What are the five elements?

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 (convergence), wood (growth), water (infiltration), fire (disillusionment) and earth (integration). Ancient philosophers in China used the theory of five elements to explain the formation of all things in the world and their relationships. 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, and the five elements are primitive system theories.

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, a complete five-element system model was formed on the basis of mutual development and mutual restriction, attached to the elements of yin and yang, four seasons, five parties and five virtues.

Application of theory

The theory of five elements is the core of China traditional culture. Everything in the universe is composed of the movement and cyclic changes of five basic elements, namely wood, fire, earth and water, which is generally regarded as ancient naive materialism's philosophy. In terms of human body, the five elements represent the five internal organs, each of which belongs to its place; A- gallbladder, B- liver, C- small intestine, D- heart, E- stomach, F- spleen, G- large intestine, Xin-lung, nonyl-bladder meridian and decyl-kidney must be familiar with these ten foundations; But remember, Yin and Yang may be each other's appearances.

The theory of five elements was originally created by the working people in ancient China, and its brilliant philosophical thoughts played an extremely important role in promoting the development of science in China. The essence of the Five Elements Theory holds that the world consists of five basic material characteristics: wood, fire, earth, gold and water. The development and changes of various things and phenomena in nature are the result of the continuous movement and interaction of these five different conditions.

The above contents refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-Five Elements.