YIN AND YANG

......In Chinese culture, Yin and Yang represent the two opposite principles in nature.

Yin characterizes the feminine or negative nature of things and Yang stands for the masculine or positive side.

Even though Yin and Yang are opposite in nature, they are part of nature, they rely on each other, and they can't exist without each other.

The balance of Yin and Yang is important. If Yin is stronger, Yang will be weaker, and vice versa. Yin and Yang can interchange under certain conditions so they are usually not Yin and Yang alone. Yin and Yang are not static or just two separated things.  In other words, Yin can contain certain part of Yang and Yang can have some component of Yin. It is believed that Yin and Yang exist together in everything.

Yin and Yang are in pairs, such as the moon and the sun, male and male, dark and light, cold and hot, passive and active, etc. But the nature of Yin and Yang lies in interchange and interplay of the two components. The alternation of day and night is such an example.

....................................Yang is the white side with the black dot
................................. and Yin is the black side with the white dot.

The relationship between Yin and Yang is often described in terms of sunlight playing over a mountain and a valley. Yin (literally the 'shady place' or 'north slope') is the dark area occluded by the mountain's bulk, while Yang (literally the 'sunny place' or 'south slope') is the brightly lit portion. As the sun moves across the sky, Yin and Yang gradually trade places with each other, revealing what was obscured and obscuring what was revealed.

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity and nighttime.

Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.

The concept of Yin an Yang  has a long history. There are many written records about Yin and Yang. The principles of Yin and Yang are an important part of Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine, the earliest Chinese medical book, written about 2,000 years ago.

They are still important in traditional Chinese medicine, Chi Kung and T’ai Chi Ch’uan.