Asshat: Origins

by phil on Tuesday Jun 3, 2003 3:50 PM

Asshat: Origins

Comments

Benjamin said on December 22, 2003 8:46 AM:

Does anyone know how old is the yin/yang fish-shaped symbol? Has it been around since the Tang Dynasty?

I'm asking this because I met a soldier in the US Army whose unit had that same symbol (the fish shaped yin-yang symbol without the eyes). He was told by his commander that his unit had been using this symbol before the Chinese started using it. I found this hard to swallow since the US Army was established in the late 1700s and I figured that the yin/yang symbol must have been around longer than that.

Anyway, there's a whole battalion of soldiers who honestly believe that their unit was the first to draw up the yin/yang symbol which was later swiped by the Chinese.

So, can anyone tell me how old is the yin/yang fish symbol? Did it appear in any shrine, paintings, or cave drawings? Does anyone know if the Australopithecines may have used it? (just kidding). :-)