Yin and yang a hill" in Huayin 華陰, which is north of Mount Hua 華山 in Shaanxi province. In Japan, the characters are used in western Honshu to delineate the north-side San'in region 山陰 from the south-side San'yō region 山陽, separated by the Chugoku mountain range 中国山地. English "yin", "yang", and "yin-yang" are familiar loanwords of Chinese origin. The "Oxford English Dictionary" defines: yin (jɪn) Also Yin, Yn. [Chinese "yīn" shade, feminine; the moon.] a. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine or negative principle (characterized by dark, wetness, cold, passivity, disintegration, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and
Yin and yang < *"ʔəm" compares with Burmese "ʔum" "overcast; cloudy", Adi "muk-jum" "shade", and Lepcha "so'yǔm" "shade"; and is probably cognate with Chinese "àn" < *"ʔə̂mʔ" "dim; gloomy" and "qīn" < *"khəm" "blanket" "Yang" < *"laŋ" compares with Lepcha "a-lóŋ" "reflecting light", Burmese "laŋ" "be bright" and "ə-laŋ" "light"; and is perhaps cognate with Chinese "chāng" < *"k-hlaŋ" "prosperous; bright"; "bǐng" < *"braŋʔ" "bright"; "liàng" < "*raŋh" "(pale) light"; "lǎng" < "raŋʔ" "brilliant light"; "míng" < "mraŋ" "bright, become light, enlighten". Schuessler surmises that those items either are areal words (cf. Tai "plaŋ" "bright") or belong to an Austroasiatic word family (cf.