So, I decided that in my story I will have elemental system consisting of 4 main classical elements (Wind, air, fire and shadow/yin) with the extra element Light (yang) juxtapositioning darkness. Two of my characters embodied both the yin and yang elements, but when I look up Yin and Yang online I get contradicting sources on what exactly those concepts entail. So can someone here help me understand what exactly yin and yang are, and what happens if one fully embodies one element?
So are you going to have 5 elements and will two actually be called yin/yang? Will the shadow and light elements have anything unique about them or how they operate as opposed to air and fire? Also what's the difference between air and wind? To me, if you aren't going to call them yin and yang, the real world philosophy and symbolism aren't that important. Just come up with some system that makes sense in your world building.
In simple terms, yin-yang is basically the concept of duality. One cannot exist without the other, be that light/dark, male/female etc. One has no meaning or existence without the other. Everything is good when these opposites are in balance, otherwise things start to go haywire. As for the effects, it's up to you. In wuxia literature, if a male martial artist practises skills which use yin qi, they'll start to become a woman, thus such skills are only practised by women or eununchs. BTW, the four classical elements are earth, air, fire and water. The Chinese five elements system are water, wood, fire , earth and metal. The Japanese system has water, wind, void, fire and earth, while Earth, Wind and Fire is a band.
Air is what they have in Alabama, nice gentle stuff mostly stationary stuff that one can breath. Wind is what we have in Wyoming, fast moving stuff that knocks you off your feet and dang near takes your breath away.
The darkness (yin) aspect is a major element of the story, mainly because one of the main characters has it (due to the innate power itself as a consequence of being descended from the royal bloodline/dynasty). So I need some side-effects for the darkness magic as well.
It's funny how nobody in a story has ever been Bismuth (Atomic number 83, makes nice crystals, radioactive but only a little bit). It's always Fire-Earth-Water-Air, the elements from before anyone understood how fiendishly mundane the world is, or had any commercial applications for a three-dimensional counterpart to graphene with similar electron mobility and velocity. Isn't concepts contradicting each other so people need gurus the whole point of Yin and Yang? The OP might be doing violence to Yin and Yang by trying to squeeze them into a completely alien system. The classical elements are from the other side of the planet and served as the early basis for the empirical sciences that eventually went on to disprove them and discover the real elements. (Which isn't at all to suggest that Yin and Yang are bogus and the classical elements scientific - without the philosophical concepts of Yin and Yang the world might never have discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine. Or Tai Chi. Or I Ching.) If someone embodied the unfathomable Yang I think that would be a divide-by-zero situation. But the OP might be able to have the Yin half of the pair: standing on one leg on a mountaintop, making cryptic pronouncements to the other four Sentai Rangers, about this all-surrounding invisible "Sixth Ranger" that they can't see or speak with unless they give him dumplings-on-a-stick.
There are many interpretations of the concept- dispersed throughout numerous schools of cosmology, alchemy, magic, and martial arts- but the most influential derives from the Confucian commentaries on the Yijing, which was further developed by philosophers like Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, and Zhu Xi. Below are some excerpts from the Great Commentary on the Yijing (Wilhelm/Baynes translation). Note that the hexagrams Qian and Kun (translated here as “the Creative” and “the Receptive”) are the names of the first two hexagrams in the Yijing and correspond to yang and yin respectively. Heaven is high, the earth is low; thus the Creative and the Receptive are determined. In correspondence with this difference between low and high, inferior and superior places are established. Movement and rest have their definite laws; according to these, firm and yielding lines are differentiated. Events follow definite trends, each according to its nature. Things are distinguished from one another in definite classes. In this way good fortune and misfortune come about. In the heavens phenomena take form; on earth shapes take form. In this way change and transformation become manifest. Therefore the eight trigrams succeed one another by turns, as the firm and the yielding displace each other. Things are aroused by thunder and lightning; they are fertilized by wind and rain. Sun and moon follow their courses and it is now hot, now cold. The way of the Creative brings about the male. The way of the Receptive brings about the female. The Creative knows the great beginnings. The Receptive completes the finished things. The Creative knows through the easy. The Receptive can do things through the simple. … The Creative is heaven. It is round, it is the prince, the father, jade, metal, cold, ice; it is deep red, a good horse, an old horse, a lean horse, a wild horse, tree fruit. The Receptive is the earth, the mother. It is cloth, a kettle, frugality, it is level, it is a cow with a calf, a large wagon, form, the multitude, a shaft. Among the various kinds of soil, it is the black.
