Talk:Yin and yang
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Common misconception
A common misconception is that the colours black and white used in the taiji symbol are properties of yin and yang. Rather they are used to symbolise darkness and light. The relationship between the colours black and white is not the same as that between yin and yang, i.e. black is not the absence of white. Darkness, however is the absence of light.
Text moved from Yin-yang
- Often used contemprarily as a symbol of peace or love, the Ying Yang is a sign of Eastern origin, specifically of Chinese Taoism philosophy and representing interpenetration and interdependence of all universal things. One half of the symbol being 'Ying' and the other 'Yang', the two entities embody and complement eachother.
- One might derive personal meanings from the Ying Yang such as the relationship between man and woman or that of the individual and society.
The text above was written at Yin-yang. I moved it here. I ask the author or anyone else to merge it with the main article at Yin yang. Optim 16:08, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Text moved from Traditional Chinese medicine
The text following is removed from the traditional Chinese medicine page as an effort to thin that page down. Please feel free to merge it into the main yin yang article. heidimo 15:56, 8 May 2004 (UTC)
- Why remove this? Yin and yang is central to the understanding of TCM. In fact, it can be said to be the basis of TCM; without it, it can't be well understood. Mandel 23:25, Feb 23, 2005 (UTC)
Yin Yang
The most fundamental concept in TCM is the philosophical construct of Yin Yang, complementary qualities seen in all natural phenomena. Yin and yang are not forces, energies, or material substances; neither are they irrational mystical concepts (though they do not work well with Aristotelian logic). Yin Yang is a way of thinking about phenomena, and a way to describe how things function and interact with each other in the Universe.
The Chinese characters for Yin and yang are derived from pictographs for, respectively, the shady and sunny sides of a hill. This relationship is an example of several elements of the Yin Yang dynamic; there can be no shady side without the sunny side, and one transforms into the other as the day progresses. On the sunny side there are shady spots (under a tree, for example), while on the shady side there are bright spots (in a clearing). These exemplify yin within yang and yang within yin, respectively. By extension, the artificiality of discriminations between yin and yang is posited, informing the traditional Chinese medical practitioner that in some cases yin and yang are plastic metaphors based on relative points of view rather than an absolute identity, a non-dualistic dynamic represented by the Taoist and Neo-Confucian icon known as the Taijitu.
Yin is used to describe phenomena which are dark, cool, at rest, down, inward, female, still, and/or decreasing. Yang corresponds to bright, warm, active, up, outward, male, and/or increasing. Within the human body, certain elements are considered more yin and some more yang: the front is considered more yin, the back more yang; the upper part yang, the lower part yin; the interior yin, and the exterior yang.
Simplisticly speaking, fever, irritability, and redness from blood rushing to the skin are signs of too much yang, or not enough yin to balance the yang. Coldness, lethargy, and paleness are signs of excess yin or deficient yang. Medicines and treatments are classified as to their ability to strengthen or disperse yin and yang. Because of the continuous movement of change and the interactions between yin and yang, actual situations are usually far more complex than this example.
In the West, Yin Yang are sometimes associated with sexual terms, which leads to some major misconceptions about Chinese medicine. One such misconception is that a Chinese herbal medicine such as rhinoceros horn is used primarily as an aphrodisiac. This is not true, as rhinoceros horn is intended mainly as a fever reducer, and has a number of substitutes.
Qinway Qigong link
I've removed a link that seems to be plain old advertising: I saw a bit of content on the linked site that seemed generally informational (though I can't speak to its real relevance to this page or to the subject of qigong), but it all seemed to be leading you toward signing up for some workshops and/or buying some products. (Any site whose front page has "before" and "after" pictures . . .)
From what I've seen of Wikipedia and read on the help pages, I get the pretty clear impression that this is not the sort of thing that should be here. Apologies if I'm dead wrong.Iralith 22:15, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Question
I was under the impression that the Yin-Yang concpet could not be used for Good and Evil, yet in this article I found refernce to that. Can anyone explain? I thought the dualty of Good and Evil was used only in Manichæism. Here is a link to an article that talks about this: [1] (http://www.xr.pro.br/Ensaios/MANIQUEISMO.html)
- Thanks for pointing this out. I believe that the definition of yin and yang in the article is consistant with what you are suggesting. There was one example that used good and evil which seemed inconsistent with the rest of the article, so I removed it. I think that the following statement from the article is clear on this point:
- Yin and Yang are equally important, unlike the typical dualism of good and evil. Sunray 09:46, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)
666999 =YinYang
"5. Yin and yang can transform into one another.
At a particular stage, yin can transform into yang and vice versa. For example, night changes into day; warmth cools; life changes to death"
see also 999 / 666 Number of the Beast (numerology)
Yin Yang or Yin and Yang?
Lowellian moved the article of Yin yang to Ying and yang. Does this reflect common usage in English? As far as I have checked on Google, the former is commoner. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, the terms for the dualism are equivalents of yin yang, not yin and yang. - TAKASUGI Shinji 00:08, 2005 May 9 (UTC)
- Yes, I was wondering about this too. It might have been nice if Lowellian had communicated his reasons for the move. Yin Yang certainly is more common. One reason that Lowellian may have done it is because for years, in English, there was a rude expression ("up the Ying-Yang"), sometimes still used, which was likely a bastardization of Yin Yang. He may have wished to avoid this association. Sunray 02:00, 2005 May 9 (UTC)
Possible Copyvio
Marked with copyvio due to two source links leading back to Encyclopedia Britanica[2] (http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article?tocId=9077972), yet without an actual account on that site, it can't be verified. The links were added by Curtis Davis ([[User:]]) on June 13 (hist (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yin_and_yang&diff=prev&oldid=15134469))
- Can't we simply revert back to the 12 June, 2005 version? there was a lot on here that wasn't sourced from EB. Fire Star 02:54, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
