Five elements (Chinese philosophy)

In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Five Elements (): wood, fire, earth, metal, and water (木, 火, 土, 金, 水; mù, huǒ, tǔ, jīn, shǔi). These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. Five phases is the more appropriate way of translating wǔxíng — literally, "five goings". Traditional Taijiquan schools relate them to footwork and refer to them as five "steps".

The doctrine of five phases describes both a generating (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or restraining (克, kè) 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, traditional Chinese medicine, and military strategy.

Correlations between the five elements and other categories

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	green or blue	jué 角 (mi)
Fire	south	red	zhǐ 徵 (sol)
Earth	center	yellow	gōng 宮 (do)
Metal	west	white	shāng 商 (re)
Water	north	black	yǔ 羽 (la)

(see also pentatonic scale)

(note: The Chinese word 青 includes the range in the spectrum from green to blue, with shades down to black.)

Some other correspondences are shown below:

Element	Heavenly creature	Season	Direction	Planet	Tastes	Sense	Viscera (yin)	Viscera (yang)	Finger
Wood	Qīng-lóng (青龍) the Green Dragon	Spring	east	Jupiter	sour	sight	liver	gall bladder	ring finger
Fire	Zhū-què (朱雀) the Red Phoenix	Summer	south	Mars	bitter	sound	heart	small intestine	middle finger
Earth	Huáng-lóng (黃龍)^* the Yellow Dragon	Change of seasons (four times a year)	center	Saturn	sweet	smell	spleen/pancreas	stomach	index finger
Metal	Bái-hǔ (白虎) the White Tiger	Autumn	west	Venus	spicy	taste	lung	large intestine	thumb
Water	Xuán-wǔ (玄武) the Black Tortoise-Serpent	Winter	north	Mercury	salty	touch	kidney	urinary bladder	little finger

^* Qí-lín (麒麟) was also associated later.

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

Element	I Ching	Trigrams
Wood	Wind, thunder	:	(☴ 巽 xùn) >:: (☳ 震 zhèn)
Fire	Fire	>:
Earth	Earth, mountain	::: (☷ 坤 kūn) :: > (☶ 艮 gèn)
Metal	Sky, lake		(☰ 乾 qián)	: (☱ 兌 duì)
Water	Water	: >: (☵ 坎 kǎn)

References

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

External links

Five Elements in Feng Shui
Five Element Information Five Element interrelationships, concordances and causative factors.
Chinese Zodiac Chart Find your Chinese Zodiac sign based on your date of birth.

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Correlations between the five elements and other categories

See also

References

External links