What do the colors of yin and yang mean?

Answer 1

good and evil

Answer #2:

There is nothing 'evil' about Yin, any more than there is anything 'good' about Yang. The Taoist philosophy is founded in a fundamentally different view from the cause-and-effect philosophies of the West - not contradictory, but certainly incompatible - you can't translate Western concepts like Good and Evil into one-word Taoist equivalents, because they have 'sliced the cake' in an entirely different way.

The white of the Tai Chi diagram represents, through the radiant emanation of light, this primal, unseeable Yang; the black represents the receptive, absorptive, equally unseeable Yin. Both can only (but always) be detected through the behaviour of the myriad aspects of the world.

To oversimplify (almost unforgiveably), the fundamental unity of the universe is driven by these two elementary characteristics; Yang - active, and Yin - receptive (some say 'passive' but, as anyone who has tried it will know, there is nothing passive about being receptive - and only death itself is passive).

These two 'elements' not only interact, but gradually turn into each other. Summer does not fight, but changes intowinter, night turns into day, and so on. This extends to human activity; to be always forceful, dominant, active is a recipe for disaster; look at the politicians who have tried it - without appropriate Yin, they end up as being regarded as intransigent ranters, or worse; mad dictators. Equally, being supportive, empathic, modest, co-operative can be highly successful; but if it is unleavened with appropriate Yang, one ends up being just a doormat for others to wipe their feet on. The same applies to being a parent, a teacher, a manager, a student, and even someone going for a walk in the sunshine. To have a conversation requires each person to take an active aprt by expressing their view - but also to take a receptive apart, by hearing (and responding appropriately to) the other; we have all been in 'conversations' that did not work like this.

The Way is like water; active in that it flows whenever it can, receptive in that its course is moulded by its environment; the Taoist is Yang when Yang is appropriate, Yin when Yin is appropriate; but this cannot be given out as a recipe, only recognised intuitively as each situation arises.

Answer 2

Yin is the dark element, it is passive, dark, feminine, negative, downward-seeking, consuming and corresponds to the night.

Yang is the bright element, it is active, light, masculine, positive, upward-seeking, producing and corresponds to the daytime.

Two parts pass through each other on a line because yin and yang are never separated, such as if people do not know what bad is, they do not know what good is.

Answer 3

Yin is black and yang is white. Yin is feminine and represents darkness, death, conservation, and earth. Yang is male and represents light, water, life, and destruction.