What does the five-element symbol mean?

1, the line in the five elements: the so-called "line", Zheng Xuan's note: "Qitian, the spirit that moves with the sky." The "five elements" mentioned in Shangshu have a certain symbolic meaning-"line". What "line" refers to is nothing more than a natural "operation" and a natural behavior that keeps moving according to a rule inherent in its own presentation.

2.Line, a first-class Chinese character, is pronounced as háng, háng, héng, xíng or xūng. First seen in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it originally meant crossroads, and later extended to the order of straight row, business organization, brothers and sisters. Shuowen Jiezi is considered as "a person walking or trotting on the road".

3. The theory of five elements is the basic way for ancient people in China to know the world, and it is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, geomantic omen, numerology, physiognomy and divination. The source of the five elements is the ancient animism, totem concept and ancestor worship. Confucius' five elements thought can be found in Li Yun, which records the operation of Confucius' teaching ceremony for Ziyou.

4. The meaning of the five elements includes five basic trends in the evolution of Yin and Yang: gold (convergence), wood (growth), water (infiltration), fire (disillusionment) and earth (integration). Ancient philosophers in China used the theory of five elements to explain the formation of all things in the world and their relationships. It emphasizes the whole and aims to describe the movement form and transformation relationship of things. Yin and Yang are ancient theories of unity of opposites, and the five elements are primitive system theories.