Yin and yang

Yin and Yang (Chinese阴阳/阴阳, Pinyin Yin Yang ) are two terms in Chinese philosophy, especially Taoism. They represent polar opposite to each other, yet related forces or principles. A common symbol of the principle is the Taijitu ☯, in which the white yang ( bright, hard, hot, male, activity ) and the black yin (dark, soft, cold, female, rest) are shown opposite.

The earliest evidence

The original meaning of the two characters is not secured. In Shuowen jiezi means阴( Yin) " dark ", " the south bank of a river " and " the northern slope of a mountain "; all uses point to the basic meaning of " shady, shady place ". 阳( yang) means " sunny hill ". These meanings are also available for the oldest known occurrences of characters Yin and Yang on oracle bones (about 16 - 11th century. BCE) to be set.

The characters are also found in the Yijing ( " Book of Changes" ), which is (about 1045-770 BC) dated to the period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. There you have only the everyday meaning. The interpretation of the "Book of Changes" by using a trained Yin -Yang theory is much younger than the Yijing. In Daoist Zhuangzi the development of the two words from everyday use to a more comprehensive understanding can be read as the polar forces of nature to Yin and Yang as the origin of all things.

In addition, there are also attempts the basic meaning of the characters as " the masculine " and to understand " the feminine ". For the popular, non-philosophical character use the Shijing offers ( " Book of Songs " ) documents.

Importance

Simple paraphrase attempts

The two concepts of yin and yang to define precisely is difficult, since they are used in classical literature for a variety of things and also there exists no precise definition.

A general definition provides Roger T. Ames.

" Yin and Yang are terms used to express a contrastive relationship did obtains Between Two or more things. "

" Yin and Yang are terms to the opposite relationship between two or more things to express. "

The easiest way the two terms are still circumscribed in their earliest historical mention of the I Ching ( Book of Changes ). In it are yang and yin with the adjectives strong and weak, like and unlike, as well as male and female associated. This generalized later to the idea of ​​Yin and Yang were the terms for the Female and Male, and then more generally for polarity per se.

Be confined solely to the meaning aspect of Female and Male, falls short because Yin and Yang can be used for many more pairs of terms. Instead, both terms refer to a pair of opposites, and the terms' giving 'and' receiving "or" active "and" passive " corresponds. Here, then Yin is passive and Yang for active.

The relationship of yin and yang can not be compared with the contrast of good and evil: " It is rather a relative contrast rhythmical nature that exists between two rival, but connected groups that are just as gender associations complementary and like this at work and replace alternately come to the fore. "

Yin and Yang as principles of transformation and correlation

Yin and Yang refer to "opposites " in their mutual relatedness as a whole, an eternal cycle. Therefore, they can be used for the explanation of conversion operations and processes and to represent the mutual limitation and recurrence of things.

Yin and Yang rise and fall alternately. After a mandatory high phase of the Yang follows a drop of yang and an increase of Yin and vice versa

" The first principle moves and generates yang. When the movement reached its end, it is silent, and this silence generates yin. If this silence come to an end, then it goes back into motion. So we took turns moving soon, soon calm. Together both form the basis from which arise by separating Yin and Yang and the rest on the two modes. "

This idea belongs to a popular or certain ethics for the people of mediocrity: So the people should not act exuberant and example in good times Keep a good harvest for bad times. In bad times, hope should be awakened in the people that according to the yin-yang doctrine for these bad times again absolutely good will also follow.

The transformation of Yin and Yang is besides this action transfers to the ancient astronomers also the reason explains why natural events take place as they expire, but also why these natural events lead to certain social behavior. Thus, Yin and Yang and converting both the reason for the change of seasons as for the behavior of people who align themselves to the changing seasons.

Yin and Yang can not increase or decrease simultaneously. When Yang increases to Yin reduced and vice versa.

Yin and Yang in Chinese philosophy

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang were indeed known from the beginning, but played no significant role. In the Confucian classics, the two characters only found in Xunzi ( Chapters 9 and 17). In later times they won in various philosophical schools of the central role of a pair of universal principles, first in the 3rd century BC in Zou Yan, the founder of the school of naturalists or the Yin -Yang school ( Yinyangjia ,阴阳家) applies, and then especially in Neo-Confucianism.

Zou Yan

About the writings of Zou Yan ( 305-240 BC ), who lived during the time of the Hundred Schools, there is only a brief overview of the Shiji ( Historical Annals ) by Sima Qian, the first major universal historical work in China. It describes the influence Sima Yan Zou at first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi China, the re-united the Warring States Period.

Zou Yan, the existing, but little elaborated ideas of yin and yang and the five elements linked together and they applied to diverse fields of knowledge such as astronomy, astrology, geography, history and politics.

In geography, Zou Yan tried to design a complete model of the world. According to his ideas, the world consists of nine continents surrounded by water, so that neither people nor animals can move between the continents. These nine continents are in turn subdivided into nine smaller continents of which corresponds to one of the " Middle Kingdom", China.

Dong Zhongshu

Dong Zhongshu is an important thinkers of the early Han dynasty, who understood the yin and yang as cosmological principles and tried to integrate into his neukonfuzianisches intellectual edifice. His work is much better documented than that of Zou Yan, as his book Chunqiu is obtained Fanlu ( Lush Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals ). This work provides both an interpretation of the Spring and Autumn Annals and the associated Gong Yang commentary, as well as a transcript of Dong Zhongshu own theories dar.

Dong Zhongshu also used the yin-yang doctrine as a cosmological principle of explanation. In Chunqiu Fanlu he works out his theory of the relationship between heaven, earth and man. His effort to unite as many elements of that philosophical directions in his doctrine, is evident in his statement that all founded on ten elements: heaven, earth, yin, yang, the Five Elements and the people.

Man is in Dong Zhongshu idea a partner of heaven and respond to this, as well as the sky, in turn, responds to good and bad deeds of man. Especially the respective rulers of the Chinese Empire has a strong influence on the reactions of the sky. This can manifest itself as disasters and storms, if the ruler does not behave properly, but also have a positive example impact in the form of a good harvest, if he makes the right decisions.

Yin and Yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Yin and Yang play an important role in traditional Chinese medicine ( TCM). The term Bagang (Chinese:八 纲/八 纲, bā transition, literally: Eight Principles ) referred there for eight diagnostic categories, which include yin and yang.

Yin - Yang symbol

The yin - yang symbol, Chinese Taijitu (Chinese太极 图/太极 图, Pinyin Taiji Tú, literally " symbol of the very large extreme / Highest" ) is attested in China only in the 11th century. In the first centuries of use, it had different forms; often there were concentric circles. The common form today () emerged only in the Ming Dynasty. In the two characters of Yin and Yang is a clumping Cloud, as well as a rising sun can be seen.

Externally similar symbols have been used in Europe as early as the late antiquity in the Roman army, but there is no historical or substantive relationship with the Chinese symbol and its meaning and use.

In the Unicode character encoding standard the yin - and - yang symbol is assigned in the Unicode Miscellaneous Symbols block of code U 262 F (decimal 9775, UTF 8 e298af ). In HTML, it is encoded with ☯. The character appears as ☯.

110224
de