Reference · 五行 wǔxíng
The Five Elements
Wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Not five substances but five kinds of movement — the term 五行 means "five goings", and the scheme is a way of describing how processes generate and restrain each other.
Terminology: Five elements is the WHO standard English term (2022), with five phases as a synonym. Older texts and some schools prefer phases; both refer to the same scheme, and neither is wrong.
The correspondences
The table below is the standard correspondence set. It is used as much as a memory aid as a physiology: knowing that wood pairs with spring, anger, and the eyes is how a practitioner keeps the system in mind. It is not a claim that spring causes anger.
| Element | Organ | Season | Climate | Emotion | Flavour | Colour | Tissue | Sense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood 木 mù | Liver · Gallbladder | Spring | Wind | Anger | Sour | Green | Sinews | Eyes |
| Fire 火 huǒ | Heart · Small intestine | Summer | Heat | Joy | Bitter | Red | Vessels | Tongue |
| Earth 土 tǔ | Spleen · Stomach | Late summer | Damp | Worry | Sweet | Yellow | Flesh | Mouth |
| Metal 金 jīn | Lung · Large intestine | Autumn | Dryness | Grief | Pungent | White | Skin and hair | Nose |
| Water 水 shuǐ | Kidney · Bladder | Winter | Cold | Fear | Salty | Black | Bones | Ears |
The two cycles
The elements are not a list; they are two loops. One feeds the next, the other keeps any one of them from dominating. Clinical reasoning uses both: a pattern may be the element that is failing to nourish its child, or the one being over-controlled by its grandmother.
Generating 相生
- WoodnourishesFire
- FirenourishesEarth
- EarthnourishesMetal
- MetalnourishesWater
- WaternourishesWood
Read as: the mother feeds the child. Wood feeds fire; fire's ash becomes earth.
Controlling 相克
- WoodrestrainsEarth
- EarthrestrainsWater
- WaterrestrainsFire
- FirerestrainsMetal
- MetalrestrainsWood
Read as: roots hold the soil, water puts out fire. Restraint is normal — it is what stops one process running away.
How it is used clinically
The best-known application is not diagnosis but prevention: treat the organ that is about to be affected, not only the one that is already ill. The Jingui Yaolüe opens with it.
上工治未病，何也？师曰：夫治未病者，见肝之病，知肝传脾，当先实脾。 shàng gōng zhì wèi bìng, hé yě? shī yuē: fū zhì wèi bìng zhě, jiàn gān zhī bìng, zhī gān chuán pí, dāng xiān shí pí
"What is it for the superior physician to treat illness before it arises?" The master said: "To treat illness before it arises is this — seeing a liver illness, knowing that the liver will pass it to the spleen, one first strengthens the spleen."
That is the whole idea in one line: the five elements describe where a problem is going, not only where it is. It is also why a liver pattern and a digestive pattern so often appear in the same person — the tradition expects the first to affect the second.
What this is not
- Not a personality typing. "Wood type" and "fire type" are used loosely in popular writing; the classical scheme is about processes, and a person is not one element.
- Not astrology. The correspondences are analogical, not causal. Nothing here says a colour or a season determines your health.
- Not a substitute for diagnosis. The scheme organises reasoning that still depends on the signs on the page, the tongue, the pulse, and the history.
- Not five separate systems. The elements only mean something in their cycles. Read alone, each row is a list of associations; read as loops, it becomes a model.
Individual element pages — wood, fire, earth, metal, water — are in preparation. Each will cover the element's organ pair, its pattern, and how its cycle shows up in the neighbouring patterns already published.