Five elements

The five elements (Chinese: 五行 Wu Xing) is an idea in Taoism. Unlike the greek four elements, they have a cycle connecting them all. There is a generative cycle and a destructive cycle. The destructive cycle is seen as giving bad luck and the generative cycle is seen as giving good luck.

The cycle of the elements

The generative cycle is:

  • Wood feeds Fire (by burning)
  • Fire makes Earth (lava, ash, molten lava, etc)
  • Earth makes Metal (mining for metal)
  • Metal carries Water (buckets, water vapour condenses onto metal)
  • Water feeds Wood (trees)


The destructive cycle is:

  • Wood grasps Earth (sticks falling on the ground, roots of trees preventing soil erosion)
  • Earth contains water (sea, ocean, riverbank, etc)
  • Water stops Fire
  • Fire melts Metal
  • Metal chops Wood (metal axes)

References
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.