Chinese sun and moon mirrors Chinese sun and moon mirrors The yángsuì 陽燧 or sun-mirror was an ancient Chinese burning-mirror that concentrates sunlight to ignite tinder and the fāngzhū 方諸 or moon-mirror was a device that collects nighttime dew by condensation. These two bronze implements are literary metaphors for yin and yang, associating the ""yang"-mirror" "yangsui" with the sun (a.k.a. "tàiyáng" 太陽 "great "yang""), fire, dry, and round, and the ""yin"-mirror" "fangshu" with the moon ("tàiyīn" 太陰 "great "yin""), water, wet, and square. There are numerous Chinese names for the fire-producing "yángsuì" 陽燧 "sun-mirror" and water-producing "fāngzhū" 方諸 "moon-mirror". Yángsuì < Old Chinese *"laŋsə-lu[t]-s" can
Yin and yang creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being. Also "attrib." or as "adj." Cf. yin. b. "Comb.": yang-yin = "yin-yang" s.v. yin b. For the earliest recorded "yin and yang" usages, the "OED" cites 1671 for "yin" and "yang", 1850 for "yin-yang", and 1959 for "yang-yin". In English, "yang-yin" (like "ying-yang") occasionally occurs as a mistake or typographical error for the Chinese loanword "yin-yang"— yet they are not equivalents. Chinese does have some "yangyin" collocations, such as 洋銀 (lit. "foreign silver") "silver coin/dollar", but not even the most comprehensive dictionaries (e.g., the "Hanyu