THE YING-YANG PARADOX
Finding harmony in a world of duality
At the cornerstone of Taoism is the concept of Yin Yang. Excellent image of the Taijitu, the half-black and half-white circle .
Yin, Chinese for “female” or “moon,” represents darkness, femininity, passivity, and the earth. Yang (“sun” or “male”) represents light, masculinity, activity, and the heavens. The balance of yin and yang were seen to influence health and order within an individual, society, and the entire universe.
The idea of Ying and Yang
Yin and yang literally mean “dark side” and “sunny side” of a hill. They are mentioned for the first time in the Xice, or “Appended Explanations” (c. 4th century BCE), an appendix to the Yijing (Book of Changes): “A succession of yin and yang is called the Dao.” Yin and yang are two complementary, interdependent phases alternating in space and time; they are emblems evoking the harmonious interplay of all pairs of opposites in the cosmos.
First conceived by musicians, astronomers, or diviners and then propagated by a school that came to be named after them, yin and yang became the common stock of all Chinese philosophy. The Daoist treatise Huainanzi (book of “Master Huainan”) describes how the one “Primordial Breath” (yuanqi) split into the light ethereal yang breath, which formed heaven; and the heavier, cruder yin breath, which formed earth. The diversifications and interactions of yin and yang produced the Ten Thousand Things.
The warm breath of yang accumulated to produce fire, the essence of which formed the sun. The cold breath of yin accumulated to produce water, the essence of which became the moon.
The idea of qi
Yin and yang are often referred to as two “breaths” (qi). Qi means air, breath, or vapour—originally the vapour arising from cooking cereals. It also came to mean a cosmic energy. The Primordial Breath is a name of the chaos (state of Unity) in which the original life force is not yet diversified into the phases that the concepts yin and yang describe.
All persons have a portion of this primordial life force allotted to them at birth, and their task is not to dissipate it through the activity of the senses but to strengthen, control, and increase it in order to live out the full span of their lives.
The idea of wuxing
Another important set of notions associated with the same school of yinyang are the “Five Phases” (wuxing) or “powers” (wude): water, fire, wood, metal, earth. They are also “breaths” (i.e., active energies), the idea of which enabled the philosophers to construct a coherent system of correspondences and participations linking all phenomena of the macrocosm and the microcosm. Associated with spatial directions, seasons of the year, colours, musical notes, animals, and other aspects of nature, they also correspond, in the human body, to the five inner organs. The Daoist techniques of longevity are grounded in these correspondences. The idea behind such techniques was that of nourishing the inner organs with the essences corresponding to their respective phases and during the season dominated by the latter.
Yin and yang is a dynamic symbol that shows the constant, continuous interaction of two energies. One cannot exist without the other. This ancient Chinese symbol exposes the duality of everything that exists in the universe.
This is a beautiful Taoist concept that I have admired for a long time. While in the philosophy it emerged from it represents the functions of the cosmos, in my life, it represents the function of two souls that inevitably became an inseparable dynamic duo. She will forever “balance me out,” if you will.
To my best friend, my other half, I know that life is a rollercoaster with many ups and downs, but you will always bring me back to a leveled ground. No matter how far away we wander from each other, I hope you know that any time you need me, I’ll be the North Star shining to bring you back to a place you know you are safe and loved.
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: “In the past, Zhuāng Zhōu dreamed that he was a butterfly, a happily fluttering butterfly who considered itself to be utterly satisfied, not knowing anything about Zhōu. Suddenly, it woke up and was pleasantly surprised to be Zhōu. Who knows whether it was Zhōu dreaming of being a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming of being Zhōu! Zhōu and the butterfly, now there must be a distinction between them! This is what is called the “transformation of things”. YING & YANG
THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: Quotations representing Ying &Yang: “In the Northern Darkness, there exists a fish with the name Kūn. Kūn’s size is I don’t know how many thousands of miles. It transforms (huà!) into a bird with the name Péng. Péng’s back is I don’t know how many thousands of miles. Arousing itself and taking off in flight, its wings are like the clouds hanging from the sky. When the oceans churn, this bird migrates to the Southern Darkness. The Southern Darkness is the Pond of Heaven.”
ZENTRAVELER SAYS: Saying “You're the yin to my yang” to a romantic partner or friend means that you think you were made for each other and complement each other well. This slogan is best delivered in private "your the yin to my yang" hopefully other person understands or you end up in the looney bin.
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