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| Chinese | 五行 | ||||||||||||||||
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The Wu Xing, also known as the Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, and the Five Steps/Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields.
It is sometimes translated as Five Elements, but the Wu Xing were mainly used as memory tools, hence the preferred translation of "movements", "phases" or "steps" over "elements". By the same token, Mu is thought of as "Tree" rather than "Wood".[1]
The five elements are:
The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed as a device 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. Some claim the original foundation of these are the concept of the Five Cardinal Points.
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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-nephew", of interactions between the phases.
The common memory jogs, which help to remind in what order the phases are:
Other common words for this cycle include "begets", "engenders" and "mothers."
This cycle might also be called "controls", "restrains" or "fathers".
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 Ba gua. Associated with these phases are colors, seasons and shapes; all of which are interacting with each other.[2]
Based on a particular directional energy flow from one phase 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 way they believe to be beneficial for the receiver of the Feng Shui "Treatment".
The movements have also been correlated to the eight trigrams of the I Ching:
| Movement | Metal | Earth | Wood | Wood | Water | Fire | Earth | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I Ching | Heaven | Earth | Thunder | Wind | Water | Fire | Mountain | Lake |
| Trigrams | ☰ 乾 qián | ☷ 坤 kūn | ☳ 震 zhèn | ☴ 巽 xùn | ☵ 坎 kǎn | ☲ 離 lí | ☶ 艮 gèn | ☱ 兌 duì |
The interdependence of Zang Fu networks in the body was noted to be a circle of five things, and so mapped by the Chinese doctors onto the five phases. For instance, the Liver (Wood phase) is said to be the "mother" of the heart (Fire phase), and the Kidneys (Water phase) the mother of the Liver. The key observation was things like kidney deficiency affecting the function of the liver. In this case, the "mother" is weak, and cannot support the child. However, the Kidneys control the heart along the Ke cycle, so the Kidneys are said to restrain the heart. Many of these interactions can nowadays be linked to Western physiological pathways (such as Kidney pH affecting heart activity).
The key thing to keep in mind with the Chinese medical application of the five elements is that it is only a model, and it is known to have exceptions.
The citation order of the Five Phases, i.e., the order in which they are cited in the Bo hu tong 白虎通 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.[3]
The sequence of the five elements (Traditional Chinese medicine)：promotion, inhibition, Cheng (bullying), Wu (insult).
| Movement | Wood | Fire | Earth | Metal | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planet | Jupiter | Mars | Saturn | Venus | Mercury |
| Mental Quality | Sensitivity | Creativity | Clarity | Intuition | Spontaneity |
| Emotion | anger | happiness | love | grief, sadness | fear, scare |
| Zang (yin organs) | liver | heart/pericardium | spleen/pancreas | lung | kidney |
| Fu (yang organs) | gall bladder | small intestine/San Jiao | stomach | large intestine | urinary bladder |
| Sensory organ | eyes | tongue | mouth | nose | ears |
| Body Part | Tendons | Pulse | Muscle | Skin | Bones |
| Body Fluid | Tears | Sweat | Saliva | Mucus | Urine |
| Finger | index finger | middle finger | thumb | ring finger | little finger |
| Sense | sight | speech | taste | smell | hearing |
| Taste[5] | sour | bitter | sweet | pungent | salt |
| Smell | Rancid | Scorched | Fragrant | Rotten | Putrid |
| Life | birth | youth | adulthood | old age | death |
| Animal | scaly | feathered | human | furred | shelled |
| Movement | Wood | Fire | Earth | Metal | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavenly Stem | Jia 甲 Yi 乙 |
Bing 丙 Ding 丁 |
Wu 戊 Ji 己 |
Geng 庚 Xin 辛 |
Ren 壬 Gui 癸 |
| Year ends with | 2, 7 | 3, 8 | 4, 9 | 0, 5 | 1, 6 |
The Yuèlìng chapter (月令篇) of the Lǐjì (禮記) and the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子) make the following correlations:
| Movement | Wood | Fire | Earth | Metal | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Green or Blue | Red | Yellow | White | Black |
| Direction | east | south | center | west | north |
| The Basic Pentatonic Scale | jué 角 (mi) | zhǐ 徵 (so) | gōng 宮 (do) | shāng 商 (re) | yǔ 羽 (la) |
(Notes:
Taijiquan 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).[6]
The Five Steps (五步 wǔ bù):
Xingyiquan uses the five elements to metaphorically represent five different states of combat.
| Movement | Fist | Chinese | Pinyin | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal | Splitting | 劈 | Pī | To split like an axe chopping up and over. |
| Water | Drilling | 鑽 | Zuān | Drilling forward horizontally like a geyser. |
| Wood | Crushing | 崩 | Bēng | To collapse, as a building collapsing in on itself. |
| Fire | Pounding | 炮 | Pào | Exploding outward like a cannon while blocking. |
| Earth | Crossing | 橫 | Héng | Crossing across the line of attack while turning over. |
There are spring, summer, fall, and winter teas. The perennial tea ceremony ("perennial", literally means four steps or sequences that are linked together, each representing a season of the year) includes four tea settings(茶席) and a tea master(司茶). The tea settings are:
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. Sometimes if four tea masters are included then five chairs are arranged per tea setting, making a total of twenty plus the 4 tea masters equalling 24, which symbolizes the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar, and represents that nature continues or is perennial.
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