I would like to ask whether the five elements of Chinese characters are divided according to strokes, or according to radicals and meanings?

There are many methods for classifying the five elements of Chinese characters, including the "phonological five-element method" which is divided based on pronunciation, the "five-element method" which is based on structure division, and the "five-element method" which is based on the meaning of Chinese characters. , the "mathematical five-element method" divided according to the number of strokes, etc., are briefly introduced below.

1. The five-element method of fonts

The so-called shape refers to the shape of the font, which refers to the shape of the character. Composition. Many Chinese characters include wood, fire, earth, metal, and water in their glyphs, which can be seen directly. For example:

Wood: Ben, Pu, Shu, Ji, Qiao, Rong, Lin, Barrels, etc.

Fire: brilliant, brilliant, flaming, torch, beacon, brilliant, etc.

Earth: earth, firm, kun, tan, pei, increase, etc.

Gold: Jian, steel, button, copper, tin, etc.

Water: spring, ice, sink, river, Ze, Pai, Tao, etc.

This is The oldest, most reliable and most widely accepted method of dividing Chinese characters into five elements is based on the hieroglyphic characteristics of Chinese characters. However, the biggest disadvantage is that many glyphs do not include the five radicals of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. It is difficult to clearly classify the five elements attributes of the first Chinese character.

2. The Five Elements Method of Character Meaning

The so-called character meaning is the meaning of the character. Many Chinese characters can determine the five elements from the character meaning. Chinese characters are expressions From the perspective of the way Chinese characters are created, whether they are pictograms, indicators, meanings, or phonetic sounds, their glyphs are closely related to their meanings, especially the radicals of Chinese characters, which are actually symbols for meaning. Therefore, through The radicals of Chinese characters can be used to easily and accurately find out the five elements of their meaning. For example:

Yi, Fang, Han, etc. can be classified into the wood category.

Light, brilliance, brilliance etc. are classified into the fire category.

Mountains, rocks, peaks, etc. are classified into the earth category.

Liu, Lie, Li, etc. are classified into the gold category.

Fresh, Lei, Wen, Fei, etc. are classified into the water category.

Through the five-element classification of Chinese character radicals, the five-element meanings of most Chinese characters can be accurately classified. However, due to the complexity of Chinese characters, few Although numbers have radicals that represent certain five elements, the meanings of characters have undergone great changes, such as "borrowing, transferring and annotating", etc., and the five elements must be divided according to the new meanings; and for some single-character characters without radicals and with some characters Characters with the same radicals but larger meaning changes must be classified according to circumstances.

In the theory of Five Elements, it is generally believed that: those who are charitable and generative are the five elements of wood; those who are civilized, etiquette and feverish Those who shine are five elements of fire; those who are solid and tolerant are five elements of earth; those who are wise and fluid are five elements of water; those who are generous and hard are five elements of gold. According to the Five Elements Law of Chinese Characters, the attributes of Chinese characters are divided into five elements. Pay attention to the following points:

1. All characters or radicals involved in the Five Elements Theory are in principle divided into five elements according to the Five Elements Theory.

For example, benevolence is wood, blood is fire, Dragon represents earth, Chen represents earth, north represents water, black represents water, rat represents water, etc.

2. Any word with multiple meanings should be divided into five elements according to the chosen meaning when naming it

< p>Rujin, if the meaning of the word refers to a tool for cutting things, the five elements of the meaning should be classified as gold; if it is a unit of measurement, the five elements of the meaning should be classified as water.

3. Ancient meaning and modern meaning of Fan If the meanings are quite different, the five elements should be divided according to the modern meaning.

Rushuai, the ancient meaning is to wear a scarf, the five elements should be wood, now it is used as a general's commander, the five elements should be water.

< p>4. When there is a conflict between the shape of a character and the meaning of the five elements, the five elements will be divided according to the meaning of the character.

Ruxin, the radical starts from "jin", and also has the radical "木", the ancient meaning means to cut down , so the five elements should be gold. However, the meaning of the word "new" mainly refers to new things, which correspond to the old, so the five elements should be classified as the weak five elements of wood.

