Hinduism: Details about 'Five Elements Chinese Philosophy'
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In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Five Elements (Chinese: 五行; Hanyu Pinyin: wǔxíng):wood,fire,earth,metal, andwater(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
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.
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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
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 | hot | 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 | |:| (☲ 離 lí) |
| Earth | Earth, mountain | ::: (☷ 坤 kūn) ::| (☶ 艮 gèn) |
| Metal | Sky, lake | ||| (☰ 乾 qián) ||: (☱ 兌 duì) |
| Water | Water | :|: (☵ 坎 kǎn) |
חמשת האלמנטים 五行思想 Ngũ hành 五行
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