The Real Meaning of Yin & Yang

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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.

[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today’s video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/eOWx50MESly.

[@phlezktravels]

Thanks man!

[@flipside9619]

I keep trying to paste a picture of my tattoo I drew and designed. Harmonious Chaotic Knight But KZbin refuses my ability to post / comment it, unfortunately.

[@matthewmagda4971]

This is an abomination and a cringe storm. You can't call yourself a scholar if you can't correctly pronounce "Yang" . Please stop spreading ignorance.

[@derekstaroba]

I keep seeing this same commercial for months now of a jewish looking guy saying how does a serpent talk and how did snakes have legs. Actually how does a monkey or any animal talk and snakes do have legs they are called lizards

[@gree9963]

dont forget south k0rean flag.

[@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

[@MatsubaAgeha]

WHAAAAA!? 😳

[@nevisysbryd7450]

I wonder how influential the elemental affiliation to the ruling dynasty was on the broader culture of its time, such as trends towards cognitively similar motifs and styles in contemporary art.

[@kawalangdalawahan]

If anything though the Qing was much more “Yang/fire-like” than the Ming

[@peterkhew7414]

胡说八道

[@JeffCaplan313]

​@@peterkhew7414 That's true. Only Yangs make cents.

[@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.

[@Llucius1]

If this is what is explained in the class , then that is a good teaching.

[@3ggshe11s]

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.

[@UniversalMysteries343]

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.

[@clareryan2640]

I was thinking this also - and you have explained it so well😁 I was thinking: not opposites exactly (women are not opposite to men) more like complimentary halves to the whole🤔 definitely inseparable 👍👍

[@randolphfritz6163]

Allow me to introduce you to the Mobius strip. Mathematicians delight in finding ways to challenge such claims, which gives some idea of the genuine philosophical complexity of such systems. There are many surprises that await the unwitting student.

[@UniversalMysteries343]

@@randolphfritz6163 You are correct. I didn't want to muddle up my comment by mentioning non-Euclidean space. More broadly speaking, it's NOT that yinyang always exists in any context, but it can help you understand the contexts where it DOES pop up. Energy is a real thing, but you can't just shove it onto any context you wish.

[@Llucius1]

A person should first understand what is Yang and Yin in its true nature. Without this , a person will never be able to use this concept properly. And the concept in this comment is not accurate as well.

[@igcometa]

Light is heat and energy and Darkness is the space for which that energy travels.

[@marykayryan7891]

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.

[@RubelliteFae]

Yes and... One could summarize physics as describing "waves and their relationships to each other." Dàojiā cosmology is similar, just predating the methodology of science. A wax & wane is an oscillation and a wave is this plotted over time. If an up quark is yang, then a proton is two yangs and a yin. A neutron is two yins and a yang. Up & down quarks are two types, but they come in three colours. From this multiplicity. Further, the proton is yang, the electron yin, and the neutron yin-yang. Unity, duality, trinity, multiplicity. It makes sense to describe the ordered cosmos in terms of various binaries when the first principles are being & nonbeing. Nonbeing doesn't exist, so there is actually only one: being. But, the conceptual opposite to being, that which gives space for existing things to exist, must be non-being. So, these dance together and, in intermingling, new things that didn't exist come to be. Being is yang in comparison to nonbeing. But being is yin compared to doing. As long as there is being and doing there will always the emergence of multiplicity. Thesis implies antithesis, which begets synthesis which then implies a new antithesis, which begets new synthesis, and on, and on.

[@PRDreams]

@@RubelliteFae Can I adopt you?

[@RubelliteFae]

@@PRDreams 😅 You gotta fill out the forms tho'

[@JamesDavy2009]

@@RubelliteFae That is quite deep. In short, taiji is zero-sum in nature.

[@dexocube]

@@RubelliteFae Very good example, well done. A great Sage couldn't have explained it better.

