The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2735 page)

(contracted from
Yidish-daytsh
, i.e. Jewish-German). Language used by
Ashkenazi Jews
. Yiddish is related to German, but has many Slavic, Hebrew, and
Aramaic
words, and it is written in the Hebrew script.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(Heb., ‘May he be magnified’). Jewish
liturgical
hymn. The hymn is based on
Maimonides
’
Thirteen Principles of the Jewish faith
. A Christian version (made by T. Olivers, 18th cent.) is sung as ‘The God of Abraham praise …’.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Yi Li
.

Ceremonials and Rituals
, one of the collections of ritual texts included in the
Confucian Classics
. While undated, they are probably from late Chou times (roughly 5th–3rd cents. BCE), although they may contain much earlier material.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Yima
.

Iranian mythological king, who presided over a perfect place (known as
var
) where neither death nor winter were able to enter until someone sinned. When a
taboo
was broken, Yima saved his people by taking death upon himself, and thus became the first mortal.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

see
FANG-SHIH
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Yin-Hsiang
.

Chin. for
mudra
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Yin-yang
.

The two opposite energies in Chinese thought, from whose interaction and fluctuation the universe and its diverse forms emerge. They are the polar extremes of the unbounded
Tao
of the supreme and ultimate source (
t’ai-chi
), and from their intermingling arise the five elements (
wu-hsing
), which give rise to the myriads of forms, and to history and time. The yin-yang symbol expresses this interaction, with the two spots (white in the dark, dark in the white) indicating that each of the two contains the seed of the other and is about to produce the replication of its opposite in interaction. All oppositions can be mapped onto yin and yang, yin representing e.g. the feminine, yielding, receptive, moon, water, clouds, even numbers, and the yang the masculine, hard, active, red, the sun, and odd numbers. Combined with wu-hsing (five phases), these represent the organizing categories of the Chinese world-view.