二元对立与对立互补 Binary Opposites and Complementary Opposites

西方人很难想象黑与白可以互相包含，因为他们一向以黑白对立为喻以构思议题与分析问题。这种思想形态一般称为‘二元对立’，与华人的‘对立互补’相对比。

西方‘二元对立’的概念是说人们以对立来思考。所有的物态都可以以他们之非所属来验明（天空阴暗而不是光亮）。世上有无限的二元对立，如始终、高矮、男性女性、显蔽、言文。除了两极之外，二元也有等级之分。我们的想法中，开始比终结好、显现比遮蔽好、灵魂精神比躯体好，语言比书写更重要。

对于华人来说，阴与阳虽然是相反的，可是一个不能独立于其它而生存。意思是自然中所有一切都应该和谐共存，就是说，相反的东西其实互补，因为一种东西显示另一种东西的存在与意义。有光就有暗，有上就有下，有冬天就有夏天。华文词汇如‘上下、左右、冷热’等等很自然地表达了这种思想。对立的平衡为和谐与平静制造最好的形势。

阴阳不是一种敌对或对立的关系，对这点地了解很重要。‘对立互补’不是如‘二元论’那样把世界所有的东西分为两种分开与敌对的，如‘真与假’，‘善与恶’。在中国，阴与阳一直被看成是和谐平衡的并存，就如俗语所谓，‘阳中有阴，阴中有阳’。

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It is hard for Westerners to imagine a compromise between the black and the white which they often use metaphorically to frame issues and analyze problems. Such thought patterns are typically called binary opposites as opposed to the Chinese concept of yin-yang complementary opposites.

The western concept of binary opposites says that people think in terms of opposites. All things are identified in part by what they are not (the sky is dark but not bright). There are countless binary opposites, such as beginning/end, tall/short, masculine/feminine, presence/absence, and speech/writing. In addition to being dichotomies, these pairs are also hierarchies. We think of a beginning as more important than an end, presence as better than absence, soul/mind as more important than body, speech as more important than writing.

For the Chinese, while Yin and Yang are opposites, both of which could not exist without the other. The idea is that everywhere in nature opposites must coexist harmoniously, that is, the opposites complement each other, because each gives existence and meaning to the other. Wherever there is light there will be dark, where there is up there must be down, where there is winter, so shall be summer. This is naturally reflected in the Chinese language such phrases as ‘up and down, left and right, hot and cold’, etc. A balance of opposites creates the best situation for harmony and calm.

It is essential to understand that the nature of such forces in yin-yang thought is not an antagonistic or opposite relationship. It is also not a ‘dualism’, an assertion that the world is comprised of forces that are intrinsically separate and hostile, like ‘truth and falsehood’, or ‘good and evil’. In ancient China, yin and yang were always understood as existing in harmonious balance, this is reflected in the saying, ‘yang is contained in yin and yin is contained in yang.’