Yin and yang
Yin and yang began as the shady and sunny sides of a hill.
Three ideas inside the circle
Each needs the other
No shade without sun. Each side is named against the other, so neither is good or bad alone.
Each holds the other
The small dot in each half shows one side holding the seed of the other. Noon already leans toward night.
Balance keeps moving
Yin and yang keep trading places. Seasons, breath, and a meal of warming and cooling foods all follow that thinking.
One yin, one yang, that is the Way.
Good to know
What does yin and yang mean?
Yin and yang are two linked forces in Chinese thought. Yin is the shaded, cool, receptive side, and yang the sunny, warm, active side. Everything holds both, in shifting proportion.
Which side is yin and which is yang?
Yin is the black side and yang is the white side. Black here means shade and stillness, not evil.
Is yin female and yang male?
Traditionally yes, though every person holds both. Some later Confucian writers ranked yang above yin, an idea the symbol itself does not show.
