Famous Chinese Shopping City Books

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.

Last Modified:   2005-04-13