What is the Taoist theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements?

The theory of five elements began with the theory of respecting books and yin and yang, started with the yin and yang family in Zhouyi, and reached the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Here are five lines:

In an article in Shangshu, Hong Fan said: After the King of Wu succeeded in doing business, he went to see the sage of Shang Dynasty, Ji Zi put forward nine strategies for governing the country (called the nine realms of Hong Fan in the book), the first of which was called the five elements (called the first day of the month in the book): water, fire, wood and four. However, the nature of the five elements is described later:

(1) "Water" is called moistening-rain, mountains and rivers all flow downwards to moisten the soil and create everything.

(2) The word "fire" refers to the rise of inflammation-the fire rises and produces inflammatory heat. The big one is a volcano, which explodes in the earth, and the small one is needed by hundreds of people for daily use.

(3) The word "wood" is straight-if the tree is not straight, it will be straight, symbolizing truth and falsehood, and if it is straight, people will regard it as straight.

(4) The word "gold" is called "from the skin"-in ancient times, gold was called copper, and copper was cast every day to improve quality and seek lean (skin).

(5) "Soil" is a good place to grow crops-all kinds of agricultural products are produced in the soil to feed people.

HongFan went on to say that the five elements have their own flavors:

(1) Wet (water) curing. (salty into the kidney)

(2) Inflammation (fire) is bitter. (bitter into the heart)

(3) Bending straight (wood) is acid. (Acid enters the liver)

(4) skin (gold) is the inducement. (Irritating to the lungs)

(5) cultivate crops (soil) for sweetness. (Willing to enter the spleen)

Qin Taoism and Yin-Yang Taoism also admit that the five elements are self-constructed, so they change the movements of the five elements to mutual generation and mutual grams, and together with the cycle between time, they become the five elements of Yin-Yang Taoism. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, Zou Yan initiated it and Confucianism followed it at the beginning of the Han Dynasty. They believe that the five elements are mutual growth and mutual resistance according to their own appearances:

Hardware wood-wood can't beat an axe (gold)

Walking wood is better than soil-roots solidify mud.

Water is replaced by earth-water comes from earth, and the earth embankment will stop it.

Fire fighting. Fire fighting is like this.

Hawkkin ── A Cast Copper Device

Hardware produces water-water gas becomes dew in the condensation space of bronze mirror

Walking on water makes trees grow-grass grows on water.

Wood makes a fire-burning wood makes a fire

Fire and soil-new soil was born when the earthquake blew fire.

Natural gold-cut gold comes from soil.

These phenomena mentioned above are influenced by time changes, which are different every year, every month, every day and every hour, so yin and yang (time changes) are combined into five elements.

As early as more than 3,000 years ago, Chinese astronomers had determined the movement of Tai Sui (Muxing) and the exact time of winter solstice and summer solstice every year, thus dividing the four seasons and seasons.

Every year, the winter solstice festival in the farming season (the sun shines directly to the south and the tropic of Capricorn) 1 1 month begins with the sun moving northward, and the days are getting longer and shorter, which is called the birth of the sun.

Every year, during the summer solstice festival in June (the sun goes straight to the north and returns to a straight line), the sun begins to move south, and the days become shorter and the nights become longer, which is called cloudy life.

Divide the year into two parts, from the solstice in beginning of winter to the sun, and from long summer to beginning of winter to the sun; This is the beginning of the teacher of Yin and Yang, and it happens every year. During the day, the day is Yang, the night is Yin, before noon is Yang, and before the child is Yin (see the twelve hexagrams in Zhouyi).

In terms of time, Yin and Yang are opposites, and by extension, matter is also opposites of Yin and Yang, and matter is born of five elements, so Yin and Yang and five elements are one.

Yin-yang and five elements are the elements of self-nature, and Taoism aims at studying self-nature, so it is equipped with Yin-yang and five elements on a cutting material; Let's talk about the five elements of the human body-Yin and Yang scholars regard "human" as a combination of essence and English in nature, so human reality is the embodiment of self-nature, such as:

People have hair, and naturally there are grass and wood; People have two eyes, but there are days and months; Breathe to the wind and shed tears to the rain; Bones are mountains, veins are rivers and so on. It means that heaven and man are one, and Confucianism flourished in the early Han Dynasty.

Taoism adopts its theory, and the combination of yin and yang Confucianism is the root of alchemy. At that time, all Chinese medicine practitioners studied Confucianism first, and Yin and Yang were the best, so the theory of Chinese medicine was also based on Yin and Yang. Chinese medicine knows that the five internal organs belong to yang, the liver belongs to wood, the kidney belongs to water, the lung belongs to gold, the heart belongs to fire, and the spleen belongs to earth.

The six fu-organs belong to yin, the liver takes gallbladder as fu-organs, the kidney takes bladder as fu-organs, the lung takes large intestine as fu-organs, the heart takes small intestine as fu-organs, the spleen takes stomach as fu-organs, and the fu-organs and viscera are interlinked, and diseases affect each other. There are three jiao and one fu-organs in the six fu-organs, and people are divided into upper, middle and lower sections, not five internal organs.

According to the theory of five elements, the liver (wood) overcomes the spleen (soil); Kidney (water) blocks heart (fire), lung (gold) blocks liver (wood), heart (fire) blocks lung (gold), and kidney (water) blocks heart (fire).

Traditional Chinese medicine treats diseases according to the above theory. For example, stomach pain is due to strong liver and spleen and stomach belong to soil. Therefore, drugs for calming the liver are much more medicinal than those for relieving pain.

Taoism teaches refining qi and alchemy, which means harmony between heart and kidney, which means that fire and water are ji ji, and it is also called the separation of friends. Since Wei Boyang wrote the Book of Changes, the eight diagrams in the Book of Changes have been added to the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, which makes the eight diagrams of Yin-Yang and Five Elements become a complex, which is the study of Taoism. The middle of the eight diagrams is too extreme, and it is divided into eight diagrams, which are arranged in eight directions:

North of the ridge (and water); Stay away from the south;

East of the earthquake (thunder); Exchange (,Ze) to the west;

Xun (wind) is southeast; Dry (Japanese) northwest;

Southwest of Kunming (and the ground); Northeast of Gen (Mountain).

The Kanyu family combined the eight diagrams with eight diagrams, and matched them with twenty-eight nights, twenty-four festivals and sixty-four diagrams (eight diagrams overlapping) to determine good or bad luck. Astrologers decide their fate based on the five lines of gossip diagram. The Chambu family judged that they didn't come based on the five lines of gossip map. All schools have written books based on Taoism and Taoism.