Basic feng shui series
Yin Yang principles
by Jayashree Bose

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In this article I will write about the meaning and origin of a symbol, which is perhaps the most commonly used Chinese symbol.

Some of the qualities of yang are bright, day, warmth, sun and maleness. Of yin, the qualities are dark, night, cold, moon and female. However, yang should not be equated with good and yin with bad, as it is always the balance between the two that is crucial. For example, if a room is extremely bright (too much yang) then this is blinding. Similarly, if a room is dark (too much yin), then one cannot see. To aid vision within the room a balance of yin and yang is necessary.

What does the symbol mean?

The symbol represents the cyclical process of change. Underlying this belief is the notion that nothing in the present is permanent and within change we have the seeds for the next change. Present actions affect our future, and neither the present nor the future can exist without each other.

For example let us consider the cycle of life and death. Life as we know, is followed by death and vice versa. Therefore life contains the seeds of death (every living thing has to die one day), and death contains the seeds of life (whatever dies is always reborn). One cannot exist without the other. Similarly, yin and yang are opposite forces that co-exist, containing within itself the seed of the other and following the cycle of dynamic change from one to the other.

Where did the symbol come from?
It is said that the universe came into being when wuji (nothingness) gave birth to or transformed to taiji, and taiji gave birth to liangyi(dual polarities) yin yang.

A more scientific explanation could be that the ancients realized that the universe was changing everyday, and change was evident in the form of night and day and seasonal changes that occurred annually. They also concluded that these changes were cyclical and therefore measured the lengths of the day and found that one year had 365.25 days.

It could be said that the data collected by them on the length of the shadows in different seasons, is diagramatically represented in the symbol. The ancients found that the shortest shadow coincides with what we know as the summer solstice* and the longest shadow with the winter solstice*.

This symbol of synergy was extensively studied during the Han dynasty, and it was also during this period that the yin yang school of thought along with wu xing (literal translation would be five agents/elements) increased in popularity.

Today, this symbol is one of the integral parts of feng shui, and understanding it is essential if one wants to progress in the study of feng shui.

* Solstice - the longest (summer solstice) and the shortest (winter solstice) days in a year for the northern hemisphere.