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 In
traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the
Five Elements (五行, wuxíng): wood, fire, earth, metal, and water (木, 火, 土,
金, 水). These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships
between phenomena. (Five phases is another way of translating wuxíng —
literally, "five goings").
The doctrine
of five phases describes both a generating (生, sheng) cycle and an
overcoming (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 Five Elements can be related to other
characteristics.
The Five Elements can also be related to the I Ching.
For a more detailed discussion of the Five Elements (Wu Xing) from the Feng
Shui Research Center, click here
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Five
Elements Feng Shui