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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Five Elements

Wikipedia

 
In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into five elements (五行, wǔx?ng):
wood (classical element)|wood,
fire (classical element)|fire,
earth (classical element)|earth,
metal (classical element)|metal, and
water (classical element)|water
(Chinese language|Chinese: 木, 火, 土, 金, 水). These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. (Five phases is another way of translating wǔx?ng — literally, "five goings").

The doctrine of five phases describes both a generating (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming (克, k?) cycle of interactions between the phases. In the generating cycle, wood generates fire; fire generates earth; earth generates metal; metal generates water; water generates wood. In the overcoming cycle, wood overcomes earth; earth overcomes water; water overcomes fire; fire overcomes metal; metal overcomes wood. The doctrine of five phases was employed in many fields of early Chinese philosophy, including seemingly disparate fields such as music, medicine, and military strategy.



The Yuèlìng chapter (月令篇) of the Lǐjì (禮記) and the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子) make the following correlations: |-
Element Direction Color Musical Note
Wood east blue/green ju? 角 (mi)
Fire south red zhǐ 徵 (sol)
Earth center yellow gōng 宮 (do)
Metal west white shāng 商 (re)
Water north black 羽 (la)


Some other correspondences are shown below: |-
Element Heavenly creature Season Direction Planet Tastes Sense Viscera Finger
Wood Qīng-l?ng (青龍)<br>the Blue Dragon Spring east Jupiter sour sight liver ring finger
Fire Zhū-qu? (朱雀)<br>the Red Phoenix Summer south Mars bitter sound heart middle finger
Earth Hu?ng-l?ng (黃龍)<br>the Yellow Dragon Change of seasons center Saturn sweet smell spleen index finger
Metal B?i-hǔ (白虎)<br>the White Tiger Autumn west Venus hot taste lung thumb
Water Xu?n-wǔ (玄武)<br>the Black Tortoise-Serpent Winter north Mercury salty touch kidney little finger


The elements have also been correlated to the eight trigrams of the I Ching: |-
Element I Ching Trigrams
Wood Wind, thunder <nowiki>: </nowiki> (☴ 巽 x?n) <nowiki>|::</nowiki> (☳ 震 zh?n)
Fire Fire <nowiki>|:|</nowiki> (☲ 離 l?)
Earth Earth, mountain <nowiki>:::</nowiki> (☷ 坤 kūn) <nowiki>::|</nowiki> (☶ 艮 g?n)
Metal Sky, lake <nowiki> |</nowiki> (☰ 乾 qi?n) <nowiki> :</nowiki> (☱ 兌 du?)
Water Water <nowiki>:|:</nowiki> (☵ 坎 kǎn)




  • four humours

  • Hsing Yi

  • pushing hands

  • qi

  • qigong

  • tao

  • Zang Fu theory




  • 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


ClassicElement

Category:Chinese astronomy
Category:Chinese martial arts terms
Category:Chinese thought
Category:Traditional Chinese medicine

de:F?nf-Elemente-Lehre
ja:五行思想
vi:Ngũ h?nh
zh:五行

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Five Elements".


Last Modified:   2005-04-13


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