Pneumatised!

MM,

Here’s my annoyance of the week, http://www.yingyangmusic.com/, which is a website for some rap music artist by the name “Ying Yang Twins”. Their name is possibly a play on the words “yin yang”, but I wonder if they even know what yin and yang mean.

The tai ji tu symbol is commonly referred to as yin-yang symbol by many. There are apparently a few websites that call it the “ying-yang symbol” instead. Talk about your fluff bunnies at it again, instead of researching carefully, people have just assumed that the symbol refers to “ying” and yang. (Though, I have noted that sometimes when typing “yin” it is easy to mistakenly type “ying”, but please people if you know it’s not correct, fix it!)

“Ying” does not mean the same as “yin”. “Yin” translates as “hill’s shady side” or as is commonly known “feminine or negative principle in” Taoism. “Ying” is not a complete word by itself, though it is a Chinese name. In this online Chinese dictionary, you can see that “ying” is used in combination with other characters to make a complete word. This character for “ying” contains the idea of “scene” and “suggestive of shape”. When combined with another character, we get a word. For example, from the link for “ying”, “yingpian” means film or movie. “Yingyin” means photocopy while “yinying” means “shadow”. “Yingyang” has no meaning in Chinese nor does “yangying”. You should also note that the pronunciation of “in” is slightly different for yin and ying. Also note that “ying” (or any sound in the Chinese language), depending on the tone when pronouncing it, can have other meanings.

As a side note, “yang” translates as “hill’s bright side” and of course the “masculine or positive principle in” Taoism. And yes, “yinyang” translates to “yin and yang”.

For more information about yin and yang:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Yang

http://www.friesian.com/yinyang.htm

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local webmistress
Brigid’s Flame