The Formation and Development History of the Concept of Yin and Yang

The concept of Yin and Yang originated from the ancient people's view of nature in China. The ancients observed various opposing and related natural phenomena in nature, such as heaven and earth, sun and moon, day and night, cold and heat, men and women, up and down, etc. And summed up the concept of "Yin and Yang" in a philosophical way of thinking. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Yin and Yang were mentioned in Yi Zhuan and Lao Zi's Tao Te Ching. The theory of Yin and Yang has penetrated into all aspects of China's traditional culture, including religion, philosophy, calendar, Chinese medicine, calligraphy, architecture, divination and so on. Yin and Yang are a division or subdivision of "unity of opposites or contradictory relationship", and they are species relations. Before and after the Northern Song Dynasty, a Taoist Taiji diagram appeared. Taiji diagram divides the circle into two halves with a curve, forming half white and half black, white as yang, black as yin, black spots in white and white spots in black, indicating that there is yin in yang and yang in yin. The two halves are like two fish, so they are commonly called yin-yang fish. The theory of Yin and Yang originated from the view of nature of ancient people in China. In ancient times, people observed various opposing natural phenomena from their lives. This is a relative rather than absolute concept, such as heaven and earth, sun and moon, day and night, cold and heat, men and women, up and down, etc. And summed up the concept of yin and yang. Therefore, Su Wen's Yin and Yang should be like a Dali theory in Huangdi Neijing: "Yin and Yang, so Chinese medicine has developed indicators to judge the direction and treatment of diseases according to the deficiency of Yin and Yang in the human body. Different parts, tissues and even different physiological activities of the human body can be divided into yin and yang, such as yang on the back and yin on the abdomen; External yang, internal yin; The upper part is yang and the lower part is yin; Move as yang, static as yin; Good liquidity is positive and poor liquidity is negative; Force and spirit are yang, while body fluid and temperature are yin. In the same way, every meridian system of the human body is divided into yin and yang, and different types of diseases can also be divided according to yin and yang, so there is a saying that the same disease has different treatment methods because of its' yin and yang fluctuations'. Yin and opposites are unified and transformed into each other. According to Su Wen's theory of the separation of Yin and Yang: "Yin and Yang Can are counted as many as ten, and pushed as many as a hundred;" The quantity can be thousands, or it can be pushed to ten thousand; Ten thousand is too big to count, but one is needed. " Therefore, yin and harmony are infinitely subdivided, and this concept has also been applied to traditional Chinese medicine to explain the different States of physiological activities. For example: the five internal organs are yin; The active state of each organ can be subdivided into yin and yang, such as liver yin and liver yang; Kidney yin, kidney yang, etc. "Huainan Tian Zi Xun" talks about the origin and evolution of heaven and earth, arguing that before heaven and earth are divided, after chaos is divided, those who are light and clear ascend to heaven, and those who are heavy and turbid condense into soil; The sky is yang and the earth is yin, and the two gases interact to produce everything. It can be seen that Yin and Yang are the basic particles of two kinds of philosophy (non-science), and the ancients believed that Yin and Yang were the basis for the formation of macro-matter.