Yin-Yang Explained

"Yin and yang are the law of Heaven and Earth, the outline of everything, the parents of change, the origin of birth and destruction...." Suwen

The philosophical origins of Chinese medicine are based on the philosophy of Taoism, which sees the natural world and the manner in which it operates. The theory of Yin and Yang puts forward the notion that all phenomena consist of two opposite aspects, yin and yang.

Examples would be:

Up and down, left and right, light and dark, hot and cold, static and movement etc.

The movements and changes of yin and yang reflect life and everything in it. The direct translation of yin and yang in Chinese are bright and dark sides of an object.

Opposites but Complimentary Forces

Chinese philosophy uses yin and yang to represent a wide number of opposite phenomena in the universe: cold and hot, slow and fast, static and moving, male and female, lower and upper, etc. In general terms, anything that is moving is classified as ascending, bright, progressing, hyperactive, including diseases of the body, pertains to yang. The phenomena of stillness, descending, darkness, degeneration, hyper-activity, including disease, pertain to yin.

The Concept of Harmony

Yin and yang represent two opposite aspects of every object and by its very nature implies both conflict and interdependence at the same time. In Chinese medicine, optimum health is represented as a balance between yin and yang.

Yang and Yin support one another just as they oppose each other. The nature of yin and yang is relative, with neither being able to exist in isolation from the other. This may sound paradoxical but when you think about it is obvious:

For example without "cold" there would be no "hot"; without "dark", there would be no "light" There is always yin within yang and yang within yin. You cannot by definition separate the two. The shift in the balance of yin and yang is natural. For example, hot water cools and night turns to day.

It is when the balance is consistently altered, and one (be it yin or yang) dominates the other, that health problems can occur, resulting in illness and disease and poor health.