Read: 06.12.16

"음과 양은 인간이 만든 인식 체계 속의 약속도 아니고 철학도 아닙니다. 낮과 밤이 쉬임 앖이 바뀌고 있는 자연의 실상이자 기본 원리입니다."

"Yin Yang is neither a cognitive awareness nor a philosophical concept. It is the fundamental principle of nature— the unchanging truth that night follows day and day follows night."

This summer I started to learn Korean medicine under my parents and it has been an exciting experience so far. I began with the basics, the philosophy behind the practice. 

The idea of Yin Yang is commonly referenced in Western media as something "Asian" or "Eastern", which isn't false, but there's more to it than Kung Fu and inner peace. 

1. Yin and Yang are not absolutes. 

When we think of Yin Yang we tend to attribute them in definite terms. For example, light would be Yang and darkness would be Yin. Good and Bad. Fire and water. Even and odd numbers. Although they're all popular representations of Yin Yang, it would be a mistake to accept them as concrete examples. Let me explain:

2. When there is Yin, there is Yang. 

In a stereotypical martial arts movie, the villain, consumed in darkness, will represent Yin, and the hero, "the bringer of light", will represent Yang. These two characters clash and usually end with the hero saving the villain from darkness, cleansing his/her spirit and whatnot. This is a classic example of "there is both good (Yang) and bad (Yin) in all of us". The hero was able to bring out our villain's Yang, the good side, making it the dominant force.

This explains two things. One, everything has its own Yin and Yang. One may be stronger than the other, but that doesn't mean the other doesn't exist. Two, Yin and Yang are relative. Yin exists because there is Yang, and Yang exists because there is Yin. When our villain sides with the good, how can we verify that the hero is still 'good'? This is a tricky concept, and you might not even agree with it, but hold on for a bit longer.

Take two numbers, 1 and 10. Since Yang is usually thought as the 'bigger', 'brighter' counterpart, we'll assign 10 as Yang and 1 as Yin. In this specific relationship, 10 is Yang and 1 is Yin. But what happens if we introduce 100? While 10 may be Yang compared to 1, it would be Yin compared to 100. There's Yin and Yang in the number 10. As stated: "There is good and bad in all of us".

3. Life is a Spiral, not a Circle. 

This one is very tangential to the idea of Yin and Yang, but I wanted to cover it anyway. 

"The Circle of Life". I still remember when we were taught the Water Cycle in AP Bio, from evaporation to condensation to precipitation. I thought it was pretty cool. Imagining the natural phenomenons around us as a circular process made me think: Wow, nature is awesome! Turns out we were missing one key element. Time. 

Integrating the factor of time into our Life Cycles (Water, Nitrogen, Food Chain, the Four Seasons, etc.) adds a third dimension to the model. Imagine assigning time as the y-axis on a XYZ plane with a circle on the XZ plane. As time passes and the circle is traced, you would see a spiral (like a spring on its side). 

This concept is crucial in patient treatment since imbalances between Yin and Yang can induce a chain reaction of imbalances (disturbances) all across the human body. In two dimensions, identifying the primary cause will be impossible, like trying to finding the starting point of a circle. I'm not knowledgable enough to explain this in a more medical manner, but I hope this somewhat makes sense. Life is in a Spiral, not a Circle. 

On a final note, learning Korean medicine is really fun. It feels like I'm learning something that's actually applicable on an everyday basis (not that other subjects don't make me feel that, the feeling is just stronger here). The next step is to learn about the five elements, which sounds really corny, but I'll have to convince you there's more to that as well.