Five elements (Chinese philosophy)

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Classical Elements

	Air
Fire	Aether	Water
	Earth

Chinese

Wood (木) | Fire (火)
Earth (土) |
Metal (金) | Water (水)

Japanese

Earth (地) | Water (水) | Fire (火) |
Air / Wind (風) | Void / Sky / Heaven (空)

Hinduism and Buddhism

Vayu / Pavan — Air / Wind
Agni / Tejas — Fire
Akasha — Aether
Prithvi / Bhumi — Earth
Ap / Jala — Water

In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Five Elements (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng): wood, fire, earth, metal, and water (木, 火, 土, 金, 水; mù, huǒ, tǔ, jīn, shǔi). These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. Five phases is the more appropriate way of translating wǔxíng — literally, "five goings". Traditional Taijiquan schools relate them to footwork and refer to them as five "steps".

1 Cycles
2 Correlations between the five elements and other categories
3 Martial arts
- 3.1 Xingyi
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Cycles

The doctrine of five phases describes both a generating (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or restraining (克, kè) cycle of interactions between the phases.

[edit] Generating

wood feeds fire;
fire creates earth (ash);
earth bears metal;

Interactions of Five Chinese Elements

metal collects water and
water nourishes wood.

[edit] Overcoming

wood parts earth;
earth absorbs water;
water quenches fire;
fire melts metal and
metal chops wood.

[edit] Circadian and other cycles

According to Chinese medical theory, each organ is associated with one of the Five Phases. It is believed to be more efficacious to treat an organ during a particular time period appropriate to it. The citation order of the Five Phases, i.e., the order in which they are cited in the Bo Hu Tong and other Han dynasty texts, is Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. The organs are most effectively treated, according to theory, in the following four-hour periods throughout the day, beginning with the 3 a.m. to 7 a. m. period: Metal organs (see the list below), Earth organs, Fire₁ organs, Water organs, Fire₂ (the "non-empirical" Pericardium and Triple Burner organs), and Wood organs. which is the reverse of the citation order (plus an extra use of Fire and the non-empirical organs to take care of the sixth four-hour period of the day). These two orders are further related to the sequence of the planets going outward from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, or Water, Metal, Fire, Wood, and Earth) by a star diagram similar to the one shown above. ^[1]

[edit] Correlations between the five elements and other categories

The doctrine of five phases was employed in many fields of early Chinese philosophy, including seemingly disparate fields such as music, traditional Chinese medicine, military strategy and martial arts.

[edit] Chinese astrology

Element	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Heavenly Stem	Jia 甲 Yi 乙	Bing 丙 Ding 丁	Wu 戊 Ji 己	Geng 庚 Xin 辛	Ren 壬 Gui 癸
Birth year ends with	4, 5	6, 7	8, 9	0, 1	2, 3

For example, assume someone is born in the year 1953, the year of the Snake. Because her birth year ends with 3, her element is Water; therefore, she was born in the year of the Water Snake.

[edit] Music

The Yuèlìng chapter (月令篇) of the Lǐjì (禮記) and the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子) make the following correlations:

Element	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Colour	Azure	Vermilion	Yellow	White	Black
Direction	east	south	center	west	north
The Chinese Five-note Scale	jué 角 (mi)	zhǐ 徵 (so)	gōng 宮 (do)	shāng 商 (re)	yǔ 羽 (la)

(Notes:

The Chinese word 青 qīng, traditionally translated as azure in this context, includes the range in the spectrum from green to blue, with shades down to black.)
In modern Western music, various seven note or five note scales (e.g., the major scale) are defined by selecting seven or five frequencies from the set of twelve semi-tones in the Equal tempered tuning. The Chinese "lǜ" tuning is closest to the ancient Greek tuning of Pythagoras. See Chinese musicology.)

[edit] Chinese medicine and cosmology

Element	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Direction	east	south	center	west	north
Planet	Jupiter	Mars	Saturn	Venus	Mercury
Zang (yin organs)	liver	heart/pericardium	spleen/pancreas	lung	kidney
Fu (yang organs)	gall bladder	small intestine/San Jiao	stomach	large intestine	urinary bladder
Emotion	anger	joy and shock	reminiscence and reflecion	grief and sadness	fear
Finger	index finger	middle finger	thumb	ring finger	little finger
Sensory organ	eye	tongue	mouth	nose	ears
Sense	sight	speech	taste	smell	hearing
Taste	bitter	sweet	sour	spicy	salty
Heavenly creature	Azure Dragon 青龙 or 青龍	Vermilion Bird 朱雀	Yellow Dragon or Qilin 黃龍 or 麒麟	White Tiger 白虎	Black Tortoise 玄武
Livestock	dog	sheep/goat	cattle	chicken	pig
Fruit	plum	apricot	jujube(dates)	peach	chestnut
Grain	wheat	beans	rice	hemp	millet
Heavenly Stems	甲, 乙	丙, 丁	戊, 己	庚, 辛	壬, 癸
Season	Spring	Summer	Change of seasons (Every third month)	Autumn	Winter
Life	birth	youth	adulthood	old age	death

[edit] Bagua

The elements have also been correlated to the eight trigrams of the I Ching:

Element	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
I Ching	Wind, thunder	Fire	Earth, mountain	Sky, lake	Water
Trigrams	:\|\| (☴ 巽 xùn) \|:: (☳ 震 zhèn)	\|:\| (☲ 離 lí)	::: (☷ 坤 kūn) ::\| (☶ 艮 gèn)	\|\|\| (☰ 乾 qián) \|\|: (☱ 兌 duì)	:\|: (☵ 坎 kǎn)

[edit] Martial arts

[edit] Xingyi

Xingyiquan uses the five elements to metaphorically represent five different states of combat.

Element	Fist	Chinese	Pinyin	Description
Wood	Crushing	崩	Bēng	Arrows constantly exploding forward.
Fire	Pounding	炮	Pào	Exploding outward like a cannon while blocking.
Earth	Crossing	橫	Héng	Crossing across the line of attack while turning over.
Metal	Splitting	劈	Pī	Like an axe chopping up and over.
Water	Drilling	鑽	Zuān	Drilling forward horizontally like a geyser.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

Feng Youlan (Yu-lan Fung), A History of Chinese Philosophy, volume 2, p. 13
Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, volume 2, pp. 262-23
Maciocia, G. 2005, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 2nd edn, Elsevier Ltd., London

[edit] References

^ See 5 Xing in Citation Order.

[edit] External links

Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture Five Element Theory and Applications
Five Element Information Five Element interrelationships, concordances and causative factors.
Chinese Zodiac Chart Find your Chinese Zodiac sign based on your date of birth.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) - A model of transition from the traditional elements
The American School of Classical Feng Shui
Five Elements in Society

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