Five elements, also known as the theory of five elements, is the basic way to understand the world. The meaning of the five elements includes five basic trends in the evolution of Yin and Yang: gold (for convergence), wood (for growth), water (for infiltration), fire (for disillusionment) and earth (for integration). Ancient philosophers in China used the theory of five elements to explain the formation of all things in the world and their relationships.
The concept of five elements began in Shangshu, which simply refers to five common natural substances: water, fire, wood, gold and earth. After the development and evolution from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, on the basis of mutual development and mutual restriction, the elements of Yin and Yang, four seasons, five parties and five virtues were added to form a complete five-element system model. It emphasizes the whole and aims to describe the movement form and transformation relationship of things. Yin and Yang are ancient theories of unity of opposites.
Five elements are primitive system theory. Mutual development refers to the relationship between two things with different attributes that help and promote each other; Specifically: wood fire, fire produces soil, native gold, gold produces water, aquatic wood. Mutual restraint, on the contrary, means that the relationship between two things with different attributes of the five elements is restrained; Specifically: Mu, Tuke water, water, Huo, Jin Kemu.