The Real Meaning of Yin & Yang

Explore the concept of Yin and Yang - the ancient Chinese philosophy that highlights the balance of opposing forces in the universe. In this video, we'll delve into the meaning of Yin and Yang, how they are represented in the famous Taijitu symbol, and their impact on health, relationships, and the natural world. From the yin-yang balance of light and dark, to hot and cold, and masculine and feminine, this video will provide a comprehensive look at one of the most fundamental beliefs in Chinese philosophy.

[kunven]

The founding of the Qing dynasty was influenced by this. Qing means clear, usually associated with water, while Ming means bright, usually associated with fire. So the replacement of Qing over Ming can be interpreted as a triumph of water over fire, or yin over yang

[ChateauLonLon]

I recall an analogy, I think maybe from my rhetoric class?

There is a mountain. At sunrise, it's lit from the east. At sunset, it's lit from the West.

Frozen in time, it seems there is a clear light half and clear dark. But that is an illusion. There are no halves, no fixed dark or light. The mountain is one and both.

The light and dark halves are ever-shifting, and the dots of the Yin Yang represent that potential for one half to become the other.

[UniversalMysteries]

The meaning of YinYang that always gets lost (and that I was hoping you would cover in this video based on the title) is that Yin and Yang are not just opposites, they are inseparable.
You mention it in passing at 6:06 but you don't explain it. Here's an example: you cannot draw a shape that has an inside, but no outside. You can't draw a shape that has an *outside*, but no *inside* . You could draw a line, but this has neither an outside nor an inside. In this example "inside" and "outside" are opposite, and they are inseparable. It is impossible to have one without the other. This fact permeates life, think about your job. The work is yin, and the money you get paid is yang. The occurrence of one necessitates the occurrence of the other. Life is filled with these advantages and disadvantages that always co-occur with every decision.
So things such as light and dark are not (by themselves) good examples of YinYang. Light can exist without dark, and darkness can certainly exist without light needing to be anywhere. But light and dark can insatiate this "inseparability" principle in a certain context. Like the example with the mountain, if you assume the sun to be out the light side of the mountain will always imply the dark side of the mountain and vice versa. Of course this goes away when you consider a piece of flat land, which would have only a light side. My point is, YinYang has to have TWO properties, that the yin and yang are opposite, and that they are INSEPARABLE.

[ggshes]

Thanks for a much-needed overview. It's distressing to see how many in the West think that the taijitu means something like "you can't have good without evil." The symbol represents a harmonious balance of complementary opposites, not two clashing forces in eternal conflict with each other.

[mattstanton]

It’s hard for me to put into words how much sense this made to me. It hit deep in the best way. I had to rewind a few times because I have come to the same conclusions in my life studying Yin and Yang very little. Cray cray.

[aakkoin]

Taoism is such a great philosophy, it makes sense on so many levels, and it's not a religion with strict rules. And the symbol of yin&yang is genius, it basically explains itself, and it contains so much information, one could just stare and meditate on the symbol and write entire books derivate from it.

[mcmaho]

I'd be curious to see a video on the I Ching and its hexagrams. Thanks for making all of this excellent content.

[marykayryan]

This was a very nice introduction. I hope in future episodes you return to a point about yin and yang that you did not mention (although perhaps implied). That is, the "infinite divisibility of yin and yang." In this premise, every yin or yang "thing" contains another iteration of yin and yang. The particular combinations of iterations gives a thing its actual characteristics. So, for instance, the aggregate of women are yin, but any particular group of women (a culture, for instance) may be more or less yin or yang than some other culture. And any particular family of women may be more or less yin or yang. And finally any particular woman may be more or less yin or yang than other women and even men. The diagram that is used to show this shows a black and white bar, each divided into a further black and white and each of those sub divided and so on infinitely. This is important because a food, for instance, is not either yin or yang but some combination thereof. Meat is yang compared to vegetables. But pork (which is fatty) is more yin than beef (a relatively less fatty meat). Etc. etc.. Thus the system that appears binary, is actually not, but a very sophisticated way to take a simple binary and extend it to incorporate the specifics of the infinite variability of the cosmos.