[@phlezktravels]

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

[@cajunguy6502]

L

[@ANONM60D]

Yes, I am def but the captions speak to me as well!

[@conorfiggs234]

You didn’t get enough attention as a child did you

[@ANONM60D]

@@conorfiggs234 a little too much attention is what got my step dad jn trouble. A little less doesn't sound so bad.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

@@ANONM60D No one got stuck in a dryer, did they?

[@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!

[@faithlesshound5621]

One thing they all have in common is that they don't work. Thousands of years of philosophical contemplation got us nowhere in medicine until doctors started using the experimental method: recording what they did and noting the results, and going onto randomisation and statistical analysis. That and hands-on study of the outside world as well as humans' and animals' bodies is what finally allowed us to get infant mortality down. Philosophical medicine is still fighting back: Scientology is the latest such fake scheme, and from a little earlier we have Rudolph Steiner's Anthroposophy, which grew out of his practice as the head of Theosophy in Germany and extends its reach into education too.

[@marykayryan7891]

Hey! I was excited to read this. My graduate degree is in medieval European and Islamic medicine. Nice to know somebody outside the "Middle East" (which as my teacher used to say, is neither "middle" nor "east") is interested in such an esoteric subject.

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@marykayryan7891 Ancient (if not Mediaeval) European and Islamic Medicine are alive and well in South Asia and South Africa in the form of Unani (= Ionian) Medicine and Surgery.

[@marykayryan7891]

@@faithlesshound5621 Also in Iraq and Iran. When I was teaching Chinese medicine in Ireland, I once had a student who was an Iraqi Baha'i refugee (from Sadam Husain-so a long time ago). She was regularly receiving Tibh Unani remedies from her grandmother in Iraq. (An American teaching Chinese medicine in Ireland to an Iraqi Baha'i. You don't get more post-modern than that, eh?)

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@marykayryan7891 Now that's interesting. I knew that Unani Tibb came to South Asia from the Arab world, but as far as I had heard it had official backing only in the Indosphere, where it is possible to go to college or university for five years or so to become a Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery, in the same way that one may study Ayurveda, Siddha, Homoeopathy or Naturopathy.

[@mcmaho17]

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

[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Yeah, the original script included a short discussion of them, but I figured they deserve their own video.

[@Yeahwaffles]

I really hope we see this video. I remember Allan Watts talking about it and never could get a grasp of it's meaning

[@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.

[@letsomethingshine]

Taoist priests have developed very detailed religion (and a number of denominations) with rituals and parties/holidays... all around the various derived Taoist/Daoist philosophies/books.

[@aakkoin]

@@letsomethingshine I'm sure that's the case, but I'm not a taoist priest

[@mattstanton2175]

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.

[@letsomethingshine]

It's abstract wisdom (or wisdom of the abstract), just don't get too lost in the details, they seem rather arbitrary and undisprovable/untestable.

[@aaron2891]

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.

[@MadHatter42]

You’re not the first to make these connections. Physicist Niels Bohr designed his personal coat of arms that included a yin-yang symbol, and when Gottfried Leibniz was developing his work on binary numbers, he interpreted the concept of Yin and Yang as proof of the universality of binary systems.

[@cptthrawn1841]

Quantum entanglement of photons

[@unmapped89361]

@aaron2891: Hey, can you elaborate more on why you think, gravity is the only fundamental force that is all yang?

[@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 😊

[@TheWorldTeacher]

yin-yang: in Ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (literally, “dark-light”, or “negative-positive”, which is represented by the Tai Chi [Taiji] symbol [☯]) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of Yin and Yang and formed into objects and lives. “Yin” is the receptive principle and “Yang” the active principle, seen in all forms of change and difference such as the annual cycle of seasons (winter and summer, or wet and dry), the landscape (north-facing shade and south-facing brightness), sexual coupling (female and male), the formation of both men and women as characters, and socio-political history (disorder and order). Cf. “Tao”.

[@infinitemonkey917]

Like a vision ?

