The Basic Connotation of Five Elements Thought

Five elements is a kind of material view in ancient China, which is mostly used in philosophy, traditional 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. With the rise and fall of these five elements, nature changes, which not only affects people's fate, but also keeps the universe circulating.

According to the theory of five elements, everything in the universe is composed of the movement and change of five basic substances: wood, fire, earth, gold and water. It emphasizes the whole concept and describes the structural relationship and movement form of things. If Yin and Yang are an ancient theory of unity of opposites, the five elements can be said to be a primitive general system theory.

At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, there appeared a simple materialistic viewpoint of "Five Qualities Theory", from "Everything is made by mixing earth and Jin Mu with fire and water" to "All natural five materials are used by the people, and nothing can be abandoned" in Zuo Zhuan, and then to "Shangshu Hongfan".

In the late Warring States period, Zou Yan put forward the idea of five elements competing (to illustrate the trend of dynasty rule), which fixed the order of victory (gram) and life, formed the pattern of mutual connection between things, and spontaneously reflected the internal structural relationship of things and their overall grasp. During this period, Neijing applied the theory of five elements to medicine, forming a unique theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine, which was used to study and sort out a large number of clinical experiences accumulated by the ancients.

Dong Zhongshu in Han Dynasty endowed the five elements with moral meanings, holding that wood is benevolence, fire is ceremony, earth is faith, gold is righteousness and water is wisdom.

The five elements coexist: Jin Kemu, Muketu, Tuke Water, Fire, Water and Fire.

The five elements coexist: Jinshui, aquatic wood, Muhuo, Huotu and Tujin.

Through long-term contact and observation, the ancient working people realized that each line in the five elements had different attributes. "Straight wood is straight" means that wood has the characteristics of growth and rising; "Fire is said to get angry", which means that fire has the characteristics of heating up; "Soil-made crop wall" means that the soil has the characteristics of planting crops and biochemical substances; "Gold says that it changes with leather" is that gold has the characteristic of killing change; The water is wet and downward. Based on this understanding, the ancients classified all kinds of things in the universe into five elements, so conceptually, it is not wood, fire, earth, gold and water themselves, but an abstract expression of a large class of things and phenomena with comparable characteristics.

Category of Five Elements in the History of China s Philosophy;

"Up to now, we have basically analyzed the various meanings of the five elements. For the sake of clarity, we comprehensively list these meanings as follows:

It refers to the five principles of behavior, and it is suspected that Xunzi holds it.

It refers to five physical properties, such as those in Shangshu Hongfan and Zhou Zi Taiji Map.

It refers to the five essential material conditions of life, such as those held by Cai Mo in Zuo Zhuan.

It is the five principles of taxonomy held by Lu Chunqiu.

It refers to five "forms of existence" that exist through the flow of yin and yang, such as White Hutong and Huangdi Neijing.

Refers to wood (plants), fire, earth, gold and running water. Their symbolic meanings are vitality, activity or change, gestation or cultivation, prohibition and concealment. Xiao Ji took this.

The five elements have special meanings in traditional Chinese medicine.

Wood is called "straightness", which represents the functions of growth, promotion, smoothness and comfort, and is the liver in the human body.

The golden saying "following the skin" represents the nature of sedimentation, coldness and convergence, and is the lung in the human body.

Wet water, representing the nature of moistening, lowering, cold and hiding, is the kidney in human body.

"Earth Valley" represents biochemical, bearing, receptive and other attributes, and is the spleen in human body.

Fire is said to get angry, which represents warm and upward nature and is centered on the human body.

In the traditional culture of China, the five elements are closely related to orientation, heavenly stems, colors and animals.

Wuxing mu huo Jin tu shui

Five colors: cyan, red, yellow, white and black.

The five directions are southeast, central and northwest.

Five seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter are in the last month of summer.

At 5 pm, it's already midnight.

Fifth Spring Festival (the first day of the first month) Shangsi (the third day of March) Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of May) Qixi (the seventh day of July) Chongyang (the ninth day of September)

The five-star Jupiter shines (Mars), Zhenxing (Saturn), Taibai (Venus) and Chen Xing (Mercury).

Five songs of laughter, crying and moaning

Imperial edict of the five-tone star palace

Five viscera, liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney

Five viscera, gallbladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine and bladder

Five emotions, joy, anger and sorrow

Five fingers, index finger, middle finger, thumb, ring finger and little finger.

Facial features, eyes, ears, nose and mouth skin

Five senses of color (vision), sound (hearing), fragrance (smell), taste (taste) and touch (touch)

Five tears, sweat, salivation.

Sour, bitter, sweet and salty.

Five smelly, burnt, fishy and rotten.

Where the five flavors run, muscles, bones, flesh and blood.

Five things to see, think, say and listen to.

Five Animals Qinglong Suzaku Huang Lin White Lake Xuanwu

Five kinds of animals, dogs, sheep, cows, chickens and pigs.

The naked trichomes of scales and feathers of five insects.

Five kinds of fruits, plum, apricot, jujube, peach and chestnut.

Gu Wu mamadao potato

Five-dish leek, leek, sunflower, onion, epimedium

Benevolence, courtesy, faithfulness, righteousness and wisdom.

Five policies are broad, clear, respectful and quiet.

Five pathogenic winds, heat, dampness, cold and dryness

Five-chemical growth accumulation

Wu Si Hu Zao Liu Men Jing

Tianganjia Bing Yi Wuding Jigeng Renxingui

Di Yin Zhi Mao Wu Sichen Xu Wei Ugly Shen Youhaizi

Month (lunar calendar) 65438+ 10 ~ March April ~ June 3, June, September, July ~ September 65438+ 10 ~ 65438+February.