Cathay Noob (Looking for some Advice!)

So, I've tried several times to try their faction out in IE, and I immediately am turned off by the yin and yang aspect of it.

It's not that I don't like it - I don't understand it and I'm not really sure where to start, so this is me asking for some advice to get myself going.

Do I have to have yin and yang fairly balanced to exceed? I can't go one way or the other can I?

What are some short term things I should focus on in the 1-50 turns, and what are some suggestions on where to expand early on?

I like their starting area; most of my campaigns tend to be on the wayyyyy other side of the world, so I've been trying out campaigns on this side of the map to get a feel for the area. Just did a ghorst campaign and it was actually pretty fun spamming t1 zombies everywhere winning by sheer #s lmao.