Barry Fishman: Yin Yang and the 10,000 Things

Many people are surprised to find out that the I Ching is not a Taoist work, and that yin and yang are only briefly mentioned in the Tao Te Ching or Chuang Tzu. They are better described as yet older elements of Chinese culture, that the original Taoists were clearly familiar with.

Any bit of wisdom that ancient has a lot of depth worth plumbing, though, and worth using as a lens with which to view the modern world. Artist Barry Fishman has created 80 paintings based on the I Ching. I’m drawn to the bold lines and graphic elements; frankly, I feared the type of derivative imitations of older Chinese paintings that haunt anything labelled Taoist these days. If you want to analyze them, Fishman describes the history and symbolism of the paintings, and you could read the review on Artezine. I recommend just looking at them, though.