The original meaning of the Chinese ideogram for YIN is the shady side of the hill. It represents darkness and passivity and is associated with the qualities of yielding, softness and contradiction. It moves downward and inward, and its primary symbols are woman, water and earth. YANG means the sunny side of the hill represents light and activity, is associated with resistance, hardness and expansion, moves naturally upwards and outward, and is symbolized by man, fire and heaven.
YIN and YANG are mutually interdependent, continuously interactive, and potentially interchangeable forces. Despite their polarity, each contains the embryonic seed of the other within itself, as illustrated by the familiar YIN YANG circle. The circle itself represents the Supreme Source, half YIN half YANG, each with a dot of its own opposite growing inside it. The S shape boundary between the two indicates that their borders are never fixed. Whenever the constant waxing and waning of polar energies leads to a critical excess of one or the other, it spontaneously transmutes into its own opposite.
Yin is stronger and more abundant than YANG, but YANG is more obvious and active. There is more water on earth than fire, for example, but fire phenomena such as lighting are more exciting and attract more attention. This is why the term YIN/YANG…Yin has always preceded the word YANG and in Chinese this indicates a position of YIN superiority that long antedates the advent of patriarchy and Chinese society.
