The Five Elements

The Five Elements is another theory which uses Traditional Chinese Medicine and derived from the theory of Yin Yang. The interaction of Yin Yang forces produce an energy that manifests in five different ways and gives rise to all other manifestations of nature. We could define the five elements like the five phases of energy. In ancient, sages Chineses who developed this system associated these five phases with five elements of nature: fire, water, metal, wood and earth. These elements relate to each other as two complementary cycles tended to harmony.

The first cycle is called Creator Cycle. It is what makes possible the creation of the other elements and all other manifestations of energy in the world. Thereby the elements create between them. For example: water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates metal and metal produces water. 

The second cycle is called Destroyer Cyle or control cycle. Without it, the harmony would be impossible because there would not be a real interaction between Yin Yang forces. This cycle makes it possible for elements kill between them or to control between them. For example: water controls fire, fire controls metal, metal controls wood, wood controls earth and earth controls water.

The Five Elements and their relationships
Objects	Water	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal
Color	Blue or Black	Green	Red	Yellow	White
Station	Winter	Spring	Summer	End of Summer	Autumn
Sens	Ear	View	Taste	Touch	Smell
Positive emotions	Goodness Courage	Kindness Goodness	Joy Respect	Compassion Self Esteem	Justice Bravery
Negative emotions	Fear	Anger	Impatience Stress	Concern	Sadness
Organs	Kidneys	Liver	Heart	Spleen	Lungs
Flavours	Salty	Acid	Bitter	Sweet	Spicy and Sour
Symbol

Above you can see a table with the five elements related to different facets of life. If the interaction between these elements is out of balance is when the disease appears, ailments, etc.. Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at how to restore the balance between these elements. As you can see, this approach is very different from Western medicine. Chinese medicine seeks to restore the balance between the forces, Western medicine attacks reducing clutter. Based on the theory of Yin Yang, if I attack hard one thing for the Universe to restore their balance I have to experience an attack in the opposite direction. That is, we can defeat the enemy, but then a stronger enemy appears. 

This is the classic scheme of the five elements and their relationships:

Article written by Miquel Vidal.