[@ivan.olavarria.p]

@@infinitemonkey917 yess, but the interesting thing is that I saw it moving “backwards” (counter clockwise)

[@phlezktravels]

@@ivan.olavarria.p perspective is temporary 🤠

[@gadaadyn8190]

Fun Fact: two countries use the Yin & Yang sign in their flags 🇰🇷 🇲🇳

[@Bumpy_Trejuan]

Korea ?

[@connorlol387]

South korea dosent have dots mongolia dose tho

[@connorlol387]

@@Bumpy_Trejuanits south korea

[@be1tube]

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.)

[@letsomethingshine]

English still has the Norse gods for the "weekdays"

[@user-xz6zm2oz6e]

最开始是中国使用金木水火土和日月表达一个星期，后来日本从中国引用到现在都还在使用，后来中国使用了数字表达一个星期。

[@be1tube]

@@user-xz6zm2oz6e 为什么中国从用火、水、木、金、土、日、月改为用数字？

[@user-xz6zm2oz6e]

@@be1tube 因为七曜日或者五行日月表达一个星期不利于普通人，清末时中国文盲太多，就使用(一，二，三，四，五，六，日)简单的一周表达方式。

[@user-xz6zm2oz6e]

​@@be1tube中国在清朝末年和20世纪非常落后，许多中国留学生在见识到欧美国家的先进时其实很自卑，20世纪甚至还有人想废除汉字。

[@elpeluca63]

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.

[@letsomethingshine]

Taijitu TAI-JI-TU

[@DaudRotama]

Those cats are so cute!

[@kellydalstok8900]

I found a cross stitch pattern with two cats as yin and yang.

[@CAPSLOCKPUNDIT]

The interplay of opposites occurs at 2:40, 6:03, and 14:24.

[@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.

[@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.

[@mythosandlogos]

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

[@virkots]

Thanks for a great video! I'm fascinated by the fact that the Taijitu diagram you showed as an early example of a Yin Yang symbol look so similar to the kabbalistic tree of life. It even translates (and/or makes sense) symbolically when you overlay one over the other. I've always thought of Yin & Yang as some sort of variation of the kabbalistic concepts of Ayin and Yesh and now I'm even more intrigued. I wonder if there is some actual connection between them, if they share a common root culturally.

[@michelottens6083]

Even if not, these systems, while probably born of inscrutable mystic insight, would have been codified and fit into a logically defensible structure by state philosophers/theologians, who would've tended towards underpinning these vision accounts, as universally present cosmologies, with a mathematical order to them; hence the reoccurring orders of magnitude, fibonacci counting sequences, etc. in religiously institutionalized cosmologies across the world, crosscultural influence or no. But also yes, Kaballa or its predecessors could've easily traveled for a couple centuries, from Arab Spain through Eastern, near Indian Islamic strands, along trade routes to China

[@-haclong2366]

I love your M.S.N. Messenger / Windows Live Messenger profile picture.

[@daregularperson]

You can see the root of these two ideas in something as common as a plant. The seed is a point of wholeness and unity, that divides into a root and a sprout, and from thence it expands into the fullness of a tree with branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, providing food and shelter for animals. Unity to multiplicity.

[@markchan8110]

​@@michelottens6083 What an arrogance view. Why yin-yang concept must be coming from the west? You think only you people are only the smart one and we Eastern people are not smart enough to come up with such profound wisdom?

[@michelottens6083]

@@markchan8110 No that's not anywhere near what I was saying in that comment? Edit: Oh wait you mean the possible ancient trade eurasian route influence, specifically? That wasn't to say chinese philosophy came from europe, just to say some aspects of it could have been influenced by europe, then independently developed but still similar; as the initial post here was asking about. To clarify, though, chinese learning would have definitely traveled the other way along the continent as well, in this case, and you could probably demonstrate that by a more detailed comparison of cultures, as tons of academic specialists have in fact done, even if those mostly have to remain likely speculations at best, due to the lack of direct evidence from back then.

