what is yin and yang
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Mohism, also spelled Moism, school of Chinese philosophy founded by Mozi (q.v.) in the 5th century BCE. This philosophy challenged the dominant Confucian ideology until about the 3rd century BCE. Mozi taught the necessity for individual piety and submission to the will of heaven, or Shangdi (the Lord on High), and deplored the Confucian emphasis on rites and ceremonies as a waste of government funds.
In contrast to the Confucian moral ideal of ren (“humanity” or “benevolence”), which differentiated the special love for one’s parents and family from the general love shown to fellow men, the Mohists advocated the practice of love without distinctions (jianai).
The Confucians, in particular Mencius, bitterly attacked the Mohist concept of undifferentiated love because it challenged the basis of Confucian family harmony, which was in fact and theory the foundation for the social harmony of the Confucian state.
Origin
The concept of Yin and Yang and the idea of complementary forces became popular with the work of the Chinese school of Yinyang which studied philosophy and cosmology in the 3rd century BCE. The principal proponent of the theory was the cosmologist Zou Yan (or Tsou Yen) who believed that life went through five phases (wuxing) – fire, water, metal, wood, earth – which continuously interchanged according to the principle of Yin and Yang.
What is Yin?
Yin is:
- feminine/the female force/feminine energy
- black
- dark
- north
- water (transformation)
- passive
- moon (weakness and the goddess Changxi)
- earth
- cold
- old
- even numbers
- valleys
- poor
- soft
- and provides spirit to all things.
Yin reaches it’s height of influence with the winter solstice. Yin may also be represented by the tiger, the colour orange and a broken line in the trigrams of the I Ching (or Book of Changes).
What is Yang?
Yang is:
- masculine/the male force/masculine energy
- white
- light
- south
- fire (creativity)
- active
- sun (strength and the god Xihe)
- heaven
- warm
- young
- odd numbers
- mountains
- rich
- hard
- and provides form to all things.
Yang reaches it’s height of influence with the summer solstice. Yang may also be represented by the dragon, the colour blue and a solid line trigram.
In Mythology & Religion
In Chinese mythology, Yin and Yang were born from chaos when the universe was first created and they are believed to exist in harmony at the centre of the Earth. During the creation, their achievement of balance in the cosmic egg allowed for the birth of Pangu (or P’an ku), the first human. In addition, the first gods Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong were born from Yin and Yang.
In Chinese religion, the Taoists favour Yin whilst Confucianists favour Yang in keeping with the prime focus of their respective philosophies. The Taoists emphasize reclusion whilst Confucianists believe in the importance of engagement in life.
As expressed in the I Ching, the ever-changing relationship between the two poles is responsible for the constant flux of the universe and life in general. When there is too great an imbalance between Yin and Yang, catastrophes can occur such as floods, droughts and plagues.
Yin characteristics:
passive, negative, darkness, earth, north slope, cloudy, water, softness, female, moisture, night-time, downward seeking, slowness, consuming, cold, odd numbers, and docile aspects of things.
Yang characteristics: active, positive, brightness, heaven, south slope, sunshine, fire, hardness, male, dryness, day-time, upward seeking, restless, producing, hot, even numbers, and dominant aspects of things.
The Yin – Yang Theory is an important principle in Taoism.
Yin and Yang are the basic idea from which the bagua (ba- eight, gua- area) and the trigrams and hexagrams were developed.
Yin – Yang are divided into their respective Yin – Yang aspects, yielding four combinations: Yin of the Yin, and Yang of the Yin, and Yin of the Yang, and Yang of the Yang. This allows an almost endless scale of universally defined qualities, which is foundational to classical Chinese thought.
Yin and Yang in Chinese Mythology
The Pangu* legend
In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. The chaos began to coalesce into a cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of yin and yang became balanced and Pangu, emerged from the egg.
Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (dark Yin) and the Sky (bright Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This took him eighteen thousand years as well, each day the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet taller. In this task Pangu was aided by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.
After the eighteen thousand years had elapsed, Pangu was laid to rest. his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrow sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became human beings all over the world. The distance from Earth and Sky at the end of the 18,000 years would have been 12,443 miles, or over 20,025 km.
Yin and Yang in everyday life
In fact, Yin and Yang are in everything, and most things are a little bit of both. An eggshell is Yang, but the egg inside is Yin. Wheat in the field is Yang, but once it is harvested, it becomes Yin. One can turn into the other, and the best things in life lie at the confluence of the two.
The concept of Yin and Yang is at the heart of Chinese medicine. Have you ever wondered, for example, why Chinese people drink so much hot water? It is about balancing out the body’s Yin and Yang. See, the balance of the two is the most important aspect. The two forces are opposing but complementary.
Food
Chinese food, also, is incomplete without an understanding of Yin and Yang. Yang foods are those which are spicy or sweet. Like the warmth that Yang imbues, Yang foods are often those in warm colors like red and orange. Yin foods are those which are salty or bitter. They are cool in color, and are typically grown in water. Examples include tofu and soy sauce.
Everyone knows plain tofu is not the most appetizing dish. But pair it with some chili peppers, a la the Mapo style, and it’s a favorite in Chinese restaurants worldwide. Though on the whole, some dishes are more one than the other, elements of both Yin and Yang should be present within.
The human body
Regardless of gender, Yin and Yang are both present in the human body as well, and their strength waxes and wanes with the time of the day. Naturally, Yang is stronger during the day when the sun is out and it is warm. And Yin takes over at night, when its representative, the moon, comes out to play.
The influence of Yin and Yang
And though Taoism is more a philosophy than a religion, it teaches that there is a higher power in the universe, ‘the Way.’ Yet instead of being all good or all bad, it’s a little of both, just like Yin and Yang.
So just like the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, Yin and Yang is about not pushing back but accepting life’s contrasts and learning to see the good, and the bad, in everything.
science
, any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation. In general, a science involves a pursuit of knowledge covering general truths or the operations of fundamental laws.
Science can be divided into different branches based on the subject of study. The physical sciences study the inorganic world and comprise the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the Earth sciences. The biological sciences such as biology and medicine study the organic world of life and its processes. Social sciences like anthropology and economics study the social and cultural aspects of human behaviour.
Sanguan
Sanguan, Wade-Giles romanization San Kuan, in Chinese Daoism, the Three Officials: Tianguan, official of heaven who bestows happiness; Diguan, official of earth who grants remission of sins; and Shuiguan, official of water who averts misfortune.
The Chinese theatre did much to popularize Tianguan by introducing a skit before each play called “The Official of Heaven Brings Happiness.” Reflecting a Daoist principle that held heaven, earth, and water to be three transcendent powers, Chang Heng (2nd century CE) proposed that the confession of sins be written in triplicate, one to be burned for heaven, another buried in earth, and the third sunk in water.
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize was established in 1972 by John Marks Templeton, an American-born financial entrepreneur who sought to advance human knowledge of the universe through a broad set of intellectual approaches and an ecumenical perspective on spiritual progress.
Believing the spiritual domain to be no less significant than other areas of scholarly endeavour, Templeton stipulated that the prize’s purse always exceed that of the Nobel Prize.
Indeed, for many years the Templeton Prize was thought to be the world’s largest annual award given to an individual, and by 2009 the amount of its monetary gift had reached £1 million ($1.5 million). Sponsorship is provided by the John Templeton Foundation (founded 1987).
