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The Five Elements 五行
The Five Elements (五行 pronounced Wu Xing) is a very important concept in Chinese Metaphysics such as Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology (Bazi). As a matter of fact, it is also widely practiced in Chinese medicines, philosophy, martial arts, and even psychology.
What are the Five Elements? They are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. Wu Xing (五行), the Chinese word Xing is action related, so the word "element" is misleading. However, we have adopted this expression as it has been in use by the ancients for many many decades.
These five elements represents five types of prevailing qi (energy) and they are interactive. The interaction between these five elements can be productive, controlling, or weakening.
The five planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be associated with water, metal, fire, wood, and earth as well. Furthermore, one can derive personality, character, shape, color, taste, compass direction, season, animal, the flying stars, body parts, family members, and so on from these Five Elements.
I shall outline a few of these characteristics in my next post. Stay tuned…
