• What is yin-yang?
• Origin of the yin-yang concept
• Yin-yang principle
• Applications of the yin-yang concept
• Yin-yang symbol

We explain what yin-yang is, the origin of this concept and its applications. Also, what is its principle and how is it symbolized.

The yin-yang proposes a vision of the world as a binary organization.

What is yin-yang?

Yin-yang is one of the fundamental principles of Taoism or Daoism, a doctrine Philosophical of Chinese origin, whose roots can be traced back to the 4th century BC. C.

Its terms mean "dark" (yin) and brilliant" (yang), since they express the duality that governs the elemental forces of the universe, which oppose and complement each other. It is commonly represented with the taijitu, a traditional circular emblem of two colors: black and white.

According to this philosophy, the opposing forces complement each other, giving each other balance:

• Yin represents darkness, earth, feminine, north, left, cold, wet, passivity, and absorption.
• The yang represents the light, the sky, the masculine, the south, the right, the hot, the dry, the activity and the penetration.

Such a universal duality is, according to the philosophy of the Tao, the generating principle of all things.

Then both aspects (yin and yang) would be found in Balance in the universe and also within all things, including persons; so that any notion of purity, stillness or absolutism is completely impossible. Furthermore, any aspect of the existence it can be seen through the opposing perspective, reversing its fundamental polarity.

This view of the world as a binary organization is common to many other philosophical currents, and it often has correlates in fields of knowledge such as the math (as in the Poincaré Duality principle) or even in traditional Asian medicine.

Origin of the yin-yang concept

The exact origin of the notions of yin (陰) and yang (陽) is unknown. Its traditional Chinese characters help to clarify the mystery, although they suggest that they may be formed from certain dualities in the nature, like the hot and cold seasons, as suggested by the sinologist Marcel Granet (1884-1940). Therefore, it is likely that both concepts originated in ancient Chinese agrarian religions.

In fact, in the oracular book I Ching (from around 1200 BC), known as the "book of mutations", this type of dualism is already referred to in numerous texts aphoristic, in which the concepts of strength / weakness, rigidity / flexibility or masculine / feminine are organized through continuous and discontinuous lines, thus forming diagrams conducive to divination.

On the other hand, yin-yang appears among the doctrines of Confucianism, although its greatest importance resides in Taoism, in whose fundamental book, the Dào Dé Jiing (c. 400 BC), is explained in detail.

If this is true, it would have been the sage Lao-tzu or Laozi, in the 6th century BC. C., who would have created this principle, as part of the formulation of Taoism.

Yin-yang principle

The beginning yin-yang can be explained in the following propositions:

• Yin and Yang are opposites and complementary, that is to say, that absolutely everything in the universe has an opposite that complements it, that gives it its reason for being and defines it, without for that reason they are "pure" notions: there is a little of yin in all yang and vice versa.
• Yin and Yang are interdependent, that is, they cannot exist without each other, in the same way that there cannot be day without night.
• Yin and Yang are within everything, or what is the same, absolutely everything in the universe can be divided into its yin aspects and its yang aspects; but, at the same time, any of these aspects can also be divided into its own yin and yang aspects, and so on ad infinitum.
• Yin and Yang are continuously consumed and generated, that is, they are at the origin of all things, forming a dynamic balance: if one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa, so that what we perceive as "imbalance" does not it is but circumstantial and fleeting.
• Yin and Yang can be interchanged, that is, they can become each other, since yang exists in all yin and yin exists in all yang. There is always a remainder of one in the other.

Applications of the yin-yang concept

Martial arts understand combat as a dance of opposites.

The concept of yin-yang can be applied conceptually to numerous areas of human knowledge, as a perspective to understand things based on the dualities that are their own and that constitute them. Thus, it is common to find it in:

• Traditional Chinese medicine, which understands disease as an imbalance between yin and yang that can be remedied by restoring balance. Thus, for example, conditions related to the yin would be treated with food associated with yang.
• It also applies to the doctrine of martial arts, which understand the clash of bodies during combat as a dance of opposites whose energies are also complementary.
• It can be used to think about human relationships, to a certain extent, as long as it seeks a complementarity and reciprocity between opposites or between different personalities, which allow achieving a loving balance.

Yin-yang symbol

There are many versions of the yin-yang symbol.

As we have said, the yin-yang is usually represented by the taijitu (太極 圖), a circular diagram in which two shapes stand out (“fish”, in Chinese: 鱼), one black and the other white, each of which It has in its center a circle in turn, but of the color that is contrary to it. There are many versions of this symbol, but the most famous is the xiantian taijitu (先天 太極 圖) or “taijitu of the early times”.