Centuries prior to the appearance of terms for the complementary concepts of yin and yang or their pairing with the wuxing (five phases), there is clear evidence for Chinese categorical thinking. The cosmos was understood to be in continual flux, but this constant change operated in generally predictable patterns: waxing and waning, cyclical renewal, or successive displacement. These patterns came to be organized in disparate but overlapping systems. In the Shang dynasty (second millennium bce), the temporal cycles of ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches informed the calendar, and the eight trigrams combined into sixty-four hexagrams to express the full range of natural phenomena, as described in the classic of divination, the Yijing (or I Ching, Book of changes). By the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bce), the categories of yinyang and wuxing were systematized and recognized as part of the overall worldview.
Wuxing refers to five constituent elements of all physical phenomena: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These elements were applied to a broad range of categories, including cardinal directions (including the center), tastes, colors, viscera, and virtues. As with the other categorical systems, these elements are patterned, interrelated, and dynamic. Each element gives way to the next (in varying orders suggested over the centuries), such that "five phases" is a more accurate description of the system than the more common but static reference to "five elements."
Yin and yang originated in the distinction between the shaded (yin) and sunlit (yang) slopes of a mountain, or the shaded and sunlit banks of a river. In the agrarian context of early China, the terms naturally became associated with characteristics such as dark and bright, cool and warm, moist and dry (in reference to the soil), and decay and growth (in reference to plant health). The relationship of these characteristics to each other was neither dualistic nor absolute but complementary and relative. The same infant who is yin in its passivity and weakness grows into an active, strong, yang adult, but then shifts again into passivity and weakness as he or she ages and moves toward death. Although yang was generally understood to be more auspicious or positive—that is, growth and life are generally preferred over decay and death—there was no essential value in the terms.
During the fourth century bce, the yinyang and wuxing systems were aggregated to form a larger system of relationships: wood and fire (growth and heat) fall under the yang rubric, metal and water (coolness and passivity) are yin, and, intriguingly, earth (locus of these interactions) is a neutral force.
Associations of yinyang with female and male, women and men, and femininity and masculinity were later additions to the initial list of paired concepts. Prior to the Han dynasty (second century bce–second century ce), the association of individuals with yin and yang was determined more by relationship and position by sex or gender. A man was simultaneously yang in relation to his wife and children but yin in relation to his parents, his ruler, and his older brothers. During the Han, an exhaustive list of characteristics ranging from musical notes to colors, foods, emotions, and cognition were incorporated; a hierarchical sense was infused into these extensive conceptual pairings; and gendered, essentialist views emerged. Women, as yin, were categorized as weak, less rational, and associated with inauspiciousness. Once past childbearing age, however, women are often observed in Chinese religious contexts to wield significant power and influence; with their yin energies dissipated, their yang characteristics can come to the fore and be exercised and appreciated.
From ancient times through the twentieth-century end of the imperial era, these categorical structures such as yinyang, wuxing, and the hexagrams were seen to inform and direct all natural and social processes. The yinyang system, falsely associated with Taoism in the popular Western imagination, was fully integrated into all the various religious and cultural traditions of China. It cannot be said to be uniquely Taoist or Confucian or folk-religious; rather, it suffused all of these traditions. When Buddhism entered China, it too incorporated the dynamic yinyang understanding of the cosmos into its own vision of cosmic change. Deeply enmeshed in Chinese religion, philosophy, politics, and medicine, the yinyang system was exported to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as each was influenced or dominated by China.
The yinyang-wuxing system continues to influence socio-religious practices. Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, is predicated on the appreciation of the dynamic workings of these forces and elements in the body; cures focus on foods and other medicines to restore balance to the body's system, or on exercises and interventions that facilitate movement and appropriate change. Feng shui, the art of siting graves, buildings, and, more recently, interior elements, understands yin and yang influences to be moving constantly in the landscape; the goal of a successful feng shui practitioner is to maximize yang influences while minimizing inauspicious yin influences. In North America since the 1990s, feng shui has become something of an interior design trend, with people rushing to purchase fountains or rocks or other "elements" in hopes of improving the tranquility of their home.
In South Korea, a representation of the yin-yang mandala is incorporated into the national flag, along with the trigrams of the Yijing. In other contexts, the mandala is more commonly depicted in black and white, with each comma-shaped portion having a spot of the complementary color. Given this form, there is no way to evenly bisect the mandala such that only yin or yang is present; symbolically, this represents the constant latent presence of the complementary force.
In non-Asian cultures, the appreciation of yinyang is predominantly sexed and gendered: Male and female (in this reversed order) are the typical associated terms. This association is most likely due to a perceived connection with Taoism—the classical Chinese religious system often popularly understood to exalt women and venerate femininity. Although erroneously based on misreadings of the Daodejing (Tao te ching), these understandings of Taoism and yinyang have gained wide following in European and American cultures. For better or for worse, the yinyang mandala has become ubiquitous in popular material culture, appearing on everything from jewelry and clothing to heat-sensitive pencils that change from dark to light as one rubs them between one's fingers.
see also Confucianism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Black, Alison. 1986. "Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative Thinking." In Gender and Religion, ed. Caroline Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman. Boston: Beacon Press.
Graham, A.C. 1986. Yin-yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies, National University of Singapore.
Granet, Marcel. 1950. Pensée chinoise. Paris: Éditions Albin.
Min, Jiayin, ed. 1995. The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese Culture: Gender Relations and Social Models. Compiled by the Chinese Partnership Research Group. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House.
Needham, Joseph. 1962. Science and Civilization in China, Vol. II: History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Vivian-Lee Nyitray
