Chinese Five Elements Theory：

Further

S J Xu
Department of Physics
The University of Hong Kong
sjxu@hku.hk
 Fundamental Ideas of Ancient
Chinese Science: FET
The Five Elements Theory (may be denoted as FET) represents the fundamental ideas of
ancient Chinese science.

It is clear that the conceptions of the elements in FET model was not so much of five sorts
of fundamental matters as of five sorts of fundamental process. Chinese thought
concentrating on relation rather than substance.
The “elements” were in fact, five powerful forces (interactions) in ever-flowing cyclical
motion, not passive motionless fundamental substances.

Two aspects of FET merit special attention: The Enumeration Orders & the Symbolic
Correlations.
The four most important Enumeration Orders:
1) The Cosmogonic order:
2) The Mutual Production Order: W, F, E, M,
3) The Mutual Conquest Order: W, M, F, , E
4) The Modern Order: M, W, , F, E
Note: W: Wood; F: Fire; E: Earth; M: Metal; : Water. 2
 Two Secondary Principles
There are two interesting secondary principles involved in the Enumeration Orders, principles
that concern Rate of Change; these are the principles of Control and Masking.
The Principle of Control was derived solely from the Mutual Conquest Order. For example,
Metal conquers Wood but Fire controls the process.; Fire conquers Metal but Water controls
the process, and so on.

The second principle, the Principle of Masking, depends on both the Mutual Production and
Conquest Orders. For instance, Wood destroys (conquers) Earth, but Fire masks the process,
since Fire will destroy Wood, and make earth (ash) at a greater rate than Wood can destroy
Earth. Again, as with the Principle of Control, there are modern ecological and biological
examples of this, as when the action of large carnivores in devouring lemmings in Norway is
masked by other factors that enormously increases lemming population.

Symbolic Correlations.

We have listed and summarized in Lecture 4.

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 China
瓷

The Terracotta Army (c. 210 BCE)

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 Chinese Porcelain and Five Elements
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating
materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to
temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C.
Porcelain was first developed in China around 2,000
years ago, then slowly spread to other East Asian
countries, and finally Europe and the rest of the world.
So, porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china
in some English-speaking countries.

To make porcelain, the raw materials—such as clay, felspar, and silica—are first
crushed using jaw crushers, hammer mills, and ball mills. After cleaning to
remove improperly sized materials, the mixture is subjected to one of four
forming processes—soft plastic forming, stiff plastic forming, pressing, or
casting—depending on the type of ware being produced. The ware then
undergoes a preliminary firing step, bisque-firing.
Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-
To make porcelain, the raw materials—from earth are first crushed using jaw 1/Porcelain.html#ixzz4ZOcqtSus
crushers, hammer mills, and ball mills. After cleaning with Water, the mixture is
subjected to one of four forming processes. Glazing: the glaze slurry contains
metals such as alumina and cobalt. The ware then undergoes a firing step (Fire 5
and Wood).
Porcelain could be one of the most greatest
innovations in human history. Porcelains are now in
widespread use in this world. Their fabrication are
based on all Five Elements — water, fire, wood,
metal, and earth — are believed to be the
fundamental elements of everything in the universe
between which interactions occur. The five elements
are not isolated, but they form a primary systematic
theory.

5 Elements Theory – TCM Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKuulr7csSs

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The Five Element Relationships in Chinese Medicine
Like Yin Yang-Qi (气）theory, the Five Elements theory is one of the very early, and still one of the very core, concepts
of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The five elements are basically a man-made system designed to help us understand natural processes and relationships.
It can be applied to sciences outside the body like astrology, climatology, biology, ecology, music, and government and
military strategy.

In Chinese medicine (TCM), it is a valuable tool for helping to understand normal physiology. For example, it can be
used to explain the process of aging, how the various tissues and organs support each other, and the chains of
command and control within the body in order to maintain balance.

The theory also allows us to understand disease processes – pathology. Why do things go wrong? What likely
complications can be expected from a particular issue? How do we put things back into their normal place, and in what
order of priority, so that health can be restored?

