- Hi, I'm Sandra and
welcome to Chasing Gods.
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So how did the yinyang symbol come about?
What is the real philosophy behind it?
Does it mean good versus bad?
We'll get to that right now,
but first I need to stress
that the information in this
video is highly condensed.
The yinyang history and
applications are enormous,
so on this video, I'll just
be sharing the key points
in the most simplistic way as possible.
Let's begin.
The yinyang symbol evolved
through a series of diagrams.
See, the intellectuals of
ancient China practiced an art
called Xiang or Tu, the art
of diagram or image making.
The goal with these
numerical representations,
text, and shapes, was to
communicate the patterns
of the universe according
to the vision of the Yijing.
The Yijing, also known as I Ching,
is a divination text based on
changes and transformation.
It's the oldest living classic of China,
and the precursor of most of
Chinese philosophy and culture.
The Yijing is basically a
manual that provides advice
to any specific question one may have.
The text centers around 64 hexagrams
made of yin and yang
lines, designed to cover
all the structures of
being and possible changes.
The hexagram is dynamic.
They each mean something, and
so does each of its lines.
And when one line changes from
yin to yang or yang to yin,
the entire hexagram changes,
as well as the interpretation.
The Yijing reflects the
ancient Chinese thought
that everything becomes and transforms
from yin to yang or yang to yin.
But what is yin and what is yang?
Yinyang started off as two separate terms
to describe geographic places
in relationship to the sun.
The sunny and warm side of
the mountain was called yang.
And the cold and shady
side was called yin.
This led to the classification
of everything that exists
as a yin or a yang element.
But there is a system.
For example, yin is dark, cold,
hidden, submissive, the
Moon, and the feminine.
Yang is the opposite of yin.
Yang is bright, warm, visible, dominating,
the Sun, and masculine.
The list goes on and on.
Basically, everything in the
world is either yin or yang,
and because yin essentially
represents the female
and yang the male, things
are either a female attribute
or of male attribute.
The yinyang philosophy
is fundamentally modeled
on male and female biological
differences and interactions.
As female and male are opposites,
they are also complimentary.
Same goes for the yin and yang.
The ancient Chinese
thinkers saw that there was
a paradoxical
interdependence on everything
that appeared to be opposites.
Brightness can only exist with darkness.
And they interact with one another
to make the world function.
Day and night mark the rotation
of the earth on its axis.
Male and female procreate.
From the naming of the mountainside,
yinyang became a way of thinking.
The yinyang thought was a
way of seeing the universe.
So how did the ancient
Chinese see the cosmos?
A popular Chinese creation myth
tells how before everything
there was formless chaos,
no light, no darkness,
and it took the form of a cosmic egg.
For thousands of years,
Pangu the hero was sleeping in that egg.
And during that time,
the forces of yin and
yang became balanced.
When Pangu woke up, he
cracked the egg open
and separated the yang from the yin.
He extended the heavens upwards
and the earth downwards,
all the while growing longer.
Thousands of years later, heaven and earth
reached their maximum height and depth.
Pangu couldn't grow anymore, so he died
and all of his body parts
became all the parts
of the universe, the 10,000 things.
His breath became the
winds and the clouds,
his left eye the Sun,
his right eye the Moon,
his blood the ocean and rivers,
his facial hair the stars
and the Milky Way, and so on and so forth.
There are different versions
of this myth but overall,
it reflects the logic and
the patterns of the universe
according to other Ancient Chinese texts.
The early Chinese philosophers believed
that the universe originated
from an ultimate source.
They called it the Dao or the Great One.
The Dao contains the yinyang,
which is like the fabric
of the universe, it's the net
that's embedded in all things.
Through the functions of the
yinyang net travels the Qi,
the life force that animates
everything that exists.
The ultimate Dao can be
compared to Pangu's egg.
And they both can be
compared to what today
scientists called the Big Bang,
or to the symbolism of the dot, or zero,
which represent the
beginning of possibilities.
Pangu's body becoming
the parts of the universe
also reflects the ancient
Chinese idea that the cosmos
and the human body share
the same anatomical map.
In this vision, the universe is conceived
as a living organism
paralleling the human body
in terms of rhythm,
function, and movement.
Humans, the Earth and the
cosmos all affect each other
through the system of yin and yang.
For example, when the Sun
comes out, and the Sun is yang,
the people go out on the rice fields.
Activity is a yang element.
When the yin moon comes out people rest,
which is a yin state.
It was also believed that human activity
affected the greater cosmos.
What the humans did on Earth
could cause cosmic reactions,
like rain or drought.
A theory that was not
reflected in Pangu mythology,
but essential to the yinyang thought
is the Wu Xing or the 5 phase theory.
Basically it's the interaction sequence
between nature's five elements,
fire, water, earth, wood and metal.
For example, water overcomes fire,
fire overcomes metal,
and so on and so forth.
This theory suggests that
other objects or state
also correspond to the five elements
and share the same
sequence of interaction.
According to the Wu Xing,
knowledge overcomes passion.
Phew, OK, let's do a quick recap
on the general yinyang
thought we've covered so far.
