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Following this mindset, light and darkness lose their original associations and become part of the deeper dynamics at play in an individual’s journey. While Western culture tends to oversimplify the complexities of human behavior and experiences by placing them in one of two categories - part or whole, negative or positive, competitive or collaborative - yin yang emphasizes the necessity of each to create balance.
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Michael Levy's music is available to stream at all the major digital music platforms.The yin yang, an ancient symbol of harmony and balance, challenges the conventional association of light with good and darkness with evil. The music used in this recording is the intellectual copyright of Michael Levy, a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, and used with the creator's permission. You can find all attribution and credits for images, animations, graphics and music here. Wu Zetian: the First and Only Empress of Imperial China Oracle Bones of the Ancient Chinese Shang DynastyĪn Introduction to the Dynasties of Ancient China The desire for Yin and Yang to be balanced can also be seen in Chinese medicine, with the belief that a lack or excess of Yin or Yang energy can cause health issues, and balancing them out is the remedy. It is believed that if there is ever too great of an imbalance between Yin and Yang, natural disasters such as droughts, floods and plagues can occur.
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In order to reach harmony, the two sides must be correctly balanced. The symbol of Yin and Yang shows that each side is equal and comprises a bit of the other, neither is superior and an increase in one leads to a decrease in the other. Yin and Yang are two different energies that can be used to describe any and everything in the universe, and as symbolised in the two small dots within the Yin and Yang symbol, everything contains a bit of its opposite. The term Yang in Chinese means the sunny side of the hill, and the term Yin means the shady side. Yin and Yang is a symbol of balanced opposites, where they are inseparable and contradictory such as dark and light, and young and old.
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The principle of Yin and Yang dates from the third century BCE and perhaps even later than that, and is the foundational principle of Chinese philosophy and Chinese medicine.
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