Gender are universally more religious than men. They believe that the difference in religiosity between genders is due to biological differences, for instance usually people seeking security in life are more religious, and as men are considered to be greater risk takers than women, they are less religious. Although religious fanaticism is more often seen in men than women. In Taoism, yin and yang are considered feminine and masculine, respectively. The Taijitu and concept of the Zhou period reach into family and gender relations. Yin is female and yang is male. They fit together as two parts of a whole. The
Yin and yang "to shelter; shade", and 陽 or 阳 "sunny" is always pronounced with rising second tone "yáng". Sinologists and historical linguists have reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations from data in the (7th century CE) "Qieyun" rhyme dictionary and later rhyme tables, which was subsequently used to reconstruct Old Chinese phonology from rhymes in the (11th-7th centuries BCE) "Shijing" and phonological components of Chinese characters. Reconstructions of Old Chinese have illuminated the etymology of modern Chinese words. Compare these Middle Chinese and Old Chinese (with asterisk) reconstructions of "yīn" 陰 and "yáng" 陽: Schuessler gives probable Sino-Tibetan etymologies for both Chinese words. "Yin"