Water (represents infiltration), fire (represents destruction), metal (represents aggregation), wood (represents growth), and earth (represents fusion). Ancient Chinese philosophers used the Five Elements Theory to explain the formation of all things in the world and their interrelationships. It emphasizes the whole and aims to describe the movement form and transformation relationship of things. Yin and Yang are the ancient theory of the unity of opposites, and the Five Elements are the original system theory.
The Five Elements not only classify all things in the universe, but also define the nature and characteristics of each category. Based on the understanding of the five elements, later generations created the theory of the mutual generation and restriction of the five elements. This theory is mainly based on the law of "the generation and restriction of the five elements".
Mutual generation refers to the relationship between two types of things with different attributes that help and promote each other; specifically: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood.
Mutual restraint is the opposite of mutual growth, which means that the relationship between two types of things with different Five Element attributes is mutual restraint; specifically: wood overcomes earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, fire restrains metal, and metal restrains wood. .
Extended information:
1. Five elements of time:
The stem and branch calendar uses 60 different groups of heavenly stems and earthly branches to mark the year, month, day and time. A calendar that is unique to China. It starts with the beginning of spring, and the eldest is the return year. It uses twenty-four solar terms to divide the twelve months, and there is no leap month. The Ganzhi calendar can reflect climate changes throughout the year.
2. The months of the Ganzhi calendar are divided into five elements:
Yin, Mao and Chen belong to wood, dominate spring and represent the east;
Si, Wu , the last month belongs to fire, dominates summer, and represents the south;
The Shen, You, and Xu months belong to metal, govern autumn, and represents the west;
Hai, Zi, and Chou months belong to water, It dominates winter and represents the north;
Chen, Wei, Xu, and Chou, individually speaking, all belong to the earth, which is the square earth, and dominates the last month of the four seasons.
Baidu Encyclopedia—Five Elements