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Diagram of the interactions between the Wu Xing. The "generative" cycle is illustrated by grey arrows running clockwise on the outside of the circle, while the "destructive" or "conquering" cycle is represented by red arrows inside the circle.

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Classical elements
Stoicheion (στοιχεῖον)
Greek   Air   Water Aether Fire   Earth
Tattva/Panchikarana – Mahābhūta
Hinduism/Jainism – Buddhism   Vayu   Ap Akasha Agni   Prithvi
Wŭ Xíng (五行)
Chinese   Wood (木)   Water (水)   Fire (火) Metal (金) Earth (土)
Godai (五大)
Japanese   Air (風)   Water (水) Void (空) Fire (火)   Earth (地)
Bön
Tibetan   Air   Water Aether Fire   Earth
Alchemy
Medieval   Air   Water Aether Fire   Earth Sulphur Mercury Salt
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Tablet in the Temple of Heaven of Beijing, written in Chinese and Manchu, dedicated to the gods of the Five Movements. The Manchu word usiha, meaning "star", explains that this tablet is dedicated to the five planets: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury and the movements which they govern.

The Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng), also known as the Five Elements, Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, Five Processes, the Five Steps/Stages and the Five Planets of significant gravity: Jupiter-木, Saturn-土, Mercury-水, Venus-金, Mars-火^[1] is the short form of "Wǔ zhǒng liúxíng zhī qì" (五種流行之氣) or "the five types of chi dominating at different times".^[2] It is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields used to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from the succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal drugs. The "Five Phases" are Wood (木 mù), Fire (火 huǒ), Earth (土 tǔ), Metal (金 jīn), and Water (水 shuǐ). This order of presentation is known as the "mutual generation" (相生 xiāngshēng) sequence. In the order of "mutual overcoming" (相剋/相克 xiāngkè), they are Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, and Metal.^[3][4][5]

The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. After it came to maturity in the second or first century BCE during the Han dynasty, this device 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 system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts.

Names

Xing (Chinese: 行) of 'Wu Xing' means moving; a planet is called a 'moving star' (Chinese: 行星) in Chinese. Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行) originally refers to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars) that create five dimensions of earth life.^[1] "Wu Xing" is also widely translated as "Five Elements" and this is used extensively by many including practitioners of Five Element acupuncture. This translation arose by false analogy with the Western system of the four elements.^[6] Whereas the classical Greek elements were concerned with substances or natural qualities, the Chinese xíng are "primarily concerned with process and change," hence the common translation as "phases" or "agents".^[7] By the same token, Mù is thought of as "Tree" rather than "Wood".^[8] The word 'element' is thus used within the context of Chinese medicine with a different meaning to its usual meaning.

It should be recognized that the word phase, although commonly preferred, is not perfect. Phase is a better translation for the five seasons (五運 Wǔ Yùn) mentioned below, and so agents or processes might be preferred for the primary term xíng. Manfred Porkert attempts to resolve this by using Evolutive Phase for 五行 Wǔ Xíng and Circuit Phase for 五運 Wǔ Yùn, but these terms are unwieldy.

Some of the Mawangdui Silk Texts (no later than 168 BC) also present the Wu Xing as "five virtues" or types of activities.^[9] Within Chinese medicine texts the Wu Xing are also referred to as Wu Yun (五運 wǔ yùn) or a combination of the two characters (Wu Xing-Yun) these emphasise the correspondence of five elements to five 'seasons' (four seasons plus one). Another tradition refers to the Wǔ Xíng as Wǔ Dé (五德), the Five Virtues (zh:五德終始說).

The Phases

The five phases are around 72 days each and are usually used to describe the state in nature:

• Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant wood and vitality


• Fire/Summer: a period of swelling, flowering, brimming with fire and energy


• Earth: the in-between transitional seasonal periods, or a separate 'season' known as Late Summer or Long Summer - in the latter case associated with leveling and dampening (moderation) and fruition


• Metal/Autumn: a period of harvesting and collecting


• Water/Winter: a period of retreat, where stillness and storage pervades

Cycles

The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle, also known as "mother-son", and an overcoming or destruction (剋/克, kè) cycle, also known as "grandfather-grandson", of interactions between the phases. Within Chinese medicine the effects of these two main relations are further elaborated:

• Inter-promoting (shēng cycle, mother/son)


• Inter-acting (grandmother/grandson)


• Over-acting (kè cycle, grandfather/grandson)


• Counter-acting (reverse kè)

Generating

The common memory jogs, which help to remind in what order the phases are:

• Wood feeds Fire


• Fire creates Earth (ash)


• Earth bears Metal


• Metal collects Water


• Water nourishes Wood

Other common words for this cycle include "begets", "engenders" and "mothers".

