Although yin and yang are percieved as being in perfect proportion to each other, creating a cosmic balance, their equilibrium is not stable. Far from it. The suffering and damage caused by such everyday disasters as fire or flood show the danger of too much yang or yin respectively.
It is the essence of the philosophy of Early Heaven that a lively interplay between these archetypal opposites is vital to health and wellbeing. For example, the rash impetuosity of youth readily falls into disaster without the counsel of an older, wiser mentor. Likewise, the good judgment that comes with natural ageing cannot be put to practical use without the strength and vigour of youth. It is a mutually beneficial association.
In everyday life, of course, the interplay of yin and yang rarely runs smoothly. Indeed, the sketch below illustrates the conflict that can develop between these two extremes.
This simplified drawing is a view looking directly down on a bronze statuette of two wrestling figures dating from circa 400 years BCE * .
The figures face away from each other, with their right hands clasped and their arms forming the S shape of the Taiji Tu. Their left hands each appear to be grasping the oponent's belt.
Only Heaven (looking down on the scene) can see that the dynamic balance of cosmic harmony - the Taiji Tu - is still intact.
During the Warring States Period the Yin Yang School of philosophy vigorously studied those eponymous complementary opposites. As the name of the period suggests, this was a time of bloody upheaval as well as innovation (necessity, as has been said, being the mother of invention), and it is understandable and appropriate that this depiction of the Taiji Tu is concealed in a scene of conflict.
* This was during the Warring States period (475 - 221 BCE) of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty. The statuette is 11 cms in height and is currently in the Hotung Gallery of Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum (registration number 1966.2-23.5). The wrestlers were a popular subject for bronzes around this time.
© Ken Taylor 2004-2010