[@SobekLOTFC]

Keep up the great work, Dr Henry! 👏

[@Joxinus]

I am so surprised that the remple I usually go to shows up at 0:46! That temple is called "Temple of Eastern Peace東寧宮" and is located in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. However it's mainly dedicated to an Buddhist deity Ksitigarbha Bhodisasva,.(along with other Taoist deities and historical figures).

[@blueanimegirl07]

I was literally just thinking of you! Love your videos!

[@latinomalenurse]

As a Provider of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and lifelong student thereof, this was an excellent intro to these concepts! Thank you, I will be looking forward to the next part with Qi examined

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

You might also be interested in checking out my video on Chinese cosmology: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqGqi6Zsobt-q9E

[@oldstudent2587]

The round symbol with the fish-like parts is an "abbreviation" of the symbol you showed at about 0:60. Specifically, it's supposed to be a rewrite of the top circles (the "striped part"): Pull the centers of the two sides away from the top and bottom and you get a white half with a black dot and a black half with a white dot. Those two halves in the older diagram are the trigrams Kan and Li, water and fire. The turning of the newer diagram symbolizes the process of turning them within the body so Kan is over Li, which is a Daoist meditational practice.

[@jessegilliam6161]

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.

[@GoldenGarden9]

Thank you so much! Very helpful and very timely in my growth process.

[@kgraham5820]

Excellent breakdown and explanation! Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

[@katherinegilks3880]

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

[@HaileISela]

another great video, thank you. two things come to mind to be membered in this context: yin&yang are the coarising poles of the taijitu, the pole of the whole, the tao, they can never be 'divided' or 'separated' as one cannot have an inside without its complementary outside, both together are the whole. looking at the yin and yang as different things is ignoring their unity. the being in balance that the taijitu so beautifully embodies is not a de-pendence, neither in- nor -inter, but rather a compendence, a pendulum of balanced relation. peace be with you

[@yehudahhachassid6191]

A fascinating video on ancient Chinese philosophy ! Mazzal Tov-Best wishes ! Thank you !

[@jn846]

Really enjoyed this video! I've been a student of Yin and Yang on and off for over 40 years. I thought I knew a lot but I learned a lot from this video too! A lot of my studies and practices had to do with studying Chinese or Asian Medicine and also Martial Arts. Both of them utilize the concepts of Yin and Yang extensively. Yin and Yang are like qualities of something, or forces being applied in a given situation. Few, if any, things are totally completely Yin or Yang. There is always the element of one inside the other. And as in the analogy using that small element as a seed, the seed grows and eventually the characteristic of that object flips to be the other. In Tai Chi an example would be if someone attacks you by a forward motion throwing a fist in your direction. You might shift your weight back, a Yin move, to neutralize or avoid the incoming energy and then shift forward, a Yang move, to strike the opponent. In Chinese Medicine in many cases you use the principles of Yin and Yang to diagnose the condition of the patient. If they exhibit overly Yang characteristics like being overly boisterous, talking loud, agitated, you could conclude they have excess Yang energy and you might prescribe something that would help calm them down, perhaps taking up some meditation. Sometimes that's all it takes but often there is more to it than that as the 5 Elements also come into play and there are other symptoms to consider. A true master can quickly and accurately diagnose a person often by feeling their aura, looking at them, seeing their color, quality of voice, posture, after 20 years they become masters of the art. Thanks again I can tell this is more than just a research video. The presenter has a genuine interest in the subject and that really makes a big difference in the presentation. 😊👍🙏

[@enigma_explorer625]

Great video, thank you! I study a martial arts that has roots in traditional Chinese Kung Fu. It still has aspects of the five elements you discussed in your video. The elements each correlate to one of the “Five Animals” which has its own style of fighting and tells you which animal would fair better against another. Pretty neat!

