Yin and yang a hill" in Huayin 華陰, which is north of Mount Hua 華山 in Shaanxi province. In Japan, the characters are used in western Honshu to delineate the north-side San'in region 山陰 from the south-side San'yō region 山陽, separated by the Chugoku mountain range 中国山地. English "yin", "yang", and "yin-yang" are familiar loanwords of Chinese origin. The "Oxford English Dictionary" defines: yin (jɪn) Also Yin, Yn. [Chinese "yīn" shade, feminine; the moon.] a. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine or negative principle (characterized by dark, wetness, cold, passivity, disintegration, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and
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