Which is which: yin and yang?

Wouldn’t googling have been easier than going through the question process here…?

The character for yin is 陰 and it means ‘shade’ or ‘shadow’ or even ‘background’ and can refer more broadly to an unseen place.

The character for yang is 陽 and it means ‘sun’ or ‘light’ and can refer to an open place.

This is from my knowledge of Japanese but there is probably little variation in Chinese. Maybe someone can confirm.

Don’t be lazy.

Thanks!! I thought asking through flutter would be more fun. :)

Yin is also known as the female principle and yang, the male.
In the English translation of the I Ching , or Book of Changes, the male, or yang principle, is called “ch’ien” and the female principle is called “k’un.”
@BhacSsylan thanks for the link. Nice.

阴 yin represented by the moon, the dark, and is the female. 阳 yang represented by the sun, the light, and is the male…sounds slightly sexist to me, but that’s it. you can see their representation by 阴 having the moon character 月 (yue) on its right side and 阳 having 日 meaning day or sun on it’s right side. Some examples include: 阴道 (yindao—dao means way just like tao)-vagina, get it female path! and 太阳 (tai yang) means sunlight. @absalom‘s character is the same as my 阴 he’s just using the old version.

I’ve also heard it described as like a mountain – half is in the sun, and half is in shadow, yet they are both different sides of the same thing, and cannot stand without each other. Everybody has some of each force, men have some yin and women some yang – (or anything else that can be described this way) – just as the shadowed side of the mountain still gets some sun, and the sunny side still has some shadows. This is the small dot of the contrasting color on each side, and the reason why the barrier between the halves is curvy like that. It’s not rigid; it flows. And each one contains the seed of the Other.

yin is six, and yang is nine!

@stratman37 I guess you do the I Ching. With pennies?

nice…