Taijitu is still. In stillness it generates "yin"; yet at the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing "yin" and "yang", the Two Modes are thereby established. The alternation and combination of "yang" and "yin" generate water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five [phases of] "qi" harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed through them. The Five Phases are simply "yin" and "yang"; "yin" and "yang" are simply the Supreme Polarity; the Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. [Yet] in the generation of the Five Phases, each one
Yin and yang 阳 "sunny side" are linguistically analyzable in terms of Chinese characters, pronunciations and etymology, meanings, topography, and loanwords. The Traditional Chinese characters and for the words "yīn" and "yáng" are both classified as radical- esphonetic characters, combining the semantically significant "mound; hill" radical or with the phonetic indicators "ying" and "yang" . The first phonetic "yīn" "cloudy" ideographically combines "jīn" "now; present" and "yún" "cloud", denoting the "今 presence of 云 clouds". The second phonetic "yáng" "bright" originally pictured the "sun" with "rays coming down". This phonetic is expanded with the "sun" radical into "yáng" 暘 "rising sun; sunshine". The