What does Yin and Yang mean?

The "I Ching" uses the concept of Yin and Yang to explain the nature of things and their states of change. For example: Heaven is Yang, Earth is Yin; the Sun is Yang, the Moon is Yin; heat is Yang, cold is Yin; light is Yang, darkness is Yin; day is Yang, night is Yin; man is Yang, woman is Yin; the ruler is Yang, the people are Yin; a gentleman is Yang, a petty person is Yin.

Everything exists with its opposite, which is Yin and Yang, such as odd and even, male and female, old and young, tall and short, fat and thin, black and white, beautiful and ugly, dry and wet, close and distant, love and hate, grace and resentment, rich and poor, husband and wife, ruler and minister, good and evil, noble and humble, win and lose, prosperity and decline, rise and fall, order and chaos, success and failure, growth and decay, hot and cold, spring and autumn, morning and evening, day and night, movement and stillness, open and close, separation and union, hardness and softness, rigidity and flexibility, advance and retreat, in and out, life and death, light and dark, true and false, good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative, strong and weak, smooth and rough, auspicious and inauspicious, existence and non-existence, light and heavy, slow and fast, up and down, concave and convex, rise and fall, broad and narrow, round and deficient, mountain and water, clean and dirty, water and fire, long and short, large and small, curved and straight, gather and scatter, thick and thin, front and back, left and right, top and bottom, deep and shallow, face and back, inside and outside, far and near, virtual and real, hidden and exposed, coming and going, beginning and ending, active and passive, advantages and disadvantages, pain and joy, compression and rebound, opposites and unity.

There is no love without hate; no greatness without the ordinary; no light without darkness; no wisdom without ignorance; no peaks without troughs; no elegance without vulgarity; no nobility without baseness; no mountains without rivers; no joy without pain; no grandeur without smallness.

The Four Symbols are the Greater Yang (Old Yang), Greater Yin (Old Yin), Lesser Yin, and Lesser Yang. Dawn is Lesser Yang, noon is Greater Yang, dusk is Lesser Yin, and midnight is Greater Yin. From the directional perspective, the Four Symbols are: east, south, west, and north. From the seasonal perspective, they are: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. From the perspective of animals, they are: Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, White Tiger, and Vermilion Bird. There are also two other interpretations: one being metal, wood, water, and fire; the other being yin, yang, rigid, and flexible.

Yin and Yang represent the two opposing yet unified aspects of things, unrelated to superstition. Everything inherently possesses both Yin and Yang, forming a contradictory unity, not simply black and white. This is the absolute nature. The properties of things expressed by Yin and Yang are not fixed and can be relative, depending on the comparison. For example, wood is Yang relative to water, but Yin relative to fire.

The forces of Yin and Yang constantly interact, moving from imbalance to balance and back again, endlessly. Everything is a duality, a unity of opposites, having both side A and side B, which could be called Yin and Yang or A and B, with no essential difference. Calling it Yin and Yang, contradiction, or positive and negative merely illustrates the two aspects of a unified relationship. Ancestors used Yin and Yang instead of A and B, contradiction, or positive and negative because Yin and Yang are easier to understand and more culturally fitting. Yin-Yang theory is essentially the theory of contradictions, and who can claim that the theory of contradictions is incorrect? Contradictions are universal, and the Dao is omnipresent. To resolve contradictions peacefully, mutual compromise or cooperation is required, which is Yin-Yang complementation and harmony.

The end of one era is the beginning of another. The resolution of one problem is the start of another. In life, crises are always present, and one must be cautious and vigilant to ensure temporary safety. A crisis contains both danger and opportunity, and these can transform into each other under certain conditions. For some, a crisis is dangerous, while for others, it is an opportunity. Only by seizing opportunities can one succeed, and only the prepared can seize opportunities. Economic crises bring opportunities to acquire quality assets at low prices, and stock market crashes provide chances to earn substantial profits. No one is always fortunate, and no flower blooms forever. In times of major crises, the strong become stronger, and the weak become weaker, but strength and weakness are not fixed and can transform under certain conditions. In real life, the strong can dominate the weak, but in social opinion, the weak can exploit people's sympathy to overpower the strong. The stronger one is, the more they should be humble and understand how to show weakness to avoid becoming a target.

The rich cannot remain wealthy forever, and the strong cannot remain strong forever. Why? Prolonged wealth and power can lead to arrogance, complacency, indulgence, corruption, loss of diligence, resilience, sensitivity, and self-reform ability, resulting in decline and a return to a state of poverty and weakness, completing a cycle.

Yin and Yang are not always in balance; in fact, they continually interact around a point of balance. Balance is rare and fleeting, while imbalance is the norm, with periods of Yin dominance and Yang decline, and vice versa. Imbalance is a process, balance is the result, and after balance, imbalance follows, in a cyclical pattern.

When the sun reaches its zenith, it starts to decline; when the moon is full, it starts to wane. No one is always fortunate, and no flower blooms forever. This is the principle of extremes turning into their opposites. When things develop to their extreme, they reach a turning point, which is the beginning of a new development process.

Yin and Yang are the Dao, and the Dao is Yin and Yang. The Dao of Yin and Yang reveals that things are divided into two, opposites unified, interdependent, mutually antagonistic, mutually generative, mutually restrictive, complementing hardness with softness, rising and falling, transforming into each other, reaching extremes and then reversing, continuously cycling, and endlessly generating.