2. Yang and Yin

2.1. Yang and Yin Is Another Dual Characteristic

We shall now discuss the yang and yin characteristics of the individual truth being. As stated in the Theory of the Original Image, Yang and Yin, another pair of dual characteristics in God, are the attributes of Sungsang and Hyungsang. This means that there are Yang and Yin characteristics in Sungsang and Yang and Yin characteristics in Hyungsang.

Let us first examine the yang and yin characteristics of the human Sungsang and Hyungsang. The human Sungsang is the mind, which possesses the faculties of intellect, emotion, and will. There are yang aspects and yin aspects in each of these faculties of the mind. The yang aspects of the intellect are clarity, good memory, distinctness, wittiness, and the like. The yin aspects of the intellect are vagueness, forgetfulness, unclear ideas, seriousness, and so on. The yang aspects of the emotion are pleasantness, loudness, joyfulness, excitement, and the like. The yin aspects of the emotion are unpleasantness, quietness, sorrow, composure, etc. The yang aspects of the will are activeness, aggressiveness, creative-ness, carefreeness, and other such qualities. Finally, the yin aspects of the will are passiveness, tolerance, conservativeness, carefulness, and so on. With regard to the Hyungsang, or the physical body, protuberant parts, protrusions, convex parts, the front side, and so on, are the yang aspects; whereas sunken parts, orifices, concave parts, the back side, etc., are the yin aspects. These points are systematically arranged in table 2.1.

In a similar way, in animals, plants, and minerals there are yang and yin in the Sungsang as well as in the Hyungsang. Animals sometimes behave actively and sometimes they do not. Plants sometimes grow and sometimes they wither; sometimes plants open their flowers, and sometimes they close them; trees grow upward into the sky and their roots grow downward into the soil. In minerals, physicochemical functions sometimes proceed intensely and at other times do not. These are yang and yin characteristics of the Sungsang. As for yang and yin characteristics of the Hyungsang, these include protuberances and orifices, high and low, front and back, light and dark, hard and soft, dynamic and static, pure and impure, hot and cold, day and night, summer and winter, heaven and earth, mountain and valley, and so forth. This is how we can understand yang and yin in the Sungsang and Hyungsang of the individual truth being.

An individual truth being is equipped with yang and yin as the attributes of Sungsang and Hyungsang. Further, each type of created being consists of a pair of individual truth beings, i.e., a yang substantial being and a yin substantial being: the former is equipped with relatively more yang characters than its partner and the latter is equipped with relatively more yin characters than its partner. We can find pairs of yang substantial being and yin substantial being at each level of beings. These are man and woman in human beings, male and female in animals, stamen and pistil in plants, cation and anion in minerals, and protons and electrons in atoms. It is said that there are male and female even in single-cell bacteria. ⁵

2.2. Yang Substantial Being and Yin Substantial Being in Human Beings

Yang substantial being and yin substantial being are concepts often used to refer to man and woman. Then, concerning human beings, in concrete terms what are a yang substantial being and a yin substantial being? Since this issue has already been explained in detail in the Theory of the Original Image, I will merely summarize the content here. In the Hyungsang (body), the difference between man and woman in terms of yang and yin is very clear. It is a quantitative difference: man’s body has more yang elements than woman’s, and woman’s body has more yin elements than man’s. On the other hand, in the Sungsang, the difference between man and woman in terms of yang and yin is a characteristic difference.

As explained earlier, man and woman both have yang and yin in each faculty of intellect, emotion, and will. There are, however, characteristic differences between man and woman with regard to yang and yin. For example, man and woman both have clarity, which is a yang character of the intellect, but the character of this clarity differs between man and woman. Generally, clarity in man has a more comprehensive character, whereas clarity in woman is more analytic and is oriented more toward details. As for sadness, a yin character of emotion, man’s sorrow tends to have a more painful character, while woman’s tends to have a grieving character. As for activeness, a yang character of the will, the character of a man’s activeness gives an impression more of hardness, whereas the character of a woman’s activeness gives more an impression of softness. Such differences between man and woman are characteristic differences.

For the sake of better understanding, let me cite the case of vocal music. In vocal music, the male tenor and the female’s soprano are both high sounds, and so correspond to yang, but they are characteristically different. Likewise, masculine bass and feminine alto are both low sounds, and so correspond to yin, but they are characteristically different. As shown through this comparison, the differences between yang and yin in the Sungsang is a characteristic difference and, therefore, masculinity appears in man and femininity appears in woman.

Let us now consider how the functions of yang and yin operated in the process of the creation of the universe. God’s creation can be compared to the creation of a great work of art in which yang and yin are in harmony. That is, it can be said that God has been conducting a grand symphony entitled “The Creation of Heaven and Earth.” God started with the “Big Bang,” ⁶ and then created the galaxies, the solar system, and the earth. On the earth, He created plants, animals, and finally human beings. In the playing of a symphony, various yangs and yins are operating, such as high and low tones, strong and weak notes, long and short sounds, as well as yang instruments and yin instruments. In a similar way, in the process of the creation of the universe, various yangs and yins are considered to have been at work.

In our galaxy there are perhaps about 200 billion stars, arranged in a spiral. The areas of the galaxy where the stars are in dense concentration are yang, and the areas where the stars are sparse are yin. On the earth, lands and oceans were formed; the land is yang, and the ocean is yin. Mountain and valley, day and night, morning and evening, summer and winter, and so forth, are all expressions of yang and yin. Through the various yangs and yins operating in this way, the universe was created, the earth was formed, living things came into being, and humankind appeared. Human activities, also, are carried out through the operation of yangs and yins. Through the harmony between husband and wife, a family is formed. In artistic creation, harmonies between curved and straight lines, light and dark colors, big and small masses, and so on, are required.

In this way, both in the creation of the universe and in the activities of human society, yang and yin are operating in Sungsang and Hyungsang. The harmonious action and interaction of yang and yin is an indispensable factor in variety and development, as well as in the expression of beauty. Thus, we can come to a conclusion: God made yang and yin as the attributes of Sungsang and Hyungsang in order to express harmony and beauty through yang and yin.