Michal1,
The following material should help answering your first two questions:
---------- 1. What is Yin-Yang?
An open letter to Taoists
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aiia/letter-taoism.html
"YIN-YANG, the Tao concept of many elements that are contrary to one
another, i.e. male/female, positive/negative, light/darkness,
active/passive, and life/death. Yin is represented by the darker shape
and broken lines. Yang is represented by the lighter shape and solid
lines."
(See above page for an image of the Yin-Yang symbol.)
Chinese Medicine Origin and Philosophy - Yin and Yang
http://www.drshen.com/chineseherbsorigin.html#yin
"Yin and Yang describe change.
Yin and Yang refer to the sides of a mountain.
In the morning, one side is in shade, the other in sunlight.
Later in the day, the sides have reversed.
Dark becomes light and light becomes dark.
Nature is like this, forever changing, undulating. In time, Yang turns
to Yin. Yin predictably becomes Yang. Change is certain, yang will
turn to yin, and yin will eventually become yang.
Yang and Yin are not opposites like good and evil or black and white.
Yin and yang support each other as they oppose each other. You can t
have one without the other.
Chinese doctors see the body and its illnesses in changing shades of
Yin and Yang. This perception aids in understanding the disease."
What is yin/yang?
http://www.tkdbible.com/fd/yinyang.html
"Yin and yang do not have their own inherent reality. They are only
description, types of movement, alternative indicators of the
continual flow of change. Originally, yin referred to the nouthern,
dark side of a mountain and yang to its southern or sunny side. Heads
or tails, we might say; they always make up the two sides of the same
reality. Yin and yang are the concerted movements of life and exist
only within the dynamics that unite them.
Yin and yang are not static, separate, symmetrical entities. In fact,
in order to speak accurately about yin and yang, the two terms must be
presented together as one: yin/yang. The essence of yin/yang is
neither yin oor yang but the dnace created by their union."
TCMcentral.com - What is Yin/Yang
http://www.tcmcentral.com/OM/om_yinyang.htm
"Yin and Yang may be the most important theory in Chinese Medicine.
The concept of Yin and Yang is simple and at the same time vast in
nature. The relationship of Yin and Yang can be represented in the
famous Tai Ji symbol that is shown above and below. This symbol is
called "Supreme Ultimate", describing the profoundness of Yin and
Yang. Although Yin and Yang are opposite stages, they form unity and
are complementary. Yin contains a seed of Yang, and Yang contains a
seed of Yin which is represented by the dots within each color. The
symbol is showing that nothing can be totally Yin or totally Yang in
nature. Yin is constantly changing into Yang as Yang is constantly
merging in to Yin. Calligraphy Master Jin Huai Wang once explained to
me these concepts of Yin and Yang. He said, "The mountain has a Yin
side (shaded) and a Yang side (sun drenched), and each of those sides
contain Yin qualities and Yang qualities, just as the river, just as
life (translation)." The most beautiful part was how he described Yin
and Yang, from the tone of his voice to physical movement he was just
as he performs his calligraphy a true expression of Yin and Yang."
Falkon Technologies, Daoist Art - What is Yin/Yang?
http://www.falktech.com/school/projects/hum102/
"Yin and Yang are the positive and negative aspects of the universe
according to the Daoist beleifs. Each depends on the other to survive.
The more Yin you have the more Yang that must exist and vise versa.
(...) A good example of Yin Yang dualism relates back to absolute
rule. By embracing absolute rule you avoid much of the conflict that
results from having a deomocratic system. There is one source for all
answers no if ands or buts about it. On the flip side this absolute
power often causes an abuse of power. The good of having a single
voice is balanced by the bad of potential of having an evil or
self-centered ruler."
Classical Chinese Medicine: The Science Of Biological Forces
http://medicalacupuncture.org/aama_marf/journal/vol12_2/article2.html
"At the heart of Daoist observations of the universe, and in the whole
of Chinese culture and medicine, is the pervasive and profound concept
of Yin Yang. The ramifications of analyzing and understanding Yin Yang
are infinite yet quite specific in application.