[@loveandmercy9664]

It's crazy how much its origin story resembles Genesis. Yin and Yang even has its own trinity.

[@radarlove232323]

Very excited for the upcoming vid on taoist alchemy!

[@cellochang9]

Thank you so much for this wonderful and educational video! Growing up in a society where the balance of Yin & Yang being essential to everything, I notice a drastic difference mindset in the western world after moving to the United States. It ranges from health, medicine to the concept of individualism. Being mindful of this balance, would not only give us a healthier and holistic view, but keep us humble and aware of a much bigger scope of perspective in life and relationships.

[@JamesDavy2009]

A certain word of Hopi origin defines the U.S.: _koyaanisqatsi_ or "life out of balance".

[@flovv4580]

Americans will learn to strive for balance.....one way or another. Like Lao Tzu said....."that which goes against the Dao comes to an early end." We are already seeing the signs of chaos and decay.

[@dalegaliniak607]

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!

[@wcjerky]

As a preliminary watch before those videos are out, you can search for Alan Watts, a 20th century lecturer on Daoism.

[@stephendowling6200]

Thank you again for sharing knowledge 💛

[@That_Freedom_Guy]

While watching your video about yin yang, I noticed the Greek hoplite helmet and was struck by how much culture from other lands, people and times, we are privileged to know and understand. This amount of exposure of different cultures to so many people on the earth, has never occurred before. Since our exposure to culture is what conditions us to be the people we are, will this poly-cultural exposure condition a new and more worldly human? 🤔

[@TransformARTive]

I love your work! Been following for years! Would to love to have you on my Taoist podcast!

[@TheWorldTeacher]

yin-yang: in Ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (literally, “dark-light”, or “negative-positive”, which is represented by the Tai Chi [Taiji] symbol [☯]) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of Yin and Yang and formed into objects and lives. “Yin” is the receptive principle and “Yang” the active principle, seen in all forms of change and difference such as the annual cycle of seasons (winter and summer, or wet and dry), the landscape (north-facing shade and south-facing brightness), sexual coupling (female and male), the formation of both men and women as characters, and socio-political history (disorder and order). Cf. “Tao”.

[@ArmyNavyAcademy]

I would like to see this!

[@MrKeithtoad]

Is there a link to you Taoist podcast?

[@ioannishoeft1272]

I like to read the old daoist classics. This is an awesome video explaining or summing up the complex concepts of ancient far east philosophy 👌 I am excited for more videos like that on this channel.

[@augustgreig9420]

I've been a Taoist for 26 years. I'm more of a "fundamentalist" or "orthodox" I guess you'd say, as in I lean heavily on the original teachings, and not consulting 120 million gods and communicating with kidney spirits. It's so strange how religions evolve.

[@alexalanexriddle2757]

Great video as always 👍

[@Hiccupus]

The analogy of the hill reminds me of the haystack paintings by Monet.

[@experience741]

Another great video sir. I enjoy your videos about daoism and can't wait for the qi.

[@jeanmachine9943]

Thank you! Very informative.

[@daederosss]

Just saw this video pop up on Nebula. I'm happy so see you on that platform! I'll stay subscribed to you on KZbin but will be watching on Nebula from now on.

[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Yeah, super excited to have joined.

[@umechanx00]

Thank you for this very well-explained and well-researched video, I learned so much. Can you also please do a video about misotheism and dystheism? I feel like it's something not talked about enough. Thank you ^^

[@mechannel7046]

Great video!

[@majorphenom1]

Thanks for sharing 🙏🏾

[@christeljarry1789]

That was very interesting thank you ☯

[@albert12256]

Great video, I await the next.

[@robbabcock_]

Terrific stuff!

[@raycosmic9019]

Greater Tao = The one all-encompassing Principle of Nature, is pressure mediation. The two phases of pressure mediation are: Yang = di-electric centripetal convergence. Yin = magnetic centrifugal divergence. Lesser Tao = energic electromagnetic parsing. What appears as separate and opposite, is in Reality - Continuum. We are all It, to an unknowable/inexhaustible extent, as the facets of a Diamond are 'both' distinct from each other 'and' the Diamond itself. Love is the recognition of our shared Being.

