Every movement of Taijiquan is based on circles, just like the shape of a Taijitu. Therefore, it is called Taijiquan.

— Wu Jianquan, The International Magazine of Tʻai Chi Chʻüan55

See also

  • China portal

Notes

Footnotes

Works cited

  • Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent (2014). Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-994537-5.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yin Yang. Look up yin, yang, or yin-yang in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. Stefon, Matt (7 May 2021). "yinyang". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 May 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/yinyang ↩

  2. Wang, Robin R. "Yinyang (Yin-yang)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 3 May 2023. https://iep.utm.edu/yinyang/ ↩

  3. Shan, Jun (3 February 2020). "What Do Yin and Yang Represent?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 3 May 2023. https://www.thoughtco.com/yin-and-yang-629214 ↩

  4. Wang, Robin R. "Yinyang (Yin-yang)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 3 May 2023. https://iep.utm.edu/yinyang/ ↩

  5. Georges Ohsawa (1976). The Unique Principle. George Ohsawa Macrobiotic. ISBN 978-0-918860-17-0 – via Google Books. 978-0-918860-17-0 ↩

  6. "Modern I Ching Guide for Daily Wisdom and Personal Growth". https://yowayow.com/modern-i-ching-guide/ ↩

  7. Feuchtwang, Stephan (2016). Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations. New York: Routledge. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-415-85881-6. 978-0-415-85881-6 ↩

  8. Feuchtwang, Sephan. "Chinese Religions." Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations, Third ed., Routledge, 2016, pp. 150–151. ↩

  9. Porkert, Manfred (1974). The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-16058-7. 0-262-16058-7 ↩

  10. Field, Tiffany (1 August 2011). "Tai Chi research review". Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. 17 (3): 141–146. doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2010.10.002. ISSN 1744-3881. PMID 21742279. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1744388110000824 ↩

  11. Taylor Latener, Rodney Leon (2005). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism. Vol. 2. New York: Rosen Publishing Group. p. 869. ISBN 978-0-8239-4079-0. 978-0-8239-4079-0 ↩

  12. Gogoi, Shrutashwinee (2011). Tai ahom religion a philosophical study (PhD). hdl:10603/116167. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/116167 ↩

  13. Gogoi, Shrutashwinee (2011). Tai ahom religion a philosophical study (PhD). hdl:10603/116167. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/116167 ↩

  14. 汉语大字典 [Hanyu Da Zidian] (in Chinese). Chengdu: Hubei cishu chubanshe. 1986–1989. ISBN 7-80543-001-2. 汉语大字典7-80543-001-2 ↩

  15. 汉语大字典 [Hanyu Da Zidian] (in Chinese). Chengdu: Hubei cishu chubanshe. 1986–1989. ISBN 7-80543-001-2. 汉语大字典7-80543-001-2 ↩

  16. With an asterisk, to denote unattested forms. ↩

  17. Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1957, 173, 188. ↩

  18. Li, Fang-Kuei, "Studies on Archaic Chinese", translated by Gilbert L. Mattos, Monumenta Serica 31, 1974:219–287. ↩

  19. William H. Baxter, A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter ,1992. ↩

  20. Schuessler, Axel, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, University of Hawaii Press, 2007, 558, 572. /wiki/University_of_Hawaii_Press ↩

  21. Baxter & Sagart (2014), pp. 326–378. ↩

  22. Ulrich Unger, Hao-ku : Sinologische Rundbriefe, 1986:34 ↩

  23. Schuessler, Axel, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, University of Hawaii Press, 2007. pp. 168, 180, 558. /wiki/University_of_Hawaii_Press ↩

  24. John DeFrancis, ed., ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 1147, 1108. ↩

  25. Rolf Stein (2010), Rolf Stein's Tibetica Antiqua: With Additional Materials, Brill, p. 63. ↩

  26. "CHINESE PLACE NAMES". www.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 8 April 2025. https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/chinalan.htm ↩

  27. "Hengyang | Ancient City & Major Industrial Hub | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 8 April 2025. https://www.britannica.com/place/Hengyang ↩

  28. "Info about Luoyang-国际合作交流中心". sites.lynu.edu.cn. Retrieved 8 April 2025. https://sites.lynu.edu.cn/gjhz/wjzp/Info_about_Luoyang.htm ↩

  29. Li, Zhuqing (2024). "Chinese Place Names". In Jiao, Liwei (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Language and Culture. Routledge. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-1-315-16780-0. 978-1-315-16780-0 ↩

  30. 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." /wiki/Arnoldus_Montanus ↩

  31. 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." /wiki/William_Jones_Boone_(son) ↩

