Wu Xing

The Wu Xing, (五行 wŭ xíng) 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. Within Chinese medicine texts the Wu Xing are also referred to as Wu Yun (五運 wŭ yùn) or a combination of the two characters (Wu Xing-Yun) these emphasise the corresondence of five elements to five 'seasons' (four seasons plus one). Another tradition refers to the wu xing as wu de 五德, the Five Virtues (五德終始說). 
It has customarily been translated as Five Elements probably because of the similarity of this doctrine to the Western system of four elements. Text from the Mawangdui Silk Texts suggest that it was originally like the Western system representing elemental substances. 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".千古中医之张仲景. Wood and Metal were often replaced with air, Lecture Room, CCTV-10
The five elements are:
Element	Chinese	pinyin
Wood 	木 	mù
Fire 	火 	huǒ
Earth 	土 	tǔ
Metal 	金 	jīn
Water 	水 	shuǐ
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.
==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-nephew", of interactions between the phases.
===Generating===
The five elements 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 swellness, which overbrews with fire and energy;
*Metal/Autumn: a period of fruition, which produces formation and bears fruit;
*Water/Winter: a period of retreat, where stillness pervades;
*Earth: the in-between transitional seasonal periods
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 carries Water (as in a bucket or tap, or water condenses on metal);
*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);
*Metal chops Wood;
*Fire melts Metal;
*Water quenches Fire;
*Earth dams (or muddies or absorbs) Water;
This cycle might also be called "controls", "restrains" or "fathers".
==Cosmology and feng shui==
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.Chinese Five Elements Chart Information on the Chinese Five Elements from Northern Shaolin Academy in Microsoft Excel 2003 Format
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".
Element 	Wood 	Fire 	Earth 	Metal 	Water
Material 	Wind, Moisture, Air, Minerals, Mana, Ink, Mind, Rubber, Paper, Plants, Poison, Wax, Dissolve, Carbon, Clouds, Health, Space	Heat, Light, Lava, Radiation, Sparks, Plasma, Explosions, Burn, Blaze, Oil, Ash, Smoke, Glass, Napalm, Sun, Matter	Clay, Rock, Dust, Sand, Mud, Crystal, Powder, Shadow, Space, Darkness, Gravity, Bone, Quake, Silicon	Lightning, Magnetism, Electric, Rust, Gold, Silver, Steel, Iron, Platinum, Titanium, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Blood, Forge, Stars, Diamond, Energy	Sea, Ice, Storms, Rain, Steam, Fluid, Sound, Mist, Acid, Slime, Salt, Time, Pressure, Moon, Mirror, Snow, Frost, Sugar
Color 	Green 	Red 	Yellow 	White 	Black
Shape 	Rectangle 	Triangle 	Square 	Circle 	Curve
Cardinal direction 	East 	South 	Center 	West 	North
Planet 	Jupiter 	Mars 	Saturn 	Venus 	Mercury
Heavenly creature 	Azure Dragon青龍 	Vermilion Bird朱雀 	Yellow Dragon 黃龍 or Qilin 麒麟 	White Tiger白虎 	Black Tortoise玄武
Heavenly Stems 	甲, 乙 	丙, 丁 	戊, 己 	庚, 辛 	壬, 癸
Phase 	New Yang 	Full Yang 	Yin/Yang balance 	New Yin 	Full Yin
Direction and Natural phenomena	Expansive and exterior (in all directions) 	Ascending 	Stabilizing (representing harmony) 	Contracting and interior 	Descending
Season 	Spring 	Summer 	Change of seasons(Every third month) 	Autumn 	Winter
Climate 	Windy 	Hot 	Damp 	Dry 	Cold
Development 	Sprouting 	Blooming 	Ripening 	Withering 	Dormant
===Ba gua===
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 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Trigram hanzi 	乾 	坤 	震 	巽 	坎 	離 	艮 	兌
Trigram pinyin	qián 	kūn 	zhèn 	xùn 	kǎn 	lí 	gèn 	duì
==Chinese medicine==
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.See 5 Xing in Citation Order.
The sequence of the five elements (Traditional Chinese medicine)：promotion, inhibition, Cheng (bullying), Wu (insult). promotion
inhibition
Cheng
wu
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
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 	sour 	bitter 	sweet 	pungent 	salty
Smell 	rancid 	scorched 	fragrant 	rotten 	putrid
Life 	birth 	youth 	adulthood 	old age 	death
Animal 	scaly 	feathered 	human 	furred 	shelled
==Celestial stem==
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	4, 5 	6, 7 	8, 9 	0, 1 	2, 3
==Music==
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
Color 	green or blue	red 	yellow	white	black
Direction 	east 	south	center	west 	north
Basic Pentatonic Scale pitch 	角 	徵 	宮 	商 	羽
Basic Pentatonic Scale pitch pinyin	jué 	zhǐ 	gōng 	shāng	yǔ
Solfege 	mi 	so 	do 	re 	la
*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 seven note or five note scales (e.g., the major scale) are defined by selecting seven or five 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).
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.
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.
==Tea ceremony==
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:
*earth, center incense, yellow, 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, north
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.
== 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
==References==
Category:Chinese philosophy
Category:Taoism
5 Elements