1 definition by Cameron Mulick

Ying Yang

Chinese world view also rested heavily on yinyang principles. Yinyang was a philosophical view in Chinese society of a unity of opposites, each representing the greater and lesser of similar concepts, which one found in the universe. An example would be the yinyang representation of husband and wife. Yang are the dominant principles of maleness, the sun, creation, heat, light, Heaven, dominance, and so on. Under yin are the submissive principles of femaleness, the moon, completion, cold, darkness, material forms, submission and etc… This unity of one greater principle over a lesser one moves in cyclical path so that no single one is all dominant. These yinyang principles were part of a larger philosophical view of a cosmos (our universe) that was “self-contained, self-operating, spontaneously generating and perpetually in motion.” The Chinese viewed everything in this cosmos as a series of interrelating objects and forces that worked and “resonated” with one another, creating harmony and order. This proceeded off of the Taoist principles of a natural and unified cosmetic pattern.

Ying Yang Examples:
Husband-Wife
Sun-Moon
Fire-Water
Father-Son
Mother-Daughter
Light-Darkness
Heaven-Earth

by Cameron Mulick September 16, 2006