The Five Elements theory, which consists of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, are the basic elements that create the material world. These elements are in constant movement and change. This theory assigns each of the five elements a series of abstract generalizations and then applies them to the classification of all phenomena in the world.
Wood, for example, involved the aspects of extension, harmony, germination, and softness. As for the rest of the five elements: fire involves the aspects of heat and flaring; earth involves the aspects of growing, nourishing, and changing; metal is associated with cleaning up, killing, strength, and firmness; and water is associated with cold, moisture, and downward flowing. It is then inferred that anything with those characteristics similar to wood, fire, earth, metal, and water should be classified accordingly to the five elements.
The Five Elements theory is often to study and relate the connections between the physiology and pathology of the zang-fu (脏腹), tastes (味), sense organs (五官), tissues and the natural environment (大自然).
The following table classifies the different zang-fu (脏腹), tastes (味), sense organs (五官), tissues and the natural environment (大自然) according to five elements.
The complex connections between material objects can be explained using the relationship of inter-dependence and mutual restraint that governs the five elements, which will be discussed later. In traditional Chinese medicine, the Five Elements theory is typically used to interpret the relationships between the physiology and pathology of the human body and the natural environment.
The five elements are inter-dependence (相生) on each other. Starting with wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood. There is an analogy of mother to son when these inter-dependence relationships are discussed.
Wood is the mother of fire, fire is the mother of earth, earth is the mother of metal, metal is the mother of water, and water is the mother of wood and the reverse is true as wood is the son of water, water is the son of metal, metal is the son of earth, earth is the son of fire and fire is the son of wood. Below is a figure showing the inter-dependence relationship.
Next,the mutual restraint that governs the five elements, can also be known as the control relationship (相克). The five elements generate a control over each other. Wood controls earth, fire controls metal, earth controls water, metal controls wood, and water controls fire. The figure below shows the controlling phase of the five elements.
These 2 relationships between the five elements are the normal relationship when one's body is healthy. So what is it like when one is ill?
First for the inter-dependence relationship. When the mother is sick, it can pass to the son, and vice versa. When the son is sick, it can pass to the mother. One example is when wood (refer to the liver) is sick, it can pass the illness to fire (refer to the heart), which is the son. Vice versa is true too.
For the control relationship, one can fall sick in 2 scenarios. The first scenario is when the control is over, (相乘）. What this means is - the usual is wood control earth, but wood is so much stronger now that instead of just controlling earth, it becomes bullying earth. Hence it will be wood bully earth, earth bully water, water bully fire, fire bully metal and metal bully wood.
The other scenario is the insult phase. In the insult phase (相侮), the five elements instead of generating a control over each other, they turn around and insult their controller. Earth insult wood, metal insult fire,water insult earth, wood insult metal, and fire insult water. The figure below shows the insulting phase of the five elements.
Depending on what is the reason that causes the illness, the method to cure is different too. For the case of the interdependence relationship, if it is the mother that is sick, the critical thing is to 'cure' the mother. So if it is the case whereby the son is sick, then we shall 'cure' the son. As for the case of the control relationship, we will have to suppress the party that is stronger and built up the weaker party. In conclusion, the 5 elements must stay in equilibrium in the inter-dependence phase and control phase, then there will be no sickness.