[@emmanuelboakye1124]

👍👍

[@lucamaddalena8357]

Amazing video just as always

[@ottebya]

fantastic overview of this, looking forward to the Qi video 😃🤓

[@hamaljay]

Yea, man, it really ties the universe together.

[@briankleinschmidt3664]

It is a wonderful icon that can take on many meanings. To me it represents the transitional nature of our experience. Like the seedling that emerges from darkness - It grows toward the light then, over time, it returns to darkness. From the carcass emerges new and different life. What it does NOT express is that while that seedling grows, it becomes fruitful and multiplies. Thus, even though it returns to darkness, it has spread itself wide and far. It outpaces and overwhelms death. What is missing from our psychology is the point that life HAS conquered death. If we look around and observe closely, we can see that life has completely dominated death and life is life eternal.

[@richardramey3224]

Great work

[@MarvinResper]

Thanks for that awesome information nice

[@stoneskull]

amazing video

[@michaelsmith9714]

Love the video. Boosting the algorithm

[@ShorelineTaiChi]

Great introduction.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

A general symbol I utilized a ton of in my series, "Diamond Dragons" (now award-winning). Especially via the hundreds of illustrations within the hexalogy. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@martinwilliams9866]

I tend to think of the yinyang symbol as an early form of Hua-yen's relations between the part & the whole 1.Mutual Containment, the whole contains the part, the part contains the whole 2.Mutual dependence or determinism the part is dependent on the whole, the whole is dependent on the part, the sigmoid curve where the curve of one determines the curve of the other 3.Mutual Identity if the part is identical to the whole then every part is identical to every other part, the circle encompassing both yin & yang.

[@TacticusPrime]

The post-Manichean days of the week in China were also based on the planets/elements. The had the day of the sun, then moon, then the 5 elements which matched the planets. Fire, water, wood, metal, and finally earth go along with Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. In truly ancient China though, they had 10 day weeks. They ran the 5 elements twice over each week. A month was thus 3 weeks, or 6 repetitions of the elements.

[@himssendol6512]

Is the 10 day week concept still used in china? When talking about everyday things? I’m curious because we still use this in korea. We call it Cho soon 초순(初旬) Joong soon 중순(中旬) Ha soon 하순(下旬) I guess a rough english equivalent could be early, mid, late “month”. 1st to 10th, 11th to 20th, 21st to 31st (end of month) of the western calender. But when a specific day is talked about in this way it means according to the lunar calender dates. My grandma says it like “7th day mid May” or “2nd day late June”

[@TacticusPrime]

@@himssendol6512 In that idiomatic way, it is often still used in China yeah. You never hear the old elemental names for the days, but the months get divided into 3 periods casually.

[@weirdofromhalo]

Also the word for the ten-day week (旬) can be used to refer to ten years, and it's most often found in describing a person's age.

[@TacticusPrime]

@@weirdofromhalo Yes, good point.

[@himssendol6512]

@@weirdofromhalo Interesting 🧐 that is something we don’t do. 🤷‍♂️ At least i’ve never heard of 旬 used as a “decade”. Do you use 旬 for any other “10 something” ? Anything else than 10days and 10years?

[@chrisferguson237]

An explanation of Yin and Yang video ...16.16 in length. Respect! ;)

[@RealityAudits]

Like Roy master's explanation of the beginning of everything

[@MADGuy248]

Thanks so much for making this video Andrew!!! All these info brings me back the memories of learning the history of Chinese medicine - which is an immensely fascinating subject! I’m very excited to the next video about Chinese alchemy since that’s one of my favourite topic in the rabbit hole!!!!

[@anthonyraymondyu5625]

Ooo, I didn't know that about the five states of yin-yang! Can you explain more about the trigrams and hexagrams?