  32. Carl Jung, "Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self", in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, tr. by R. F. C. Hull, Volume 9, Part 2, p. 58" "[The vision of "Ascension of Isaiah"] might easily be a description of a genuine yang-yin relationship, a picture that comes closer to the actual truth than the privatio boni. Moreover, it does not damage monotheism in any way, since it unites the opposites just and yang and yin are united in Tao (which the Jesuits quite logically translated as "God")." /wiki/Carl_Jung ↩

  33. 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, 材不及林，林不及雨，雨不及陰陽，陰陽不及和，和不及道; tr. Major et al. 2010, 442). /wiki/Huainanzi ↩

  34. Roger T. Ames, "Yin and Yang", in Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, ed. by Antonio S. Cua, Routledge, 2002, 847. ↩

  35. Roger T. Ames, "Yin and Yang", in Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, ed. by Antonio S. Cua, Routledge, 2002, 847. ↩

  36. Needham, Joseph; Science and Civilization in China Vol.2: History of Scientific Thought; Cambridge University Press; 1956 /wiki/Cambridge_University_Press ↩

  37. Needham, Joseph; Science and Civilization in China Vol.2: History of Scientific Thought; Cambridge University Press; 1956 /wiki/Cambridge_University_Press ↩

  38. "The hidden meanings of yin and yang – John Bellaimey". TED-Ed. 2 August 2013. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2013. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/ezmR9Attpyc ↩

  39. Xu, Guang (1996). Chinese Herbal Medicine. Vermillion. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-09-180944-7. 978-0-09-180944-7 ↩

  40. Muller, Charles. "Daode Jing". Retrieved 9 March 2018. http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/daodejing.html#div-43 ↩

  41. Robin R. Wang "Yinyang (Yin-yang)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 9 March 2018. http://www.iep.utm.edu/yinyang/ ↩

  42. The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 19. Chicago: Scott Fetzer Company. 2003. p. 36. ISBN 0-7166-0103-6. OCLC 50204221. 0-7166-0103-6 ↩

  43. Carrasco, David; Warmind, Morten; Hawley, John Stratton; Reynolds, Frank; Giarardot, Norman; Neusner, Jacob; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Campo, Juan; Penner, Hans (1999). Wendy Doniger (ed.). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. United States: Merriam-Webster. p. 495. ISBN 978-0-87779-044-0. 978-0-87779-044-0 ↩

  44. The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 19. Chicago: Scott Fetzer Company. 2003. p. 36. ISBN 0-7166-0103-6. OCLC 50204221. 0-7166-0103-6 ↩

  45. Carrasco, David; Warmind, Morten; Hawley, John Stratton; Reynolds, Frank; Giarardot, Norman; Neusner, Jacob; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Campo, Juan; Penner, Hans (1999). Wendy Doniger (ed.). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. United States: Merriam-Webster. p. 495. ISBN 978-0-87779-044-0. 978-0-87779-044-0 ↩

  46. Li CL. A brief outline of Chinese medical history with particular reference to acupuncture. Perspect Biol Med. 1974 Autumn;18(1):132–143. ↩

  47. Ching, Nigel; Halpin, Jeremy (2017). The art and practice of diagnosis in Chinese medicine. London Philadelphia: Singing Dragon. ISBN 978-0-85701-267-8. 978-0-85701-267-8 ↩

  48. Hu, Dongpei, ed. (2016). Traditional Chinese medicine: theory and principles. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-041766-1. 978-3-11-041766-1 ↩

  49. Seem, Dr. Mark (1991). Acupuncture Energetics A Workbook for Diagnostics and Treatment. Inner Traditions/Bear. ISBN 978-0-89281-435-0. 978-0-89281-435-0 ↩

  50. Acupuncture Therapeutics. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2011. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-85701-018-6. 978-0-85701-018-6 ↩

  51. Giovanni Monastra: "The "Yin–Yang" among the Insignia of the Roman Empire?[usurped]," "Sophia," Vol. 6, No. 2 (2000) https://web.archive.org/web/20110925054740/http://www.estovest.net/tradizione/yinyang_en.html ↩

  52. "Late Roman Shield Patterns – Magister Peditum". www.ne.jp. http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/MagisterPeditum.html ↩

  53. Helmut Nickel: "The Dragon and the Pearl," Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 26 (1991), p. 146, fn. 5 ↩

  54. Hughes, Kevin (2020). Introduction to the Theory of Yin-Yang. Independent. ISBN 979-8-6678-6786-9.[page needed] 979-8-6678-6786-9 ↩

  55. Woolidge, Doug (June 1997). "The International Magazine of Tʻai Chi Chʻüan". Tʻai Chi. 21 (3). Wayfarer Publications. ISSN 0730-1049. /wiki/ISSN_(identifier) ↩