What is the Yin Yang sign? To me, it’s a popular tattoo in the twenty-five cent machines at Wal-Mart. It’s a fun and common sign we love to draw but seldom know the meaning of. Recently, I learned it’s a very important representation of the ancient Chinese understanding of how life works.

Yes, the Yin Yang sign unveils deep meaning. The outer circle represents the “everything” of this life while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called “yin” (black) and “yang” (white), which cause the “everything” to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other.

While “yin” would be dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting and weak, “yang” would be bright, active, upward, hot, expanding and strong.

The shape of the yin and yang sections of the symbol actually gives you a sense of the continual movement of these two energies, yin to yang and yang to yin, causing everything to happen just as things expand and contract, and temperature changes from hot to cold.

If Yang is overly powerful, then Yin may be too weak. If Yin is particularly strong, then Yang is apt to be defective.

If the male force is overwhelming, then there will be excessive heat. If the female force is overwhelming, then there will be excessive cold.

The Chinese use this to diagnose medical illnesses. For example, exposure to repeated and severe heat will induce chills in the body. Cold injures the body while heat injures the spirit.

When the spirit is hurt, severe pain will ensue. When the body is hurt, there will be swelling. Then, when severe pain occurs first and swelling comes on later, one may infer that a disharmony in the spirit has done harm to the body.

Likewise, when swelling appears first and severe pain is felt later on, one can say that a dysfunction in the body has injured the spirit.

Overall, Chinese use this symbol as a framework to their intellectual ways. Without this symbol, balance would be a hard to acquire.

Who knew a cool design could mean so much to culture?