Wu Xing (5 elements) Flashcards
What are the 5 elements? Wu Xing?
Fire Earth Metal Water Wood
What are the 5 basic qualities and movements of the 5 elements?
Wood: Can be bent and straightened, expansion.
Fire: Flares upwards. Upwards.
Earth: Permits sowing, growing and reaping. Centre, stability.
Metal: Can be moulded and can harden. Contraction.
Water: Moistens downwards. Downwards.
What is the Generating / Sheng sequence?
Earth – Metal – Water – Wood – Fire
Clockwise sequence: Nourishing or mother child cycle.
Each element has the responsibility to nourish the element that comes after it.
What does earth nourish?
Earth nourishes metal (it contains minerals from which metal is formed)
What does metal nourish?
Metal nourishes water (metal associated with the breath and air which condense to form water droplets)
What does water nourish?
Water nourishes wood (plants need water to grow)
What does wood nourish?
Wood nourishes fire (it is the wood that burns to create fire).
What does Fire nourish?
Fire nourishes earth (the ashes return back to strengthen the earth).
What happens if Earth isn’t nourishing Metal?
o Earth not nourishing metal: lung qi deficiency, weak wei qi, phlegm in the lungs
What happens if Metal isn’t nourishing Water?
Kidney qi deficiency, kidney not grasping qi from the lungs resulting in cough or asthma.
What happens if Water isn’t nourishing Wood?
kidney and liver yin deficiency. Dry eyes, dizziness, infertility.
What happens if Wood isn’t nourishing Fire?
Deficient gallbladder and heart presentation, indecision, timidity and palpitations.
What happens if Fire isn’t nourishing Earth?
Spleen qi deficiency, spleen yang deficiency – fatigue, loose stools, abdominal distension and prolapse.
What is the Controlling / Ke cycle?
o Represents the controlling cycle, where one element represents the grandparent, has the responsibility to control excess in the child.
What does metal control?
Metal controls the wood (axe to tree)
What does Water control?
Water controls fire (extinguishes)
What does Wood control?
Wood controls earth (tree roots break up the earth)
What does fire control?
Fire controls metal
What does Earth control?
Earth controls water (its flow via a dam)
What happens if wood overacts on earth?
o Wood overacting on Earth = Liver qi stasis and spleen qi deficiency. Poor appetite, irritability, alternating constipation / diarrhoea or liver invading the stomach – irritability, pain in the epigastrium, reflex, nausea or vomiting.
What happens if Earth overacts on Water?
damp from the spleen impacts on kidney function – oedema, difficult urination, yellow face.
What happens if water overacts on fire?
kidney yang deficiency with water overflowing to the heart – oedema of the ankles, feeling cold, backache, puffy face, palpitations.
What happens if Fire overacts on metal?
o Fire over-acting on metal – full heat in the lungs – painful cough with yellow sputum, red face, feeling of heat
What happens if metal overacts on wood?
lung qi fails to descend and impedes flow of liver wi – fatigue, irritability, cough, tight diaphragm, white face.
What is the insulting sequence?
The controlling sequence in reverse.
The qi from the element that should be controlled insults or attacks the element that should be controlling it.
What does fire consume?
o Fire consumes the water
What does earth insult?
o Earth insults wood
What does metal inhibit?
o Metal inhibits fire
What does Water do to earth?
o Water turns the earth into mud
What does wood overcome?
o Wood overcomes metal
What happens if wood insults metal?
Liver qi stasis (often with fire), invading the lungs – strong cough that is worse with stress and is hard to control, distention of the chest and epigastrium, asthma
What happens if metal insults fire?
Lung and heart qi deficiency – palpitations, insomnia and breathlessness or lung heat affecting the heart – cough, palpitations, chest oppression.
What happens if Fire insults water?
kidney yin deficiency with heart heat (the fire has consumed the water) or heart and kidney not communicating – anxiety, insomnia, night sweats, dry mouth, dizziness and malar flush.
What happens if water insults earth?
spleen and kidney yang deficiency – loose stools, oedema, fatigue and weak limbs
What happens if Earth insults wood?
Dampness from spleen stagnates and transforms to damp heat which impacts on the movement of qi in the liver and bile in the gallbladder – jaundice, hypochondriac pain and distension, hepaitis
