Yin and Yang: The symbol

Two faces of the same thing

太極 tài jí

The symbol does not draw two things facing off: it draws one circle divided. Yin and yang are not two substances at war, they are two ways of describing one process. That is why no therapy tries to remove one of them.

The whole circle

the complete process

The wavy line

the share shifts constantly

The dot of the opposite colour

each half holds a seed of the other

Common mistake: Talking about «balancing yin and yang» as if they were two tanks to be levelled at 50 % each.

Each half splits again

Day is yang to night, but morning is the yang of yang and afternoon the yin of yang. The division has no bottom, and that is the tool: it lets you get precise without changing vocabulary.

Morning

yang within yang

Afternoon

yin within yang

Early night

yin within yin

Before dawn

yang within yin

Common mistake: Stopping at the first division and being unable to say why a symptom shows at five in the morning and not at midnight.

A colleague asks: «is the Liver yin or yang?». What is the best answer?

1. Yang, because it moves and makes things circulate
2. Yin, because it is a solid organ
3. It depends on the comparison: it is a zang, so yin against a fu, but its job of moving things is yang

Inside the body, sort each structure by whether substance or function dominates.

• The warmth that digests foodMore substanceMore function
• The blood running through the vesselsMore substanceMore function
• The push that lifts qi to the headMore substanceMore function
• The fluids that moisten the jointsMore substanceMore function
• The defence running under the skinMore substanceMore function
• The essence stored in the KidneyMore substanceMore function

Match each term with its natural counterpart.

Clinically, what is the dot of the opposite colour inside each half for?

1. It reminds you that a very one-sided treatment ends up damaging the pole it means to support
2. It shows there is always a fixed percentage of the opposite pole
3. It signals that a diagnosis can never be pure