| Five Elements (chinese Philosophy) |
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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 another 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: (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:
The elements have also been correlated to the eight Trigrams of the I Ching : SEE ALSO
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