[@sanchezhandymen3444]

There are so many thoughtful comments, some blew my mind and gave much to compilate. The only thing I have to add is that I was amazed a few years ago to find out there is a Ying Yang Bean! yes Beans as in food. I know its a simple thing to be amazed by, but its so cool. If you have not seen them look them up - Black Calypso Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) Yin/Yang bean.

[@redoktopus3047]

great video! i'm still hoping for a new installment of "how religious is the world"

[@Differentsoul111]

Thank you, I needed this🫶🏿👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@woodygilson3465]

That was excellent.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Thank you

[@marqpsmythe228]

I like how Ward Farnsworth put it in his book “The Socratic Method” -- Systole and Diastole. ☯️

[@dansattah]

Very interesting. How accurate do you find the use of Yin & Yang in popular media, e.g. anime and other animation? In the series "Avatar - The Last Airbender", there are four nations that are based on the elements of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Each of these nations have "benders" who can control their respective element via martial arts. To ensure the balance between them, the "Avatar" has to learn to bend all four elements and keep the peace. The clearest depiction of Yin & Yang occurs in the finale of the first season, "Book 1 - Water", where the Moon Spirit and Ocean Spirit are depicted as two koi fish who continuously circle each other.

[@idraote]

One problem I see is that in Chinese philosophy there were five elements, fire, water, earth, wood and metal which is similar but not identical.

[@poetryflynn3712]

@@idraote In Greek philosophy, it was five that became four in practical use. Fire, water, earth, aether, and air.

[@laturnich9507]

I'm sure other people can add more on this (Cool History Bros did a whole video on this. Link here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJ6kdHuaiaajmLs ). But to give my own two cents, Avatar's treatment of Yin-Yang and other East Asian philosophical ideas is mostly superficial. For example, the four elements used in the show come from Aristotelian Greek philosophy rather than the five elements of Daoism. That by itself isn't a huge deal. A much bigger difference is how the show understands the idea of 'balance' and the moral implications of that. As far as I understand Daoist philosophy, people are not responsible for maintaining the balance of the system. Yin and Yang balance each other naturally and are mostly outside of human control. The best people can do is to try and understand and navigate these forces to make their own lives better. The idea of an 'Avatar' as seen in the show - basically a messiah-like figure who's job it is to maintain the balance between the elements in order to save the world from falling apart is much more of a thing in Christianity or Zoroastrianism. If you believe that everything already balances itself as part of the Dao, what do you need a special Chosen One for? In Legend of Korra (I believe season 2?) Yin and Yang are also explicitly mapped onto a Good and Evil duality, which is again, not really how it works in East Asian philosophy. So TDLR, although Avatar and media like it like to use a lot of East Asian imagery and enlightened-sounding buzz words, they mostly don't seem to understand or engage with the ideas on any deeper level, at least from my own view.

[@derekstaroba]

@@idraote first off i used to love that show Airbender i seen a few episodes a long time ago. Secondly theres some scholars has shown that the chinese method was twisted somehow i heard over time but wood is obviously not an element it is earth and wood contains air within it as well as fire because it will combust. When we say something is an element we mean predominantly as all the elements are in each other to some degree. Usually philosophical or occultic texts will say something like fire is hot and dry water is cold and wet earth is cold and dry air is hot and moist etc...the 5th element is predominantly described as spirit akasha or even love. I beleive dark energy in physics is actually akasha the 5th element. Theres a lot to figure out and learn this is just some few perspectives and explanation

[@idraote]

@@poetryflynn3712 which is still not identical to the Chinese system. Besides Aether was not really an element but kind of the sum/origin of the other four.

[@nomanor7987]

Please do a vid explaining the Book of Changes

[@BenjiSun]

On "medicine", this was a way to explain difficult nutritional concepts like why some people get nosebleeds after eating too much deep fried foods for example. (too much yang, the term is reqi, or hot qi.) On correlation with how it affects the world around us in a deterministic fashion, is the basis of Feng Shui.

