What is the Five Elements Theory?

The five elements refer to the five substances: metal, wood, water, fire and earth and their movement and changes.

The Five Elements Theory is a simple dialectical materialist philosophical thought summarized by the ancient Han people from their life practice. It is mostly used in philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine and divination.

They believe that everything in the world is composed of the movement (movement) and changes of the five basic substances: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The development and changes of all things in nature are the result of the constant movement and interaction of these five substances with different attributes. With the rise and fall of these five elements, changes occur in nature, which not only affects human destiny, but also It also makes everything in the universe cycle endlessly.

It emphasizes the overall concept and depicts the structural relationship and movement form of things. If Yin and Yang are an ancient theory of the unity of opposites, then the Five Elements can be said to be an ancient general system theory.

The five elements have different manifestations in different things. The five elements of each thing respectively show the order of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

For example Five colors: green, red, yellow, white, and black;

Five tones: horn, heng, palace, shang, and feather;

Five flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty ;

Five internal organs: liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidney;

Five emotions: joy, joy, desire, anger, sadness;

Five constants: benevolence , propriety, faith, righteousness, wisdom, etc.,

The five elements have the order of generation, mutual generation and mutual restraint. The order of generation is wood, fire, earth, metal, water;

mutual generation The order of mutual conflict is: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, water generates wood;

The order of mutual restraint is: water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, metal overcomes wood, wood overcomes earth, and earth overcomes water.

Among the five elements, there is not only smooth overcoming, such as strong overcoming weak, strong overcoming weak. Sometimes there are reverse overcoming, weak overcoming prosperous, and weak overcoming strong. That is, earth is strong and wood is weak. , wood is restrained by water; when wood is strong, metal is weak, and metal is restrained by wood; when water is weak, fire is strong, and water is restrained by fire; when earth is weak, when water is strong, earth is restrained by water; when metal is strong, fire is weak, and fire is restrained by metal. This is called counter-invasion. .

In terms of seasons, spring belongs to wood, summer belongs to fire, autumn belongs to metal, and winter belongs to water. At the beginning of each season, it is the eighteen days before and after the beginning of spring, the beginning of summer, the beginning of autumn, and the beginning of winter. , it belongs to the four seasons of earth.

The directions are divided into southeast, northwest, middle, the east belongs to wood, the south belongs to fire, the west belongs to metal, the north belongs to water, and the center belongs to earth.

Climate classification It is wind, cold, heat, dampness and dryness. Wind belongs to wood, cold belongs to water, summer belongs to fire, wetness belongs to earth, and dryness belongs to metal.

The colors are divided into green, red, yellow, white and black, green belongs to wood, red belongs to fire, and yellow It belongs to earth, white belongs to gold, and black belongs to water. Other colors are just variations of green, red, yellow, white, and black.

The taste is divided into sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty, sour belongs to wood, bitter belongs to fire, and sweet belongs to earth. Pungent belongs to gold, and salty belongs to water.

The human body is divided into five internal organs. The five internal organs are the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, and kidneys. The five internal organs are the small intestine, large intestine, stomach, gallbladder, and bladder.

The heart and small intestine belong to fire, the lungs and large intestine belong to metal, the spleen and stomach belong to earth, the liver and gallbladder belong to wood, the kidneys and bladder belong to water.

Emotions are divided into anger, joy, sadness and fear. Among them, anger belongs to wood, joy belongs to fire, thinking belongs to earth, sadness belongs to metal, and fear belongs to water

The so-called prosperous, phase, rest, prison, and death mean that the person who is commanded is prosperous, and the one I am born with is the phase. Those who give birth to me are rested, those who suppress me are imprisoned, and those who suppress me are dead. For example, if you were born in spring, wood is strong, fire is the sign, water is rest, metal is prison, earth is death, and so on for the rest of the season.

Gold is resting, wood is in the element, water is strong, fire is dead, and earth is trapped, specifically winter.