Yin-yang: a rhythmic operating system
Forget either-or. Life is in and out, back and forth.
The New Mindscape #6–5.
In Chinese cosmology, health, prosperity, long life, and spiritual transcendence derive from the circulation of cosmic forces, both by properly positioning one’s body or one’s home in relation to time and space through which cosmic energy flows, and by manipulating such flows to one’s advantage.
These cosmological methods are used in the many healing systems and body cultivation systems that are based on cosmic forces, such as fengshui, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, martial arts, qigong, and Daoism.
In the materialist ontology, everything in the material world is made of fundamental particles of matter. Higher-level organisms are made of complex combinations of such particles. The questions most commonly asked are related to substance: “Does it exist?”; “What are its constituent parts?” And the most fundamental type of relationship is a binary one: yes/no, is/isn’t, 1/0.
Chinese ontology is more concerned with processes and patterns than with substances. The world as we experience it is the ephemeral expression of the ever-evolving unfolding of processes and the interrelation of forces and energy flows. The types of questions this ontology gives rise to are of the type: “What is the tendency? What type of process are we in? How are different processes interacting and how does this affect the overall pattern?[1]
This ontology is expressed through the symbols of yin and yang. Yin represents processes of inward contraction, tending toward receptivity, interiority, darkness, and rest, while yang represents processes of outward expansion, tending toward assertiveness, exteriority, brightness, and movement. This is a way to look at the universe by analogy. Yin is analogous to female, and Yang to male. That is why this is called an analogical ontology.
The notions of yin and yang appeared over 3000 years ago, when Chinese people observed the regularities of cycles of time and their association with aspects of geography and human life. These cycles were associated respectively with light and dark, hot and cold, south and north, going out and coming in, outside and inside, motion and stillness.
These sets of opposites were symbolized by the characters yang, meaning “the sunny side of a hill,” and yin, meaning “the shady side of a hill.” Yin and yang were seen to be in a dynamic, complementary, copulative, and generative relationship: the alternation and union of yin and yang gives birth to all beings.
Yin-yang categories have been used in China to classify everything in the universe. For example, looking at social relations, the men went out into the fields in the day, and came into the home to their wives at night: masculinity was associated with yang; femininity, with yin.
Looking at the body, certain conditions, such as cold and deficiency, are yin while others, such as heat and excess, are yang. Looking at the landscape, certain features, such as mountains, are yang while others, such as pools of water or graves, are yin. South is yang and north is yin. Morning is yang and evening is yin. Summer is yang and winter is yin. The relative state of yin and yang can be compared to undulating waves: like the cycle of the seasons, at times yang is ascendant, at other times yin is. Life is generated by this dynamic and harmonious interplay of yin and yang. But if the harmony is broken, if the processes are thrown out of balance, illness and possibly death will occur. In a case of yang deficiency, yang needs to be strengthened through appropriate exercises or herbs; and the converse is true for yin deficiency.[2]
Yin-yang in relationships
The notion of Yin-Yang is often associated with notions of femininity and masculinity: yin is associated with femininity and Yang is associated with masculinity. Yin is about receptivity and inward motion, while yang is about expansion and outward motion. This maps onto a sexual relation, in which life is created through the union of yin and yang, as a generative conjoining of the masculine and feminine motions of yang and yin.
But it’s important to remember that in the yin-yang cosmology, nothing is essentially yin or essentially yang. In Chinese cosmology, there is always yin in yang and there’s always yang in yin (陰中有陽，陽中有陰). Nothing is exclusively yin or exclusively yang. In fact, in any relationship, we are always moving between yin and yang states. Yin and yang always express the dynamic of a relationship, rather than something unchanging.
Think of a relationship I have with my friend. I might have a more outgoing and aggressive personality, but my friend has more quiet personality. In my relationship with this particular friend, I am going to be more of the yang type and that friend is going to be more the yin type, because I am more outgoing. Whenever we decide to do something together, maybe I am the first one to make a suggestion. Then my friend is the hesitant one. So in that case, I am in the yang role and the other person is in the yin role.
In some relationships, one person is always the dominant one, and the other person is always the one who follows. This has nothing to do with men or women, male or female. In some relationships, the male is more passive and the female is more dominant. In such a relationship, she is in the yang role and the male is in the yin role.
In some relationships, one person is always taking the initiative and making the decisions, while the other person is always quiet and following. But a person who is more passive with one friend, might be more dominant with another friend. So the yin-yang roles may be different in different relationships.
And they can change within the same relationship. For example, say the two of us are relatively outgoing with each other, but neither of us dominates. The two of us have a conversation. I start talking, and you listen while I talk. At that moment, I am yang and you are yin. But now you reply to me. You are talking and I’m listening. So now you are yang and I am yin. The yin-yang roles go back and forth. In fact, any relationship always involves a back and forth oscillation between yin and yang.
In a relationship, who is taking the initiative? Who is taking the leading role? Whoever is taking the active role, even in speaking, is taking the yang position. But then, as soon as you take the listening position or the quiet position, you are yin. So all of us are always constantly changing between yin and yang positions.
Some people ask if yin-yang can be in conflict. Well, any relationship is a yin-yang relationship. Yin-yang are fundamentally different, but they are complementary, not in conflict. Some people tend to be much more assertive in general, while other people tend to be less assertive. Those two might be a good match. If somebody is really dominating, they might have a hard time getting along with another person who is also very dominating.
Thinking in terms of yin and yang, conflict can arise when two people or groups take the position at the same time. They both want to dominate, and so they will clash with each other. On the other hand, if both of them take the yin position at the same time, both are passive, there won’t be any energy, and nothing will happen. In the yin-yang framework, a dynamic and balanced relationship is one where there aren’t extremes of either yin or yang, and both sides alternate in playing yin and yang roles.
The best way to understand yin-yang is to practice it through breathing. Yin and yang is just like breathing in and breathing out. There is no conflict between breathing in and breathing out. If you have a conflict between breathing in and breathing out, you will die. One always turns into the other. The breathing in must lead to breathing out, and breathing out must lead to breathing in.
Breathing is the source of life. Your life, through breathing, consists of inhaling and exhaling — in and out. As you breathe in and out, your abdomen expands and contracts. Become mindful of your breath, following it, let the breath go. It will slow down.
Breathe slowly and follow your breath with your mind. Let your mind align itself with your breath, until your mind gently guides your breath by encouraging your breath to go a little slower. Your mind connects to the breath until you can’t really distinguish the difference between your mind, your breath and and your body any more. You will reach a state of relaxation. The rhythms will flow into a single feeling of calm, oneness and unity.
Try this 7-minute exercise in this video. Try it every day:
[1] Jullien, François. “The propensity of things: Toward a history of efficacy in China.” (1999).
Porkert, Manfred. “The theoretical foundations of Chinese medicine: Systems of correspondence.” (1974).
[2] Jiang, X. (2013), Chinese Dialectical Thinking — the Yin Yang Model. Philosophy Compass, 8: 438–446. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12035
Johnson, Wes. “Yin yang universe.” Physics Essays 23, no. 4 (2010).
This essay and the New Mindscape Medium series are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong’s Common Core Curriculum Course CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change, with the support of the Asian Religious Connections research cluster of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
