What historical artifacts in China are about the five elements

The five elements are an ancient Chinese view of matter. It is mostly used in philosophy, Chinese medicine and divination. The five elements refer to: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. It is believed that nature is composed of five elements, and with the prosperity and decline of these five elements, nature changes, not only affecting the fate of people, but also making the cycle of everything in the universe. The doctrine of the Five Elements is that everything in the universe is composed of the operation (movement) and change of the five basic substances: wood, fire, earth, gold, and water. It emphasizes the concept of wholeness and depicts the structural relationships and forms of movement of things. If yin and yang is an ancient doctrine of the unity of opposites, the five elements can be said to be a primitive and ordinary system theory.

The five elements: one is water, two is fire, three is wood, four is gold, five is earth ......". Ten, white tiger figure

This figure is engraved on the side of the first stone in this chapter, 25 centimeters high, 90 centimeters wide. The picture is complete and undamaged.

The White Tiger is one of the four elephants in traditional Chinese culture, and is called the "Supervisor of Soldiers". According to the Five Elements doctrine, it is a spirit animal representing the West, and the White Tiger is both the name and the race, and the Green Dragon's bearing is east, right, representing spring; the White Tiger's bearing is west, left, representing fall; the Vermilion Bird's bearing is south, back, representing summer; Xuanwu's orientation is north, front, representing winter.

The White Tiger was seen as the guardian of the West by the Han Dynasty. On the balance of the cloud: "House in the main god twelve Yan, green dragon white tiger listed twelve, dragon and tiger fierce god, the sky of the positive ghosts."

The White Tiger is also included in the list of door gods, specializing in guarding the door of the Taoist temple. Yueyang Fengduji Song Fan Zhineng Yun: "Laozi shrine has two gods statue, said the green dragon, white tiger also." "Changshu private record - Shu Temple Temple Chapter" Ming Yao Zongyi cloud: "to the Taoist temple gate two gods, the left is the green dragon Meng Zhang Shenjun, the right is the White Tiger Supervisor of the army Shenjun."

The carving of the white tiger on the present stone probably meant to let the white tiger guard the door of the tomb, to drive away evil and avoid bad luck, in order to rest in peace. The owner is obviously a devout disciple of Taoism.

This stone was unearthed in Xuzhou and is now in the collection of Xuzhou Jilanzhai.