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 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