Yin Yang symbolizes the qualitative representation of polarity, or the
relationship of opposite but related constituents. It speaks to the
immutable duality, mutuality, and balance between events, actions, and
individuals; indeed, within or between any and all phenomena. Yin Yang
also represents the coupled or coupling nature of events and
processes. Simultaneously, Yin Yang implies uniqueness, opposition,
and both mutual inclusion and exclusion. Implied also is the
reversing/restoring nature of phenomena.
All phenomena, matter, and beings (and their processes) may be
analyzed by, or divided into, Yin and Yang components. In this way,
Yin Yang is infinitely divisible yet inexorably interrelated and
interdependent in nature.
Yin and Yang as separate entities are only known or described in
relationship to one another; there is no quintessential or
free-standing Yin or Yang. In referring to "Yin," one has already
implied or evoked "Yang." The classic Chinese text, Huangdi Neijimg
(The Yellow Emperor's Classic), says, "Yin creates Yang" and "Yang
activates Yin,"14 further illustrating Yin Yang's interdependent,
interrelated nature."
Associations
Yin Yang
...........................
Matter Energy
Dark Light
Female Male
Earth Heaven
Hard Soft
Lower Higher
Inner Outer
Consolidating Expanding
Cold Hot
Winter Summer
Moon Sun
Organs Bowels
---------- 2. Yin-Yang Origins
"Nothing is entirely Black or White" - The Philosophy of Yin and Yang
http://www.capital.net/~dnyhan/Her_ja97.htm
"According to tradition, the Taoist philosopher Chou Tun I, in the
11th Century AD designed the Yin / Yang symbol to express the origin
and nature of life. It has two equal parts divided by a curved line,
the curve indicating in an abstract manner, an admixture or blending
rather than a split. The "S" shape represents a wave. This wave shows
that in every thing there is continuous movement - a rising and
lowering and change - nothing is static. The circle represents the
unchanging, suggests unity as well as perfect truth, beauty and
goodness. In the depths of the darkest part there is a spot of light
and in the lightest of light areas, there is a spot of dark, further
suggesting how deeply opposites exist within one another. Yin is the
dark. It is the feminine, passive, or conserving principle. Yang is
White. It is the male, aggressive or active principle. Everything and
every idea is comprised of opposites. In the male, there is female; in
the good, bad; in life, death; in laughter, sorrow; in falsehood,
truth; and on and on.
Another account of the origin of Yin/Yang trace it back to the ancient
Taoist Chinese and that the terms originally meant sunless/sunny. The
southern side of a mountain was yang and the northern side was yin. As
time went on the terms were generalized for all the fundamental and
opposing forces of nature. In Taoism the forces of Yin and Yang
originally came together to create the universe of all things (the ten
thousand things). It became a tool to explore the theory of opposition
particularly of good and evil. All things, material or immaterial
(e.g. ideas) were made up of two opposing forces interacting between
themselves. Everything needs two opposites - to have birth you need to
have male and female. In man there is good and bad, etc.
Both poles of Yin and Yang are treated as equally valid or equally
invalid, neither is preferable. Take life and death. Life is
definitely preferable from the point of view of life. But from the
point of view of death maybe that is not so. The result is from the
theory of yin/yang there is no reason to prefer one to the other, one
must be neutral. In addition the opposites are invariable mixed up
with death being present in life and vice versa. Sometimes one
opposite pole dominates, at another time, the opposite pole dominates
in an ongoing evolving, changing balance, harmony and tension."
Classical Chinese Medicine: The Science Of Biological Forces
http://medicalacupuncture.org/aama_marf/journal/vol12_2/article2.html
"From Chinese antiquity, the origin of Yin Yang is attributed to the
simple Daoist observation of the movement of the sun from rising to
setting over a hill, and the subsequent shadow cast."
Search terms:
"what is yin-yang"
"yin-yang origin"
"origin of yin-yang" |