[@evanhadkins5532]

It is a dyad, but not polar - each contains a little of the other (the contrasting coloured circle in each part).

[@hackman669]

Like in Star Wars kylo Ren was Yin while Rey was Yang ☯️ Drark and light.😁

[@evanhadkins5532]

@@hackman669 and each has a little of the other

[@itaymorilo]

ah.., doing a yin and yang video and timing it in 16:16, is truly poetry in numbers

[@maddiewadsworth4027]

Love this! ❤️☯️

[@fiddlesticks7468]

Dr Andrew never misses

[@NullStaticVoid]

in those early Yin Yang diagrams from 1000 CE are those the 5 elements in a kind of pentagram? I don't read Chinese but I read a little Japanese and the top two look like fire and water, the middle like earth or soil.

[@joeshmoe8345]

Amazing, thanks a bunch big dog.

[@beansnrice321]

About a min in and before I hear what you say I want to state one element of the Yin yang that I was aware of and state it here before I see if you mention it. Among the many symbols of yin and yang, I remember hearing that the idea came from a mountain having a light side and a dark side and that, though both seem to be distinct from each other in some ways( such as brightness and temperature) they are still no more than two sides of the same mountain. Another way of saying that is that the mountain is in dynamic equilibrium. Though one side or the other might be bright or dark or even brighter or darker than before, at any given time, the mountain will always have a bright side and a dark side composing it's whole.

[@beansnrice321]

Lol, 30 seconds after I typed this, you said exactly what I typed. Dope. Ok, I'm hooked. =)

[@Llucius1]

The mountain will be completely dark at night , by then are there still two sides or one ?

[@shmyeah]

i love this. i love you. is that a new mic?

[@vmizzell]

Yin and Yang are complements, NOT opposites. These concepts can best be understood using conditional logic, NOT binary logic.

[@Edbrad]

Yin Yang when seen together as a symbol are complimentary yes, but Yin and Yang are also opposites. This isn’t a contradiction. Yin Yang symbol/concept is saying opposites, by definition, are complimentary. That light and dark, inside and outside, self and other are opposites yet also complimentary. They go together, they’re a unity only possible if they arise together at the same time, and you can’t have one without the other.

[@flovv4580]

They are both

[@Trifacta1]

@@Edbradthe trap is to recognize this with a literal black/white mindset. Think of them as different as in identity, not as opposites. “Variety is the spice of life”. The symbol at least represents the ebb and flow between different identities on all scales in existence!

[@MegaJackpinesavage]

YT's thumb up/ thumb down assessment's subtly yin yang.... See? You're very informative & thought provoking. Stay as you are if you can keep up the strong work. If not, that's OK too..

[@sarbiewillams7217]

In summary it's the balance between good and bad which is found in the world. Darkness and light. Both compliment each other. There's a little of each other in one.

[@reppepper]

I am glad you said “It is composed of…”. You could also have said “It comprises…”. I am glad you avoided “It is comprised of…”.

[@stefannikola]

Thanks for doing a video on a Taoism topic.

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqGqi6Zsobt-q9E

[@emmanuelboakye1124]

Intresting👍👍

[@NickOG862]

Yes

[@kirstencorby8465]

Oh, a series on Taoism. I's like to see a video on what ordinary daily practice is like for people who practice Taoism. It all seems very esoteric.

[@barrygormley3986]

The shoutout is appreciated.

[@lanforge909]

Do you have a recommendation for a translation of The Designations, or any of the other Mawangdui texts?

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

You might also be interested in checking out my video on Chinese cosmology: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqGqi6Zsobt-q9E

[@DaSun666]

It works well with magnetism as well.

[@arthuryong3691]

I suggest referring to it as ‘Yin-Yang’ sans the ‘and’ - a nuance well worth contemplating. Thx☯️