Jumping about 1500 years into the Song dynasty, here is Zhou Dunyi’s highly influential explanation of the taiji diagram (which eventually evolved into the well-known yin-yang symbol). Here the yin-yang philosophy is presented as integrated with the five phase (or “five elements”) philosophy- they arose independently in ancient times. This is translated by Joseph Adler and comes from his website. "Diagram of the Supreme Polarity" (Taiji tu)[9] "Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Polarity" (Taijitu shuo)[10] Non-polar (wuji) and yet Supreme Polarity (taiji)![11] The Supreme Polarity in activity generates yang; yet at the limit of activity it is still. In stillness it generates yin; yet at the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing yinand yang, the Two Modes are thereby established.The alternation and combination of yang and yin generate water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five [phases of] qi harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed through them. The Five Phases are simply yin and yang; yinand yang are simply the Supreme Polarity; the Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. [Yet] in the generation of the Five Phases, each one has its nature.[12]The reality of the Non-polar and the essence of the Two [Modes] and Five [Phases] mysteriously combine and coalesce. "The Way of Qian becomes the male; the Way of Kun becomes the female;"[14] the two qi stimulate each other, transforming and generating the myriad things.[14]The myriad things generate and regenerate, alternating and transforming without end.[15]Only humans receive the finest and most spiritually efficacious [qi]. Once formed, they are born; when spirit (shen)[16] is manifested, they have intelligence; when their five-fold natures are stimulated into activity, good and evil are distinguished and the myriad affairs ensue.[17]The Sage settles these [affairs] with centrality, correctness, humaneness and rightness (the Way of the Sage is simply humaneness, rightness, centrality and correctness) and emphasizes stillness. (Without desire, [he is] therefore still.)[18] In so doing he establishes the ultimate of humanity. Thus the Sage's "virtue equals that of Heaven and Earth; his clarity equals that of the sun and moon; his timeliness equals that of the four seasons; his good fortune and bad fortune equal those of ghosts and spirits."[19] The superior person cultivates these and has good fortune. The inferior person rejects these and has bad fortune.Therefore [the Classic of Change says], "Establishing the Way of Heaven, [the Sages] speak of yin and yang; establishing the Way of Earth they speak of yielding and firm [hexagram lines]; establishing the Way of Humanity they speak of humaneness and rightness."[20] It also says, "[The Sage] investigates beginnings and follows them to their ends; therefore he understands death and birth."[21] Great indeed is [the Classic of] Change! Herein lies its perfection
The four classic elements are earth, air, fire, and water. Wind is moving air, not a separate element. Shadow is not an element. Yin and Yang is an oriental concept that expresses much the same idea as the Newtonian physics statement that "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Yin and Yang exist in a constant state of dynamic tension. Together, their opposition/juxtaposition preserves stability and order. ^^^ This
In terms of Physics, consider two forms of energy that we think of as being dualities: heat, and light. We tend to think of heat and cold as being two different things, but in reality cold is the absence of heat. If you hear someone say 'I felt the cold radiating from the windows," they're wrong. What they felt was the heat being drawn out of their body toward the window. Heat transfer ALWAYS goes only in one direction: from hot to cold. Same thing with light and dark. Say you have a bright, sunlit room with a closet that has a door but no light. You open the door. Does the darkness in the closet pour out and overwhelm the light in the room? No -- darkness is simply the absence of light. When you ope the closet door, the light pours IN and illuminates the darkness.
I want to take this opportunity to point out that when it comes to the human dimension—the inner world of feelings and sensations—ancient thought (mythology, religion, pre-Socratic philosophy, and the various Asian pre-scientific philosophies etc) are actually far more relvant than science or physics. Yes, of course, science is factually more correct (and constantly correcting itself more and more) and we need it to drive things like technology. But to an animal or a primitive, the mere facts of science are completely irrelevant. Cold kills, every bit as much as heat does. Darkness terrifies. It doesn't matter that they're negatives rather than positives—in terms of the inner human world they're positive forces as powerful as any force of nature. We're built to live within a certain temperature range, and when it drops below that threshold we can easily become crippled or dead. So in the experiencial sense (the way we actually experience things) cold is every bit as much a positive force of nature as heat. And darkness holds all terrors, it's actually more powerful than light, as comforting as light is. And let's admit it—however educated we may be, all of us still have a primitive core lurking inside. If you're not dressed warm enough and it drops to sub-zero temps, you don't care that cold is only the absence of heat. It's destroying you anyway. For these reasons the ancient metaphorical ways of seeing things are far more relevant to us than science is. Mere scientific facts are abstractions, they mean nothing compared to the human truths revealed by the ancient thought systems. And back then people understood they were to be taken metaphorically, I believe anyway. Or maybe it was like it is now—the educated classes understood how to interpret the myths, the religions, and the philosophies, while the ingorant masses took them entirely literally. I find that if you interpret them metaphorically, and if you have some idea of how to do that, they all reveal themselves to be incredibly prescient. Well, the ones I'm familiar with anyway, I shouldn't say all. It's a modernist prejudice to believe that our new ways of understanding things are the best or the only true ways. Shamans, priests and witch doctors understood some of the deep truths that we've lost in our rational/materialist worldview. They knew far more about the human soul (by which I mean the inner world, so ignored today in favor of the material and the purely physical).
