Understanding the Basics of Yin and Yang
By Yun Wang
7/6/2000
Chinese Medicine has been practiced for several
thousand years.Yin and yang balance theory is one of the most basic and
important underlying theories of Chinese Medicine.
Any object has two
aspects universally, one aspect being yin and the other yang. Yin and yang are
opposite aspects of any object. Characteristics such as quiet and active, water
and fire, cold and hot, interior and exterior, night and day, earth and heaven,
up and down, blood and qi, woman and man and so on demonstrate the yin/yang
relationship. In the above examples, the former characteristics belong to yin
and the later belong to yang. In this way, anything can be classified into yin
and yang. Objects that belong to yin have characteristics such as cool, calm,
slow, heavy, controlled and so forth. Objects belong to yang that manifest
characteristics such as warm, active, fast, light, excited and so on. Each
object has two opposite aspects that depend on each other. For example, there is
no up without down; there is no day where there is no night. One cannot exist
independently of the other. The two aspects have to stay together oppositely and
mutually.
Yin and yang can be divided into numerous parts and each part
contains two aspects which are yin and yang. That means yin and yang inside
another yin and yang. A man's body belongs to yang while a woman's belongs to
yin. On any human body, the upper part is yang and the lower part yin, the back
is yang and front is yin, the exterior is yang and the interior is yin, the
hollow organs are yang and the solid organs are yin, and so on. Although
anything which has two aspects can be divided into yin and yang, yin and yang
are dynamic and, therefore, not rigidly mutually opposite.
Yin and yang
form a unit and in so doing each occupies one half inside of the unit, thereby
creating a balanced condition. This balance may be broken by either party if it
becomes more or less of its own 50%. Yin and yang stay in a normal ratio in a
human body that is healthy. Disease may happen whenever this normal ratio is
broken. Chinese herbs, acupuncture and qigong are three excellent ways to keep
yin and yang in balance, thereby keeping the body in good health.
Yun Wang has practiced acupuncture for twenty four years. His
specialty, as a medical doctor in China, was infectious diseases. He also
teaches at Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine. He can be reached at (206)
367-9180.
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