The elements themselves are more concepts rather than physical entities, though they do include the physical entity. Often the term
“Xing” (行）is translated as phases, agents, processes, periods, virtues, or stages, to stress that they are not only physical. These
various translations also seek to separate the theory from the ancient Greek “four elements” which were absolutely physical.

The five elements are:

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water

Each element has a series of correspondences that guide the practitioner in understanding which relationships are at
play. The main ones relevant to the human body are:

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The Five Element Relationships in Chinese Medicine
Wood Fire Earth Metal Water
Season Spring Summer None Autumn Winter

Direction East South Centre West North

Climate Wind Heat Dampness Dryness Cold

Colour Green Red Yellow White Black

Flavour Pungent Salty Sweet Sour Bitter

Movement Outwards Upwards Centre Inwards Downwards

Yin organs Liver Heart Spleen Lungs Kidneys

Yang organs Gall Bladder Small Intestine Stomach Large Intestine Urinary Bladder

Tissue Tendons Vessels Muscles Skin Bones

Sense Sight Touch Taste Smell Hearing
Emotion Anger Joy Pensiveness Sadness Fear

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 The Five Element Relationships in Chinese Medicine

The most influential text, the theoretical “Bible”, of Chinese medicine, the Huang Di
Nei Jing (黄帝内经，the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), completed in
the Han dynasty, shows five phase theory in established use in medicine.

The Interrelationships of the Five Phases：

Balance

The first two cycles describe the normal order, how

things should be. Within the body, this is normal
healthy physiology.
The Generation Cycle (Sheng)

In this sequence there is the mutual generation, or

birth, of the phases.

Wood generates (nurtures, produces, gives birth to, is

mother of) fire, fire generates earth, earth generates
metal, metal generates water, and water generates
wood.
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 The Five Element Relationships in Chinese Medicine
The Control Cycle (Ke)

In this sequence there is mutual control amongst the elements. This maintains balance, preventing any one element from becoming too
dominant.

Fire controls metal, metal controls wood, wood controls earth, earth controls water, water controls fire.

Or it can be imagined as, fire melts metal; metal, for example in the form of an axe, cuts wood; wood in the form of tree roots, breaks up
earth; earth in the form of an embankment or dam, controls water; water puts out fire.

Imbalance
The next three cycles explain what happens when the balance is broken. When things go wrong, there is a quantitative change in at least
one of the elements relative to the others. That is, one becomes either excessive or deficient. In medicine, this is pathology.

The (pathological) Generation Cycle

When out of balance, the generation cycle is pathological. There are two possibilities:

1) The mother element makes the child element sick.

Either the mother is too excessive against the child, or the mother is too weak to nourish the child adequately.

For example, fire may be so excessive that it damages earth, or it may be too weak to create earth.

2) The child element makes the mother sick.

The child element takes too much from the mother element. For example, the fire element is excessive and consumes too much wood, or
wood is excessive and consumes too much water, etc.
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 How are the 5 phases used in Chinese medicine?
Combined with the other core theories of Chinese medicine, particularly Yin Yang and the Qi
theories, in the clinic, the doctrine of the five phases plays an important role in not only
physiology and pathology, but also diagnosis and treatment.

Below are some simple examples of how the theory might be used in diagnosis. In the
examples, refer to the table above.

1) Generation cycle – mother makes the child sick

E.g. A productive cough with thick yellow phlegm.

This would be an example of Earth invading Metal. Earth is excessive and damages metal
along the generation cycle.

Earth, because the phlegm is considered a form of dampness within the body, and dampness
belongs to earth. Also the colour of earth is yellow. Metal, because the lungs (the organ
involved with coughing) belong to metal.

2) Generation cycle – child makes the mother sick

E.g. Frost bite. 11

This is water invading metal. Water, because cold belongs to water; and metal, because the skin belongs
to metal. Frost bite is cold damaging the skin.

3) Over-controlling cycle

E.g. A red painful sore on the skin.

This is an example of fire invading metal. Fire, because the colour red and the sense of touch, that is,
pain, belong to the fire element. The sore is present on the skin which is the tissue of Metal. Sun burn
also fits this diagnosis.

Fire should naturally control metal on the controlling cycle, but this is over-control to the detriment of
metal.