5. Where there are pairs of The five elements of characters with radicals of five elements are divided into five elements based on the main meaning of the word and the main meaning when naming.

As I heard, generally the radical "men" represents a certain range, and the five elements should be "earth", and The five elements of "ear" govern water. Since the meaning of the word "wen" is mainly to hear, the five elements of the word "wen" should be divided into water. Another example is "mu", which has the parts "氵" and "木", because the meaning of the word "mu" is mainly related to washing. Therefore, the five elements of the meaning of Mu should be divided into water.

The five elements of the meaning are actually an extension of the five elements of the shape. It is also the five-element division method that best reflects the level of the namer. Because there are a large number of Chinese characters, the structure is complex, and often one word has multiple meanings, it is necessary to

Correctly classifying the five-element attributes according to the meaning of a word requires the judge to have profound knowledge of traditional Chinese culture, especially philology.

3. Five-element method of phonology

In the phonology of names, the most complicated one is The definition of the Five Elements. The Five Elements theory defines sound as the element of the Five Elements, which plays a role in the naming of diseases and medicines. We know that the oldest culture in China divides all things in the world into "metal, wood, water, fire, and earth" The five elements, and because of the division of yin and yang, are collectively called the "Yin Yang Five Elements". The Five Elements theory and the "Yin Yang Bagua" theory refer to and complement each other, and together form the most basic structure of ancient Chinese "metaphysics". The ancients called the five tones classification standard, It refers to the five tones of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu. In phonology, it refers to the guttural, lingual, dental, dental, and labial sounds. Regarding the correspondence between the five tones and the five elements, there are many contradictions in ancient books, and people today are still confused. The biggest possibility is due to the differences in ancient and modern pronunciation and the differences in today's dialects. Due to the variability of pronunciation, there will be many difficulties in fixing the five elements of pronunciation. In fact, the five elements of pronunciation still have to be divided into five categories: throat, tongue, teeth, teeth, and lips. Organ pronunciation, so we don’t need to subdivide the five tones (Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu. There are also many definitions in ancient books, which are very contradictory in different eras and it is difficult to figure out now). We only need to understand the throat, tongue, teeth, The definition of the five elements of teeth and lips is enough. In other words, as long as we clarify the definition of the five elements of the vocal organs, we can omit the trouble of determining the nature of the five elements by the five tones, and directly divide the five elements of speech. According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, the soil master Muscles, fire governs blood vessels, wood governs tendons and qi, metal governs bones and teeth, and water governs fluids. Therefore, relative to the five internal organs, earth governs the spleen and stomach, fire governs the heart, wood governs the liver, metal governs the lungs, and water governs the kidneys. For the mouth, , is a little more complicated. First of all, it should be clear that lips are muscle tissue, so lips must belong to the five elements of earth; in addition, it should also be clear that teeth belong to the five elements of gold. However, the ancients talked about "teeth" and "teeth" separately, and "teeth" Specifically refers to the incisors (front teeth) and canines, and "teeth" specifically refers to the bicuspids and molars. Therefore, the ancients made a distinction between "dental" and "dental" in pronunciation. However, the dental pronunciation mentioned by the ancients was not The sound made by the molars means that relatively speaking, there is more airflow passing through the molars. If more airflow is allowed to pass through the molars, the mouth must open the cheeks and move out part of the space. This depends on the strength of the "tendons". Therefore, "Yayin" belongs to the wood of the five elements; "Nei Jing" says: "The heart governs the tongue", and "Lingshu. Pulse Degree" says: "The heart energy flows through the tongue, and when the heart is harmonious, the five flavors can be known." Because the heart governs fire , therefore, the tongue belongs to the fire of the five elements. The throat is at the lower and rear part of the mouth. It likes water and is most afraid of dryness, so the throat belongs to the water of the five elements. See the table below for details:

The labial sound belongs to the soil pinyin of the five elements: b , p , m , f , w

