Taijitu during the Qing period for their possible connection with Zhou Dunyi's "taijitu". Ming period author Lai Zhide (1525–1604) simplified the "taijitu" to a design of two interlocking spirals. In the Ming era, the combination of the two interlocking spirals of the "taijitu" with two black-and-white dots superimposed on them became identified with the "He tu" or "Yellow River diagram" (河圖). This version was reported in Western literature of the late 19th century as the "Great Monad", and has been widely popularised in Western popular culture as the "yin-yang symbol" since the 1960s. The contemporary Chinese term for the modern symbol
Yin and yang Yin Yang Jia (Yin and Yang School) Needham concludes "There can be very little doubt that the philosophical use of the terms began about the beginning of the -4th century, and that the passages in older texts which mention this use are interpolations made later than that time." In spite of being used in a modern context to justify egalitarianism under the notion of both yin and yang being "necessary", in practise the concept of yin and yang has led to justification for China's patriarchal history. Particularly under Confucianism, yang (as the sun principle) is considered superior to "yin" (the