Portrait of Yin and Yang
Acrylic and paper relief
16 x 20
George W. Morgan
2013

The light and the dark of the Tao (Way of Nature) system of thought are named respectively yang and yin, which are words referring to the sunny and the shady sides of a stream. On the sunny side there is light, there is warmth, and the heat of the sun is dry. In the shade, there is the cool of the earth, and the earth is moist. No moral verdict is intended; neither principle is better than the other, neither stronger than the other. They are the two equally potent founding principles on which all the world rests, and in their interaction they inform, constitute, and decompose all things.