The Five Elements 五行

Five phases of change

The Five Elements, also called the Five Phases, are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. They are less five substances than five stages of change, like the seasons of a year. Every main channel and its organ belongs to one of them, and the app shows it in each card's colours and emblem.

The generating cycle

Each element feeds the next, like a mother feeding her child: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth (ash), Earth yields Metal, cool Metal gathers Water (as dew forms on it), and Water nourishes Wood.

In traditional practice, a weak element can be supported through its mother, and an overfull one drained through its child.

The controlling cycle

Each element also keeps another in check, skipping one step around the circle: Wood controls Earth, Earth controls Water, Water controls Fire, Fire controls Metal, and Metal controls Wood.

Control keeps the system in balance. When it goes too far, an element overwhelms the one it controls (overacting); when it runs backwards, the controlled element pushes back against its controller (insulting).

What belongs to each

The table below lists the classic links for each element: its organs, season, colour, taste, emotion, sense organ and tissue.