Wu Xing
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In many traditional Chinese theory field, matters and its developmental movement stage can be classified into the Wu Xing (Template:Zh-cp), or the Five Movements, Five Phases or Five Steps/Stages, traditionally translated as Five Elements.
The Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device for systems with five stages; hence the preferred translation of "movements", "phases" or "steps" over "elements", and Mu is Tree rather than Wood.
The movements are:
- Wood (Chinese: 木, pinyin: mù)
- Fire (Chinese: 火, pinyin: huǒ)
- Earth (Chinese: 土, pinyin: tǔ)
- Metal (Chinese: 金, pinyin: jīn)
- Water (Chinese: 水, pinyin: shuǐ)
The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed as a device in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts.
The system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts. Some claim the original foundation of these are the concept of the Five Cardinal Points.