Five Phases
A Chinese framework that describes wood, fire, earth, metal, and water as phases in cycles of transformation and networks of correspondence.
Wood (Chinese philosophy): Wood is one of the Five Phases, associated with growth and the spring season. It represents outward growth in the generating cycle and feeds fire.
Generating cycle (Five Phases): The sequence in which each phase produces or nourishes the next: wood, fire, earth, metal, water, then wood. It models productive transformation among the five phases.
Traditional Chinese medicine: A medical tradition developed in China using practices such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, and dietary therapy. It applies phase correspondences to bodily functions and patterns of illness.
Hong Fan: A chapter of the Book of Documents that presents five materials or processes, including water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. It is an early canonical account associated with the fivefold scheme.
Classical element: A basic constituent proposed by ancient traditions, such as Greek earth, water, air, and fire. The phases describe dynamic relations, not simply constituent substances.
Fire (Chinese philosophy): Fire is one of the Five Phases, associated with heat and summer. It follows wood in the generating cycle and produces earth through ash.
Controlling cycle (Five Phases): The sequence in which each phase constrains another: wood controls earth, earth controls water, water controls fire, fire controls metal, and metal controls wood. It balances the generating cycle by representing mutual restraint.
Zang-fu: The functional system of organ networks used in traditional Chinese medicine. Its organ networks are mapped to phases, seasons, and other correspondences.
Book of Documents: A collection of ancient Chinese documents and speeches treated as a Confucian classic. Its Hong Fan chapter supplies a key early formulation of the five categories.
Four Elements: The ancient Greek scheme of earth, water, air, and fire as fundamental constituents of the world. Its four substances differ from the Five Phases' five transformative categories.