The tongue sound belongs to the Five Elements Fire Pinyin: d , t , n , l

The dental sound belongs to the Five Elements Wood Pinyin: j , q , x , y

The dental sound belongs to the Five Elements Gold Pinyin: z , c , s , zh , ch , sh , r

The guttural sound belongs to the Five Elements Water Pinyin: g , k , h

The five tones belong to the five elements, which are also evidenced by classics in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (Qigong). "The Orthodox Dao Zangdong Shenbu" says: "The word "呬" governs the lungs, and the lungs are connected to the five internal organs. If the wind blows, the nose will be blocked. , if the disease is caused by vomiting, it can be treated. The word "he" refers to the heart, and the heart is connected to the tongue. If the heart is hot and the tongue is dry, if the disease is caused by vomiting, it can be treated. The word "hu" means "hu" governs the spleen, and the spleen is connected to the lips. If the spleen is hot, the lips will be burnt. If there is an illness, it can be cured by breathing and spitting. In the word "Boo", "sh" governs the liver, and the liver is connected to the eyes. If the liver fire is excessive, the eyes will be red. If there is an illness, "shush" and "vomit" can be treated. In the word "hee", "hee" governs the triple burner. If there is an illness, "xi" can be treated by "breathing and breathing". "The above is the "Six-Character Jue" in Qigong, which is a way of self-cultivation and health that strengthens the body and cures diseases through exhalation and sound production. Although the method is not so simple, its distinctive feature is that it uses the pronunciation of the characters.

However, we should not be too superstitious about the five elements information of the pronunciation. Compared with the meaning and shape of the word, the most important thing about the pronunciation is the homophonic content. ***The meaning of the five elements is secondary to the meaning and shape of the word.

IV. , Mathematics and Five Elements Method

The so-called Mathematics refers to the number of strokes of a word. Those whose endings are 1 or 2 have the attribute of wood; those whose endings of each number are 3 or 4 have the attribute of fire; the attributes of each number are Those whose endings are 5 or 6 have the attribute of earth; those whose endings of each number are 7 or 8 have the attribute of gold; those whose endings of each number are 9 or 0 have the attribute of water. There are two things to pay attention to when using the five elements method of mathematics:

(1) The number of strokes of Chinese characters must be calculated in traditional Chinese characters.

(2) Some

Special radicals are calculated according to the prescribed strokes.

(1) "氵" with four dots of water counts as four strokes, such as: Qing, Jie, etc.; (2) "扌" counts as four strokes on the hand, such as picking, Dial, etc.; (3) "Moon" counts as six strokes next to the flesh, such as Fu, Fat, Pulse, etc.; (4) "艹" counts as six strokes, such as Ying, Ping, Rong, etc.; (5) "辶" counts as seven strokes . Such as Da, Mai, Xun, Guo, etc.; (6) "阝" on the left counts as eight pictures, Yang, Yin, Chen, Lu, etc.; (7) "卩" on the right counts as seven pictures, such as Ji, Deng, Kuang, etc.; (8) "王" counts as five paintings, such as Wan, Amber, Rose, Rose, etc.; (9) 礻 (SH), counts as five paintings with the word "SHOW"; (10) 衤 (衣), counts as six with the word "clothes" (11) "犭" counts as four paintings, such as Di, Meng, Du, etc.; (12) 忄 (心), standing next to the heart, is counted as four paintings with the word "心"; (13) There are "one, two" in the name The characters ", three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten" should be drawn as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 respectively.

The Five Elements Method of Mathematics is rooted in the "Five Elements Method" introduced from Japan in the 19th century (also known as "Saki Ken's Nameology"). This is the most criticized method of dividing the Five Elements. According to this method, the Five Elements of Chinese characters are divided There are often big jokes like the character "wood" belongs to fire (4 pictures), the character "water" belongs to fire (4 pictures), and the character "earth" also belongs to fire (3 pictures).

Chinese characters The division of word meanings into the five elements is very important for naming. According to the traditional nomenclature, if the five elements are unbalanced in the innate numerology, the five elements should be used to make up for it when naming. The most reasonable, reliable and effective way to make up for the five elements is to make up for it according to the five elements. Font form and meaning make up.