In the system of correlative cosmology, for instance, yin is related to the agents Metal (west/autumn) and Water (north/winter), while yang is related to Wood (east/spring) and Fire (south/summer), and the balance between them is represented by the central agent Soil. Each of these patterns represents a particular way of explicating the features and functioning of the cosmos. Examples of yang and yin items, respectively, mentioned in this text include heaven and earth above and below day and night summer and winter spring and autumn man and woman father and child elder brother and younger brother ruler and minister soldiers and laborers speech and silence giving and receiving action and nonaction.īetween the third and the second centuries B.C.E., the notion of yin and yang became one of the main pillars of correlative cosmology, a feature of which is the coordination of several preexistent patterns of emblems, including, besides yin and yang, the five agents ( wuxing) and the eight trigrams and sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes. The earliest extant text that contains a list of items arranged according to their yin and yang qualities is a manuscript found in Mawangdui entitled Designations ( Cheng), likely dating from the third century B.C.E. Scholars generally deem that the terms yin and yang originally denoted the shaded and sunny sides of a hill and later began to be used in an abstract sense as cosmological categories. The origins of these notions are impossible to ascertain. This mode of operation is especially visible in the time cycles of the day (alternation of daytime and nighttime) and of the year (alternation of the four seasons). When one of the two principles prevails, the other yields, but once one of them has reached the height of its development, it begins to recede in that very moment, the other principle begins its ascent. At the same time, the phrase 'one yin and one yang, this is the Dao' refers to the continuous alternation of yin and yang within the cosmos. As each of these stages generates the next one, yin and yang are ultimately contained within the Dao itself. According to a celebrated statement, which is found in one of the appendixes to the Book of Changes ( Yijing), 'one yin and one yang, this is the Dao.' This sentence refers to the Dao that first determines itself as the One (or Oneness) and then through the One gives birth to the two complementary principles.

Yin and yang