What Does Yin And Yang Mean? And What Are The Origins Of The Symbol?

The yin yang symbol dates back to ancient China. ☯️ It represents the opposite and complementary forces that drive the world, and invites us to harmonize them within ourselves.

What do its two halves and two dots mean, and how do you find your own balance? Here is what this universal symbol says.

✦

The origins of yin and yang

The history of yin and yang is ancient and partly mysterious. The philosophy behind them developed with the Chinese thinker Zou Yan, in the 3rd century BCE, a leading figure of the “School of Yin and Yang”.

It deeply shaped Taoism, but also Chinese arts and sciences: it appears in one of the oldest Chinese texts, the Huangdi Nei Jing. The drawing we know, the taijitu, has become its universal emblem.

✦ ✦

Yin and yang, a symbol of harmony

Yin and yang form a circle divided in two: a black half with a white dot, a white half with a black dot. The symbol only makes sense as a whole: the circle, the two halves and the two dots.

The circle symbolizes the Universe, driven by opposing forces that make it evolve: the perpetual motion of the world. Yin and yang are a wisdom of life in motion.

The two halves are two parts of the same whole, intertwining and turning into each other. The two dots remind us that nothing is ever all black or all white: there is always yin in yang, and yang in yin.

✦

What yin and yang represent

According to Chinese cosmology, each gathers a family of qualities, neither better than the other:

These are not judgments: winter is yin and summer yang, slowness is yin and action yang. The balance of the world, like ours, is born of their dance.

✦ ✦

Yin, yang or both? The 5 temperaments

Each of us carries both energies, but one often dominates. Tradition distinguishes five temperaments, each linked to an element:

No one fits a single type perfectly: we often recognize ourselves in several. What matters is balancing your yin and yang.

✦

Yin and yang in daily life, and in love

Yin and yang are found everywhere in our lives:

• day and night;
• waking and sleeping;
• water and earth;
• the countryside and the city;
• joy and sadness.

In decoration, yin and yang are one of the foundations of Feng Shui, the art of harmonizing your home.

In love, too, they matter: the balance between these two energies makes for a harmonious relationship, each partner taking care not to fall into extremes, to give as much as they receive, and to let the other express both sides.

✦ ✦

Finding your balance between yin and yang

To make this symbol your own, color in or contemplate a yin yang mandala: its shapes and opposites help you grasp it as a whole.

Then ask yourself a few questions:

• Do I lean towards action (yang) without taking time to rest and reflect (yin)?
• Am I nurturing my inner world (yin), or only my outer achievements (yang)?
• Do I welcome my soft, intuitive side (yin) as much as my logical, confident energy (yang)?

🙏 The philosophy of yin and yang invites everyone to find inner balance: it is by harmonizing your energies that you reach serenity.

✦ ✦