Yin and Yang Theory 阴阳论

As a follow up to the previous detox posting, I went ahead and did some read up on the Yin and Yang Theory. I grew up in Hong Kong when it's still under British rule and I had the opportunity of studying English since Kindergarten but my primary language is still Chinese. As a kid, I heard about Yin and Yang theory all the time but never paid much attention to it. It's all abstract talk and usually related to the religious practice like qigong or Daoism, something I'm not interested in. Now as I get into the golden years, I can study it as a fundamental principal of the universe in the Chinese culture and medicine but certainly, as a Christian, I'm not going into the meditation or religious part of the theory. With that said, here are my study notes.

I think most of you would have seen the Yin-Yang image and usually it symbolizes balance and the interconnectedness of the two opposite forces. The concept dates back to 700 B.C. to the book I Ching. It is often used as a symbol of Asian culture or philosophy although I believe it is Chinese in origin. It represents the universal law of the dynamic balance of opposites and the processes of unfolding events and changes.

Everything contains Yin and Yang. They are two opposite yet complementary energies. What does this really mean? Although they are totally different—opposite—in their individual qualities and nature, they are interdependent. Yin and Yang cannot exist without the other; they are never separate. For example, night and day form a Yin-Yang pair. (Night is Yin and day is Yang.) Night looks and is very different than day, yet it is impossible to have one without the other. Both create a totality, a complete whole.

From what I read, there is nothing like this in the Western culture and I try to think if there is something similar. I recall in my High School Physics class, there are laws of Thermodynamics and the entropy. While energy remains the same in an isolated system, the system will spontaneously evolve to reach the thermodynamic equilibrium. It is often said entropy is the randomness of such system. While entropy is a microscopic measurement of the energy in such system, it indicates a dynamic change of the state of system from randomness to equilibrium or back and forth. It's not Yin-Yang exactly but maybe similar concept of balance and harmony?

Yin and yang is everywhere, including our body. Usually we refer yang as muscularity and yin is femininity. Yang is the fire and yin is water. The sun is yang and yin is the moon. Heaven is yang and earth is yin. Qi (energy) is yang and bodily fluids are yin. There is both yin and yang in our body just like we have male and female hormones inside of us. Yin and yang coexist and work together to reach the state of balance and harmony despite their opposite attributes. I like the idea:)