The Origin of the Words Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth (50 words)

The Five Elements is China's ancient material view. Mostly used in philosophy, Chinese medicine and divination.

Five elements refer to: gold; Wood; Water; Fire; Earth. It is believed that nature is composed of five elements, and with the rise and fall of these five elements, nature changes, which not only affects people's fate, but also makes everything in the universe circulate endlessly.

The Five Elements Theory (which first appeared in Taoism) holds that everything in the universe is made up of five basic substances: wood, fire, earth, gold and water. It emphasizes the whole concept and describes the structural relationship and movement form of things. If Yin and Yang are an ancient theory of unity of opposites, the five elements can be said to be a primitive general system theory.

At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, there was a simple materialistic "Five Things Theory". From Yu Zheng's "Earth is mixed with Jin Mu's fire, water and soil to form all things" to Zuo Zhuan's "Five natural things are used by the people, and nothing can be discarded", and then to Shang Shu Hong Fan's "Five elements: water, fire, wood, gold and earth", which are moist, inflamed, straight, golden and fertile. It is salty when wet, bitter when inflamed, sour when straight, spicy when leathered and sweet when cultivated. "Record, began to abstract the attributes of the five elements, deduction to other things, constitute a fixed combination. In the late Warring States period, the idea that the five elements win each other (grams) was put forward, which fixed the order of victory (grams) and fate, formed a model of the interconnection between things, and spontaneously reflected the internal structural relationship of things and their overall grasp. During this period, Neijing applied the theory of five elements to medicine, which played an important role in studying and sorting out a large number of clinical experiences accumulated by the ancients and forming a unique theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine.

The five elements coexist: Jin Kemu, Muketu, Tuke Water, Fire, Water and Fire.

The five elements are born together: gold begets water, aquatic wood, wood makes fire, fire begets soil, and soil begets gold.

Five elements of mathematics: Golden Seven, Wood Eight, Water Six, Fire Nine and Earth Five.

Through long-term contact and observation, the ancient working people realized that the five elements had different performances. "Straight wood is straight" means that wood has the characteristics of growth and rising; "Fire is said to get angry", which means that fire has the characteristics of heating up; "Soil-made crop wall" means that the soil has the characteristics of planting crops and biochemical substances; "Gold says that it changes with leather" is that gold has the characteristic of killing change; "Moisturizing" means moistening downward. Based on this understanding, the ancients classified all kinds of things in the universe into five elements, so conceptually, they are not wood, fire, earth, gold and water, but a large class of abstract attributes that can be compared with various things and phenomena in characteristics.