[Charlie-phlezk]

As someone who lived and worked in China for almost a decade, this video speaks to me! Thank you!

[aaron]

Yin and Yang seem to tie in very well with chemistry, physics, and math.

Dynamic Yin-Yang: the Yin doesn’t necessarily equal the Yang, but the rates of change between them become equal in any reaction.

Lachatlier’s Law: whenever Yin and Yang are thrown out of balance in a dynamic system, they will always return to balance in one way or another.

Electron charge: 1-Yin. Proton charge: 1-Yang.

1 Yin + 1 Yang = 0.

For any Yang force acted upon an object, there is an equal Yin force, and vice versa.

As far as can be told, gravity is the only fundamental force that is all Yang but no Yin.

[studiumhistoriae]

Love this video! Having studied Medieval and Classical medicine (and even having my own video on it), it's really interesting to see the similarities in terms of balance of the qi to the balance of the humours and qualities for maintaining and obtaining health. Great stuff as always!

[elpeluca]

2 days ago i was walking with my daughter and we crossed a random person wearing a "yin yang" t-shirt. I thought to myself "I wonder what is the real name of that symbol... maybe religion for breakfast has a video on that subject" and today i find out that the same day you uploaded this. Great coincidence, great video and great channel!
Greetings from Chile.

[mythosandlogos]

This is so incredibly well done. Great job taking the abstract and philosophical and bringing it into the concrete and practical.

[betube]

9:36 The Japanese weekdays are based on the 5 phases: fire (Tuesday), water (Wednesday), wood (Thursday), metal (Friday), and earth (Saturday). Then Sunday and Moon-day are the same as in English (though with Japanese words for sun and moon.)

[ivan.olavarria.p]

Two or three days ago I saw the yin-yang symbol while meditating and wanted to know more about it. Thank you for the information! Amazing content, as always 😊

[breathspinecore]

This was very well presented, especially on the historical origins of the concept and the fact that "the Daoists" didn't invent all of these ideas-- a common misconception. I would add that one point you missed in this, esp. in regards to ch. 42 of the Daodejing, is that of emergence. These ancient philosophers, especially those of the School of Naturalists/Yin-Yang, were early systems-thinkers who profoundly understood the emergence of patterns, although they didn't fully understand the concept. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[katherinegilks]

The recurring kitten clip is an extra nice touch! Great video! I appreciate how you explain these concepts without othering practices Or practitioners.

[jessegilliam]

Thanks for the great video, I really enjoy your channel. As a practicing acupuncturist I've seen other videos talking about yin and yang that make me cringe a little, but I thought this was thoughtful, thorough, and objective.

[the_zsriverpanda]

One thing I remember hearing in Chinese history classes that's kind of related is how the Mandate of Heaven was used by court officials to convince the emperor that he'd been doing something wrong. As mentioned in the video, there are signs that supposedly show that an emperor or the whole dynasty might be losing the Mandate of Heaven, floods, droughts, famines, plagues and such, which can all be explained in terms of not following the natural order and disrupting the cosmic balance (the five phases 五行 as mentioned, or yin and yang directly, or some other potential explanation along the line). Some court officials then pointed to these signs to advise the emperor that it may be prudent of him to change his ways. Maybe he had to collect less harsh taxes from poor farmers, or he should help relieve the famine.

Anyway I just remember the textbooks making a point of telling us that the cosmic imbalances were cited to persuade the emperor, which could be a dangerous deed that one might lose their head for. Thought this may be interesting to some people here.

[dalegaliniak]

Oh, nice! I remember you mentioning that you were going to do a set of daoism videos a while back! It's one of the religions I'm most interested in and it's great to see that you're delving into this topic! Thank you!