The ancient Chinese saw the
universe as being governed
by two opposing but equal
and complimentary forces
which act as a mechanism for the qi,
the life force that animates everything.
The cosmos and humans are connected
and share the same anatomical structure.
Life's elements interact in accordance
to the five phase theory.
But hold on, the yinyang thought was more
than just a way of seeing the universe.
To the Chinese sages, all aspects of life
are like a universe on their own,
and they are also subject
to the yinyang theory.
They believed that if you
can understand this well,
you will see that the
yinyang theory can be used
as a type of blueprint for
doing things the right way.
This efficient way of doing something
is called shu, or strategies.
And shus are guided by
the yinyang principles.
There is a shu for everything.
For battle, for sex, for living
arrangements, for combat,
for music, art, political
affairs, and for medicine.
Medical-based shus have
had major influence
in broadening and systemizing
the meaning of the yinyang.
Yinyang was a way of seeing
the world and a way of life.
Essentially, yinyang was everything.
No wonder the Chinese thinkers
had to put it on paper.
But text is discursive and had its limits.
So the Chinese designed
images and diagrams.
They looked quite
complicated, but remember
that they weren't meant for aesthetics,
but for explaining the complex
patterns of the universe.
A lot were created, but
there were three main trends
of Chinese image making.
The Hetu and Luosho, the
eight trigrams, the Taijitu.
These three had significant
connections with one another,
and were all essentially
derived from the Yijing.
Let's look at each of the trends.
The Hetu and Luoshu,
symbolizing heaven and earth
respectively, were
drawn by an 11th century
Yijing commentator inspired
by what had seen on the back
of a turtle and a dragon-like
horse in the river.
The black dots which are grouped
to form even numbers are Yin,
and these numbers represent completion.
The white dots which are grouped
to form odd numbers are yang.
And those numbers represent generation.
Each of the charts show
mathematical patterns
representing the generative
force of the universe
through the balance of yin and yang.
The second trend is the
two sets of eight trigrams
taken from the Yijing, and
represents its concepts,
revealing the basic cyclic and
polar forces of the universe.
The circular positioning of
the trigrams set a precedence
in the yinyang xiang
making because it shows
the cosmological cyclical
patterns of rise and decline.
As you go around the circle,
you can see the waxing and
waning of yin and yang.
The third trend of image
making is the Taijitu.
It consists of five steps
read from top to bottom
to explain the movement from one source
into a diversified world.
First there's the absolute void,
then the yin and yang
complimentary duality,
then the Wu Xing theory and
then eventually everything
which becomes and transforms.
In the 14th century, these
three trends were combined
to form the prototype
for the yinyang symbol.
The artist who made it, called
it a Hetu, river diagram
just like the one from the first trend.
It took the circular shape and trigrams
from the eight trigrams diagram.
And it contains the yinyang halves
from the Taijitu sequence,
only it's evolved
into an interlocking and
swirling of yinyang halves.
And from there came different
renditions which look more
and more like the modern
yinyang symbol we know today.
OK, let's go over some of
the cosmological patterns
that the symbol shows.
The circle, which can symbolize heaven,
a whole, or an entity,
if fundamentally made of
and governed by two opposite
forces, yin and yang.
At any point in time and space
there is both yin and yang.
This could be seen by drawing
a line from the center
of the circle to any of its peripheries.
And it's only seen in the
earlier versions of the yinyang.
The equal proportion of each opposite
shows that they are of equal
importance and complimentary.
One cannot exist without the other.
The intertwining and swirling of the two
represents the self-created
and ongoing cycle
of these two opposites.
One transforms into the other.
In the strong element of
yang there is a seed of yin
and yin will begin, and
in a strong element of yin
there is a seed of yang
and the cycle keeps going.
The swirling also represents movement.
At any point yin or yang is
in the process of changing.
Things are always transforming
one way or the other.
Today's modern yin yang
symbol changed a bit.
It lost some informative details,
but still maintains the core ideas
from the more ancient symbols.
It's not known who created it and when,
but we can see that endless
variations have been created
by all types of individuals
across the world.
The yinyang has become a universal symbol
and it's mostly known to
represent the harmony of dualism,
especially of good and bad.
But as we've seen, the
Ancient Chinese intellectuals
never meant it to represent good and bad,
although the rules can apply there too.
They meant to create an image
that represents much more
than just the balance of opposites.
The yinyang symbol is
derived from a rich history
of image making in order to express
a complex way of thinking.
And remember, we've just
scratched the surface.
Yinyang is a way of seeing the world,
one that came from an ultimate
source of nothingness.
A world governed by two opposite
yet complimentary forces
which controlled the energy
that animates all things.
A world in constant transformation.
A world subject to cycles
of rise and decline,
and to the theory of five phases.
A world that we can find above
us, around us, and within us.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Thanks a lot for watching guys
I hope you enjoyed it.
All the sources can be found
in the information box below.
I also focused a lot on
this, the Yinyang book.
Very interesting book if
you want to check it out
(taps book) borrow it from the library.
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