Overcoming

• Wood parts Earth (such as roots or trees can prevent soil erosion)


• Earth dams (or muddies or absorbs) Water


• Water extinguishes Fire


• Fire melts Metal


• Metal chops Wood

This cycle might also be called "controls", "restrains" or "fathers".

Cosmology and feng shui

Another illustration of the cycle.

According to Wu Xing theory, the structure of the cosmos mirrors the five phases. Each phase 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 phases (Wu Xing). All of these phases are represented within the trigrams. Associated with these phases are colors, seasons and shapes; all of which are interacting with each other.^[10]

Based on a particular directional energy flow from one phase to the next, the interaction can be expansive, destructive, or exhaustive. A proper knowledge of each aspect of energy flow will enable the Feng Shui practitioner to apply certain cures or rearrangement of energy in a way they believe to be beneficial for the receiver of the Feng Shui Treatment.

Dynastic transitions

According to the Warring States period political philosopher Zou Yan 鄒衍 (c. 305–240 BCE), each of the five elements possesses a personified "virtue" (de 德), which indicates the foreordained destiny (yun 運) of a dynasty; accordingly, the cyclic succession of the elements also indicates dynastic transitions. Zou Yan claims that the Mandate of Heaven sanctions the legitimacy of a dynasty by sending self-manifesting auspicious signs in the ritual color (yellow, blue, white, red, and black) that matches the element of the new dynasty (Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire, and Water). From the Qin dynasty onward, most Chinese dynasties invoked the theory of the Five Elements to legitimize their reign.^[11]

Chinese medicine

Five Chinese Elements - Diurnal Cycle

The interdependence of zang-fu networks in the body was said to be a circle of five things, and so mapped by the Chinese doctors onto the five phases.^[12][13]

Celestial stem

Ming neiyin

In Ziwei, neiyin (纳音) or the method of divination is the further classification of the Five Elements into 60 ming (命), or life orders, based on the ganzhi. Similar to the astrology zodiac, the ming is used by fortune-tellers to analyse a person's personality and future fate.

Music

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

• The Chinese word 青 qīng, has many meanings, including green, azure, cyan, and black. It refers to green in Wu Xing.


• In most modern music, various five note or seven note scales (e.g., the major scale) are defined by selecting five or seven 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.

Martial arts

T'ai chi ch'uan uses the five elements to designate different directions, positions or footwork patterns. Either forward, backward, left, right and centre, or three steps forward (attack) and two steps back (retreat).^[11]

The Five Steps (五步 wǔ bù):

• 
  Jìn bù (進步) Forward step


• 
  Tùi bù (退步) Backward step


• 
  Zǔo gù (左顧, in simplified characters 左顾) Left step


• 
  Yòu pàn (右盼 ) Right step


• 
  Zhōng dìng (中定) Central position, balance, equilibrium.

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

Tea ceremony

There are spring, summer, fall, and winter teas. The perennial tea ceremony includes four tea settings (茶席) and a tea master (司茶). Each tea setting is arranged and stands for the four directions (north, south, east, and west). A vase of the seasons' flowers is put on tea table. The tea settings are:

• earth, (Incense), yellow, center, up and down


• wood, 春風 (Spring Wind), green, east


• fire, 夏露 (Summer Dew), red, south


• metal, 秋籟 (Fall Sounds), white, west


• water, 冬陽 (Winter Sunshine) black/blue, north

See also

• Color in Chinese culture


• Flying Star Feng Shui


• Humorism


• Qi


• Wu Xing painting


• Zang Fu

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


• Chen Yuan, "Legitimation Discourse and the Theory of the Five Elements in Imperial China," Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (2014): 325-364.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wu Xing.

• 
  Wuxing (Wu-hsing) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article.