Maybe it's more correct to say that some understood it better than others, that they knew they were grappling with ideas they didn't have words or concepts for, that could best be expressed in metaphorical terms and by treating the inner world as if it were another world—a spirit realm or somehow analogous to the physical world. They didn't understand what the unconscious was, but they felt its power, so they spoke of it as another world, a world of pure spirit (not wrong, if spirit means inner thoughts, sensations and feelings) populated by purely spiritual beings.
Don't know if you have time to listen to my boring(if unrelated) mumbo-jumbo about martial arts. Let's see, Yin martial arts are predominantly Soft arts which focus on not hitting the enemy with brute force. Poking pressure points are encouraged. Kick the knee or groin with minimum force but just enough to make them hurt. Yang martial arts are predominantly Hard arts which rely on brute force. Tense up your arm and fist and then punch. Kicking anywhere works because your kick is like an iron bar when you use a lot of power in your legs. I use the word "predominantly" because even in every Hard or Soft art there must be a little of the opposite. There are some arts which combine Hard and Soft in which punches and kicks don't tense up until you reach the point of impact. I also don't know why Taichi uses a full Yin-Yang symbol when the art is predominantly Soft. But anyway to cut a long story short Yin And Yang both co-exist as opposites. Sun should be Yang and moon should be Yin. Hot would be Yang and cold would be Yin. As to your question, I guess if a man fully embodies one element(which he was born with which is Yang) he will be very aggressive (without Yin softness), and his temperature will be very hot since he only has Yang heat in his body? And maybe when it is night time the cold will be bad for his health since he is fully Yang? Only in fiction can such a thing work out.
Hence why in the Yin/Yang symbol each has a dot of the other inside it. They're abstractions and can't exist in pure form in reality.
This is going to be important, but the reason I asked about the darkness/yin energy is that the princess of that specific realm has already mastered 'shadow magic' at an exceptionally young age, so how she utilises it is gonna be majorly important in the long run of the series
I think as someone else said above, if you're just creating a fantasy cosmology then you really don't need to worry about how yin and yang are interpreted in Chinese philosophy and lore- just create a system that makes sense for your story. If the information you read on yin-yang seems contradictory, that's because people have applied the concepts in contradictory ways over history. Ancient lore is never tidy or entirely consistent. In any case the Chinese yin-yang are not part of a collection of four or five elements- the closest thing to the western "four elements" system in classical Chinese cosmologies would probably be the principles represented by the eight trigrams, and the yin-yang is ontologically prior to them. (Western "four elements" did eventually make it to Chinese philosophy via Buddhism, but as far as I can tell never really caught on). The so-called "five elements" of China are more like stages that everything passes through rather than constituent substances.
Can I also ask about the power Qi energy? I was watching Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008) series and the characters (the seven teachers) mentioned the Qi energy and applying acupunture points? Are those abstract concepts also related to Yin and yang too?
Indubitably. The exact relationship between them is whatever the guru tells us it is: both things mean whatever we pay for them to mean. We write what we know, and we don't know this unless we really have entered a residential course in a distant mountain range: all that stuff in the movies is true. The kung-fu superpowers aren't true - but if we have paid for a residential course we'll know what we've been told yin and yang and chi are. If we don't believe these things and practice the religion, they are only fictional to us. I suggest fictions don't derive their validity from other fictions: they have no use for validity at all.
For the purposes of a story that you are loosely basing around the ideas of yin and yang, you don't need to nit pick. It's not a real science and it most likely won't take you out of the scene as a reader. Unless you directly mislabel it.
I don't know how to relate pressure points to Yin and Yang but I can tell you that the Qi used in the Legend of the Condor Heroes is fictional and cannot be applied to real life.The 18 Dragon Subduing Palm from there is a Hard style which relies on brute force to overwhelm the opponent and then later on Guo jing studied *something* which I can't remember the name( 9 yin Manual?). Studying that made the 18DSP more fluid because he could use Softer Qi( a bit difficult to explain) to empower his palms. His enemy Qiu Qianren comes from the Iron Palm sect which makes use of Hard/Yang Qi.And if I'm not mistaken the Duan family had the ability to shoot Qi out of their fingers? Most of the fighters in the Condor story have to rely on some sort of internal strength to be able to fight,which is also considered using their Qi. In the story, Yin internal strength is of course suited for Soft styles and Yang internal strength is of course used for Hard styles. The teachers you mentioned are part of the Quanzen sect but I never really paid attention to whether their skills are Yin or Yang because I find their kung fu boring. It wasn't until part 3(of the trilogy) later(Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre) that the real life Tai Chi was fictionalized to be a Yin/Soft art and made prominent to be able to beat Hard/Yang styles. When it comes to more realistic Yang/Hard martial arts in real life, you breathe in and tighten the dan tien point + your waist+your limb you want to use and then strike at the target. That is Hard Qi. When you use Soft/Yin methods of striking, you do the same but release and breathe out just before striking. But I may be generalizing too much because every school has different ways of using Qi. But of course no one can shoot Qi out of their fingers of course. Those who "can" are frauds.
