The Chinese Lunar Year can also be explained in terms of Yin and Yang. The six Spring and Summer months represent Yang while the six Autumn and Winter months represent Yin. The Chinese Year usually begins at the end of January or beginning of February, which is also the beginning of Spring. Spring and Summer are times of positive growth and activity and so represent Yang, while Autumn and Winter are periods of decline and passivity and so represent Yin. With the help of the hexagrams of the I Ching and the Tai Chi motif let us examine the changes of Yin and Yang that take place during these 12 months. The Tai Chi motifs can be looked at in two ways; at A they represent complementary increases and decreases of Yin and Yang while at B they show how, when either Yin or Yang ascends, the other descends.
This clearly shows the inevitable and continuous nature of the change of Yin and Yang. In subsequent pages we will discover how and why this theory was used to create the martial art we know today as Tai Chi Chuan.
