Wu Xing

In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng), or the Five Elements, also translated as five phases, five movements or five steps.

The elements are:

• metal (Chinese: 金; pinyin: jīn, Vietnamese: kim)
• wood (Chinese: 木; pinyin: mù, Vietnamese: mộc)
• water (Chinese: 水; pinyin: shuǐ, Vietnamese: thủy)
• fire (Chinese: 火; pinyin: huǒ, Vietnamese: hoả), and
• earth (Chinese: 土; pinyin: tǔ, Vietnamese: thổ).

The system of five elements was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts. The original foundation is based on the concept of the Five Cardinal Points.

Traditional Taijiquan schools relate them to footwork and refer to them as five "steps". The system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts.

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Cycles

The doctrine of five phases describes two Cycles of Balance, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or destruction (克, kè) cycle of interactions between the phases.

Generating

• Wood feeds Fire;
• Fire creates Earth (ash);
• Earth bears Metal;
• Metal collects Water and
• Water nourishes Wood.

Overcoming

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

There are also two Cycles of Imbalance, an overacting cycle (cheng) and an insulting cycle (wu).

Cosmology and feng shui

Main article: Feng Shui

According to Chinese thought the structure of the cosmos mirror the five elements, and each has a complex series of associations with different aspects of nature, as can be seen in the following table. In the ancient Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng Shui practitioners all based their art and system on the five elements (Wu Xing). All of these elements are represented within the Bagua. Associated with these elements are colors, seasons and shapes; all of which are interacting with each other. ^[1]

Based on a particular directional energy flow from one element to the next, the interaction can be expansive, destructive, or exhaustive. With proper knowledge of such aspect of energy flow will enable the Feng Shui practitioner to apply certain cures or rearrangement of energy in a beneficial way.

Bagua

Main article: Bagua (concept)

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

Chinese medicine

Main article: Traditional Chinese medicine

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. ^[2]

Chinese astrology

Main article: Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology is based upon the interaction of the five elements with the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, to produce the well-known 60 year cylce of signs.

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.

Music

Main article: Chinese music

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

(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.)

Martial arts

Xingyi

Main article: Xingyi

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

See also

• Pushing hands
• Qi
• Qigong
• Taijitu
• Tao
• Zang Fu theory

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

References