Five elements

cycle of the five elements in Chinese astrology

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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)

Related pages

Feng shui

References

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