From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To view
Emotions that are associated with each element, click here
Click here to find out what element you are. Interactive Questionnaire
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".
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. In the generating
cycle, wood generates fire; fire generates earth (ash); earth generates
metal; metal generates water (if metal is left out at night water will
have condensed on it by morning); water generates wood. In the
overcoming cycle, wood grows in earth; earth absorbs water; water
quenches fire; fire melts metal; metal cuts wood.
The doctrine of five phases was employed in many fields of early Chinese
philosophy, including seemingly disparate fields such as
music,
traditional Chinese medicine, and
military strategy.
Correlations between the five elements and other
categories
The Yuèlìng
chapter (月令篇)
of the Lǐjì (禮記)
and the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子)
make the following correlations:
(note: The Chinese word
青
includes the range in the spectrum from green to blue, with shades down
to black.)
Some other
correspondences are shown below:
The elements have also
been correlated to the eight
trigrams of the
I Ching:
|
Element |
I Ching |
Trigrams |
|
Wood |
Wind, thunder |
:|| (☴
巽 xùn)
|:: (☳
震 zhèn) |
|
Fire |
Fire |
|:| (☲
離 lí) |
|
Earth |
Earth, mountain |
::: (☷
坤 kūn)
::| (☶
艮 gèn) |
|
Metal |
Sky, lake |
||| (☰
乾 qián)
||: (☱
兌 duì) |
|
Water |
Water |
:|: (☵
坎 kǎn) |
Back
to Top of Page |
