alt Hacker Newsblack-white here doesn't mean bad-good. they just mean opposites, different aspects of things. I think wikipedia does a pretty good job explaining it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
black-white here doesn't mean bad-good. they just mean opposites, different aspects of things. I think wikipedia does a pretty good job explaining it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%99%B0#Traditional_Chinese (陰) lists the following definitions:
1. cloudy; overcast; gloomy
2. hidden; secret
3. negative [of electrical charge]
4. the Moon
5. shade; shadow
6. north of a mountain or south of a river
7. back side
8. of the nether world; of ghosts
9. (philosophy) "female" principle; yin in yin-yang
10. in intaglio
11. treacherous; deceitful; cheating
12. (dialectal) to deceive; to trick; to trap
13. (Chinese phonetics, of a syllable) open; not having a consonant coda
14. (Cantonese) bangs; fringe
15. genitalia (of humans)
16. a surname
The one (American) person I know who has 陰 as a surname reports that Chinese people are often shocked at her surname upon meeting her. I think it might be a bit like having the surname Death in English (https://www.ancestry.com/last-name-meaning/death?geo-lang=en...).
That is to say, black kind of does mean "bad" here, in the popular conception anyway. Taoism and Buddhism promote a worldview that sees birth and death, creation and destruction, as neither good nor bad, simply inseparable parts of a larger whole. But most everyday people try to avoid darkness, death, destruction, cloudiness, gloominess, shadows, ghosts, treachery, traps, and so on, most of the time. It's more that Taoism teaches that this attempt is foolish.
Not all the senses are unpopular; plenty of people like human genitalia, the Moon, and intaglio, and the shady side of a river can be nicer when it's hot out.