Page 408 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

Y

Yang

The twin concepts of yin and yang are peculiar to ancient Chinese cosmology. The terms
denote two natural principles, one male (yang), the other female (yin), which were said to
have originated from the Primeval One ( Tai-ji); from the union of these two
principles arose the five elements, which then generate the ‘ten thousand things’
(a Chinese way of saying ‘everything’). Yin and yang figure in the two oldest books of
the Chinese – the Shi-jing (‘Book of Odes’) and the Yi-jing (‘Book of Changes’). Thus
we read in the Xi-z, a short treatise appended to the Yi-jing: ‘Here the shaded, there the
sunlit’ (yi yin, yi yang). The sentence can also be translated in terms of a chronological
sequence: ‘First the shadow, then the sunlight.’ In the language of the Shi-jing, yin is
connected with thoughts of dull, cold weather, yang with warmth and sunlight. Yang is
related to heaven, the South, the Emperor, the dragon; and all uneven
numbers are yang-numbers.
The word yang figures in many compounds, some of which are of specifically sexual
significance. Thus the ‘Yang-terrace’ (yang-tai) is the inner part of the vagina; ‘Yang-
object’ (yang-wu) is the penis, and yang-wei is ‘droopy penis’ (i.e. after inordinate
sexual activity). Yang-tuo is a term denoting an abnormal and painful rigidity of the
penis which may develop during intercourse, and which, according to old medical texts,
can only be eased if the man sticks a hairpin into the sole of his foot till it bleeds; though
he may also try moxibustion, i.e. burning little sticks of incense on his skin. It seems that
many prostitutes kept a supply of hairpins ready in their bed-curtains for such
contingencies. Should a woman fall into a dangerous state of orgasmic paroxysm, the

man should try biting her arm, say the old texts, or sticking needles into her armpit.
Yang-lines are the unbroken lines in the eight trigrams.

Yarrow (Mugwort)

Yarrow (Mugwort)

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