If the red painful sore was in the intestines, as in an intestinal abscess, it would still be an example of
fire invading metal because instead of being in the skin which is metal, it is in the large intestine which is
also metal. The same would apply for a lung abscess.

4) Insulting cycle

E.g. A bladder infection.

This is fire invading water, which goes against the natural flow of water controlling fire.

Fire, because of the heat and pain that the infection produces (and also sometimes a reddish colour to
the urine). Water, because the bladder is an organ of the water element.
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 Treatment in Chinese Medicine using the 5 Elements
Rebalance
In treatment, the doctrine of five phases uses a fairly complex set of rules (which
are beyond the scope of this course), but basically, Chinese herbs and/or
acupuncture points are selected to put the problematic excessive elements back in
their place, and to support the weak elements so they are less vulnerable to
opportunistic attack by the other elements.

For example, the Huang Di Neijing describes correspondence between the

articulations of the body and the cosmos, specifically between heaven and earth
and the upper and lower parts of the body:

Heaven is round, earth is square; people’s heads are round, their feet are square and thereby
correspond to them. Heaven has the sun and moon, people have two eyes; Earth has nine regions, people
have nine orifices. Heaven has wind and rain, people have joy and anger; Heaven has thunder and
lightning, people have the notes and sounds. Heaven has four seasons, people have four limbs. Heaven
has five tones, people have the five depots; Heaven has six pitches, people have six palaces. Heaven has
winter and summer, people have cold and hot [ailments]. Heaven has ten days, people have the hands’ ten
fingers … Heaven has yin and yang; people have man and wife. The year has 365 days; the body has 360
joints (Huang Di neijing ling shu 71.2, 446, cf. Wong Ming 1987, 336–338 (French). There is no good
English translation of this text.).

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The Five Elements and Planets

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The Structure of Solar System

Inner planets Outer planets

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The Structure of Solar System

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The Five Elements and Planets

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 Parade of the five planets
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the
five brightest planets in the Solar System. These
five planets revolve around the Sun with
different periods. They all appear to move
closely along the ecliptic as seen from the Earth.

When the five planets move to the same side of

the Sun (Left Figure), they can be observed at
the same time from the Earth. This phenomenon
is known as the "Parade of the five planets".

The "Parade of the five planets" recurs from late

March to early April of 2004. When this event
occurs, all the five planets can be observed in
Hong Kong after sunset from around 6:30 p.m.
to 8:00 p.m.

https://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/event/event-
parade_e.htm 18
 Parade of the five planets

The positions of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter

and Saturn in the night sky in Hong Kong in
January-March 2004.

https://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/event/event-
parade_e.htm 19
The Moon and planets

The brightest and largest object in our night sky,

the Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by
moderating our home planet's wobble on its
axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also
causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided
humans for thousands of years.

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 The Moon and planets
The full moon, also called the Strawberry
Moon, occurred in the morning of June 17,
2019 at 4:31 a.m. EDT (0831 GMT), just a day
after making a close pass by Jupiter and a day
before making another pass by Saturn.
On October 5, 2019, the moon was at or near its
first quarter phase, coupling up with the planet
Saturn on the sky’s dome. What’s more, the lit
side of the moon will be pointing at the blazing
planet Jupiter beneath the moon and Saturn.
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 Summary
Although it is not as precise as modern science, the Chinese
Five-Elements theory is an old and primary systematic
theory describing our matter world. Today, it is still widely
applied by Chinese in different fields such as Chinese
medicine.

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Five Elements Wood Fire Earth Metal Water
Seasons Spring Summer Late Summer Autumn Winter
Environment Wind Heat Damp Dry Cold
Zang Liver Heart Spleen Lung Kidney
Small Large
Fu Gallbladder Stomach Bladder
Intestine Intestine
Directions East South Middle West North
Tastes Sour Bitter Sweet Pungent Salty
Sense Organs Eye Tongue Mouth Nose Ear
Tissues Tendon Vessel Muscle Skin and Hair Bone
Emotions Anger Joy Worry * Grief Fear
The Five Elements & Japanese Reiki

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Final Remarks

“You have to be CONFUSED

before you can reach a new
level of UNDERSTANDING
anything.”

Dudley R. Herschbach,
Nobel-Prize Winner in
Chemistry, Harvard Univ.

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